FCC Enforcement Monitor November 2022

• Published date: 02 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Compliance, Corporate and Company Law, Mobile & Cable Communications, Broadcasting: Film, TV & Radio
• Law Firm: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
• Author: Mr Scott Flick, Betsy Craig and Adam J. Sandler

Pillsbury's communications lawyers have published FCC Enforcement Monitor monthly since 1999 to inform our clients of notable FCC enforcement actions against FCC license holders and others. This month's issue includes:

• Broadcaster Receives $518,283 Fine for Local TV Ownership Rule Violation
• Ohio LED Sign Manufacturer Enters $47,600 Consent Decree for Marketing Unauthorized Devices
• FCC Reduces Fine to $3,400 for Washington LPTV Licensee's Unauthorized Operation and Untimely License Applications

TV Broadcaster Receives Statutory Maximum Fine for Violating FCC Multiple Ownership Rule

A large multi-market television company (the "Company") was fined $518,283 for violating the FCC's rule prohibiting one entity from owning two top-four rated TV stations in the same Nielsen Designated Market Area ("DMA"). This Forfeiture Order follows a July 2021 Notice of Apparent Liability ("NAL"), which we wrote about here.

In July 2020, the Company acquired the non-license assets and network affiliation of a top-four rated station in the Anchorage, Alaska DMA and placed the network's programming on a non-top-four rated station that was already owned by the Company. At the time of the transaction, the Company owned one top-four station in the market and one that it claimed organically improved its ratings to join the top four and therefore was not in violation of 47 C.F.R. 73.3555, which includes the Local Television Ownership Rule (the "Rule"). The Rule prohibits an entity from owning two full-power television stations in the same DMA if both commonly owned stations are ranked among the top-four rated stations in the market. However, the Rule permits a top-four duopoly if one of the stations was outside the top four and organically improved its ratings to join the top four. Note 11 (the "Note"), which was added to the Rule in 2016, bars the common ownership of two top-four stations with overlapping contours in the same DMA through the acquisition of a network affiliation and says:

An entity will not be permitted to directly or indirectly own, operate, or control two television stations in the same DMA through the execution of any agreement (or series of agreements) involving stations in the same DMA, or any individual or entity with a cognizable interest in such stations, in which a station (the "new affiliate") acquires the network affiliation of another station (the "previous affiliate"), if the change in network affiliations would result in the licensee of the new affiliate, or any individual or entity with a cognizable interest in the new affiliate, directly or indirectly owning, operating, or controlling two of the top-four rated...