WASHINGTON—Qualified noncommercial educational (NCE) TV translator stations will not be required to send an email notification regarding carriage to MVPDs by Oct. 1, as the FCC has officially granted a petition on the matter.

America’s Public Television Stations (APTV) and PBS filed a joint petition to the FCC about its newly adopted MVPD carriage election notice requirements, which would have required NCE translator stations, as well as qualified LPTV stations, to email a “baseline” carriage notice to any MVPDs on which they were seeking or expecting carriage during the 2021-2023 carriage cycle. The deadline to do so was going to be Oct. 1.

The petition argued that sending such emails would result in a “substantial burden” for NCE stations, and as a result the requirement should be waived. Key to their arguments were that the NCE translator stations do not originate programming, but rather rebroadcast of NCE full-power TV stations; that NCEs may only elect “must carry” options for MVPDs, while LPTVs can select either “must carry” or retransmission consent; also, in many cases, NCEs do not know which MVPDs are carrying them and there is no resource to easily determine the information. Ultimately, emailing MVPDs provides no benefit, the petition argued, but could result in loss of service in the event that an NCE fails to provide proper notice.

“Given the unique characteristics of NCE translators, the public interest would be best served by waiving the baseline email notification requirement for NCE translators adopted in the 2020 Report and Order,” the FCC said.

The petition went unopposed by MVPDs.

The FCC added that email requirements are still in place for all qualified LPTV stations.

For more information, the full FCC document is available online. 

WASHINGTON—With America’s Public Television Stations and PBS having filed a petition requesting the FCC waive a current “baseline” carriage notification deadline, the Media Bureau has opened the floor to others on the subject, asking for comments.

The petition requests that the Media Bureau waive the requirement that noncommercial educational (NCE) TV translators email a carriage notice to MVPDs on which they will be seeking or expecting carriage in the 2021-2023 carriage cycle by Oct. 1 of this year. They believe that given the unique characteristics of NCE translators, this one-time email would prove to be an issue and risk the loss of coverage for viewers.

In 2019, the FCC adopted rules that updated carriage election notice rules for full power broadcast stations and sought comments on placing similar rules on qualified low power TV stations and NCE translators. Among the new rules was that covered stations had to send carriage notices to MVPDs via email and to place carriage election statements into their online public files.

The FCC found that requiring placement on online public files for LPTVs and NCEs would be unduly burdensome since those stations do not currently maintain online public files. Rather, the commission found that in order to provide “baseline” info to MVPDs, both groups had to send these one-time email notifications by Oct. 1.

APTS and PBS petition that, unlike LPTVs, NCEs do not have to provide notification to be automatically carried by MVPDs under the Communications Act of 1934. The petition argues that in many cases, NCE translators don’t even know which MVPDs carry them and have no resource to determine that. As a result, even a one-time email creates a “substantial burden,” according to the petition.

The Media Bureau now seeks comments on these arguments from APTS and PBS. Comments will be due Sept. 8, with reply comments then due on Sept. 14.

Here is the official notice from the FCC. 

WASHINGTON—The FCC gave a hand to many noncommercial educational (NCE) stations with a pair of rotes that will ease regulatory requirements. The first vote made optional a previously mandatory requirement for volunteer officers and board members to report personal information, while the other relaxed third-party fundraising restrictions.

Revisions to the FCC’s broadcast ownership reporting forms that essentially required unique registration numbers for NCE stations’ officers and board members, most of which are often volunteers, meant they had to submit personal information like address and the last four digits of their social security number or be at risk of enforcement action by the Commission. A number of NCE broadcasters filed petitions against the changes saying that the requirement for such information would potentially limit their recruitment of volunteers. With this most recent vote, the unique registration numbers are now optional, allowing more stations to use special use registration numbers that do not require personal information on ownership forms. However, the FCC still requires NCEs to submit info on the gender, race and ethnicity of governing officers and board members.

For the fundraising restrictions, the now relaxed stance will permit noncommercial radio and television stations to air limited fundraisers for the benefit of other non-profit organizations. Previously, NCEs had to seek a waiver from the Commission to perform on-air fundraising for third parties. Now, NCEs can devote one percent of their annual airtime to third-party fundraising that qualify as non-profits without a waiver. NCEs will have to run on-air disclosures informing audiences that they are raising money for a third-party. The new rules exempt NCEs that receive funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting.

Both actions took place on April 20, 2017.