FCC Puts Broadcasters On Notice About Nondiscriminatory Advertising

Stations could lose licenses if ad contracts are not certified

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/22/2011 3:29:31 PM

The FCC Tuesday advised TV and radio stations that they must certify that their ad contracts are nondiscriminatory or face losing their licenses.

The FCC's Enforcement Bureau released the advisory and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said "[i]t should be clear from today's advisory that the Commission will vigorously enforce its rules against discrimination in advertising sales contracts."

The FCC Tuesday said stations must complete the certification in order to renew their station licenses, or alternately to explain how not doing so should not be an "impediment" to renewal.

The requirement is aimed at "no Spanish or urban" dictates in contracts, by which advertisers try to avoid urban or Latino stations.

That certification was required as part of FCC Media Ownership rule changes adopted by the FCC in December 2008 as part of the FCC's attempt under Chairman Kevin Martin to loosen the newspaper-broadcast cross ownership ban.

The FCC took some heat last month from the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council for what it said was inaction on diversity issues, including enforcing advertising nondiscrimination rules passed in 2007. It was those rules that the 2008 certification requirement was meant to put some teeth into.

The FCC March 14 released a new license renewal form that included the certification, and the FCC wants broadcasters to be on notice that they must comply or give the reason why.

"The advisory puts everyone on notice that the Commission has no tolerance for this type of insidious discrimination," said Michele Ellison, chief of the Enforcement Bureau, in announcing the advisory. "Our leadership has asked us to bring renewed focus to these important broadcasting issues.  We will work in close collaboration with the Media Bureau to give this new requirement meaning." 

MMTC praised the FCC's advisory, and its designation of a senior FCC official as a compliance officer. "With strong enforcement, these actions by the Federal Communication Commission will finally bring to an end the practice of some advertisers' refusal to buy time on stations because they serve African American or Hispanic audiences," said MMTC President David Honig in a statement.