/ 11.24.2009 12:00AM
FCC Pushes Back Due Date for Form 323
WASHINGTON: The Federal Communications Commission has extended the
deadline for filling Form 323, the new biennial ownership report document. The
form is now due Jan. 11, 2010. The initial deadline was Nov. 1; then it was
pushed to Dec. 15 after the commission modified the forms.
The
deadline was again extended because the FCC’s Media Bureau continues “final
testing” of the form before it makes it available in its online database.
“To ease the transition to
use of the revised form, the Bureau seeks to ensure sufficient time to complete
the revised form once it is released for use,” the FCC said in a public
notice. Therefore, in order to give filers adequate time to prepare and
file the report, we are extending the filing deadline until Jan. 11, 2010. We
encourage filers to file the form any time between the date of the release of the
form and Jan. 11, 2010.”
The forms have been revised
to reflect more detail on broadcast station ownership. Minority owners that
once did not have to be listed now must be identified.
More on Form 323:
October 21, 2009: “FCC Provides Details on
Ownership Reporting Rules”
Those rules were revised in
May, requiring all commercial stations, including LPTVs and Class As, to file
an FCC form 323 every other year. A subsequent challenge by the National
Association of Broadcasters was turned down by the FCC.
June 1, 2009:
“FCC Suspends Form 323
Requirements”
The broadcast ownership reporting requirements
recently beefed up by the FCC won’t be due until November. The commission
issued an order on Friday suspending the necessity for any interim filing.