FCC Sets Comment Deadlines for Online Program Reporting Form

The FCC has set a Jan. 30 deadline for comment on its proposal to replace broadcasters' issues/programs list, a hard copy of which they must place in their public files, with a streamlined, standardized form that the public will be able to access online.

The FCC on Nov. 10 adopted a Notice of Inquiry specifically on the new reporting regime. It essentially spun off the issue of the form from the broader Notice of Proposed Further Rulemaking that establishes the FCC-hosted online public file database, one of whose elements would be the proposed new form.

Comment deadlines on the form are Jan. 17 for initial comments and Jan. 30 for replies to those comments.

"Due to the complexity of the issues surrounding the standardized form," the FCC said back in November, "we have opened this new docket to address these issues specifically." That new docked is number 11-189 for those keeping track. "The existing Enhanced Disclosure docket, MM docket number 00-168, will now be dedicated to addressing the proposed online public file requirement," said the FCC.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.