WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau has once again delayed implementation of sponsorship identification requirements for foreign government programming.
On June 10, 2024, the Commission released rule modifications in a Second Report and Order to the sponsorship identification requirements for foreign government-provided programming, which require a public disclosure to be made, at the time of broadcast, identifying the foreign source of such programming.
But in June of 2025, the Bureau deferred requiring compliance with the revised rules for six months, or until December 8, 2025. On Dec. 5, 2025, the Bureau once again deferred complaints until 6 months after December 8, 2025, or June 7, 2026.
The FCC noted that only new leases and renewals of existing leases entered into on or after the compliance date must comply with the rule modifications.
As previously reported, the FCC has issued a Second Report and Order in June of 2024, clarifying its rules regarding the disclosure of foreign sponsorship of programming on broadcast stations.
Worried about the influence of Russian, Chinese and foreign government disinformation on recent U.S. elections, the FCC implemented new rules in 2022 imposing additional requirements on how stations investigate the sources of their programming and determine whether the programming was sponsored by foreign governments.
However, the NAB filed suit against the expanded rules in 2022 and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated some of those rules. "We hold that the FCC cannot require radio broadcasters to check Federal sources to verify sponsors’ identities,” the Court ruled. “We therefore vacate that aspect of the challenged order.” The decision would not remove the requirement that stations tell viewers when they are airing foreign government-sponsored programming.
In the Second Report and Order (Second R&O) issued on June 10, the FCC noted that “we address a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that vacated one of the foreign sponsorship identification requirements established in the First R&O. We replace the vacated verification requirement with an approach that avoids the investigatory obligation on the part of licensees that was at issue in NAB v. FCC. The new approach provides licensees with two options for demonstrating that they have met their duty of inquiry in seeking to obtain the information needed to determine whether the programming being provided by a lessee is sponsored by a foreign governmental entity. Our adopted approach addresses concerns about burdens and complexity raised by commenters in response to the Second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Second NPRM).”
“Furthermore, in this order, we clarify that our foreign sponsorship identification rules do not apply to sales of advertising for commercial goods and services to the extent such programming falls within the exemption contained in section 73.1212(f) of our general sponsorship identification rules,” the FCC said. “In addition, we find that our foreign sponsorship identification rules will not apply to political candidate advertisements, but will apply to issue advertisements and paid public service announcements (`paid PSAs’). We also confirm that our rule changes do not alter our finding in the First R&O that noncommercial and educational broadcast stations (NCEs) are not likely to fall within the ambit of the foreign sponsorship identification rules.”
But the FCC declined “to create an exemption from the rules for religious programming and locally produced and/or distributed programming. We also conclude that, when a lessee and licensee enter into recurring leases for the same programming, the licensee will be required to exercise its reasonable diligence obligations under the rule only once per year with respect to that particular lessee and that particular programming. With respect to the rule changes adopted today, we grandfather lease agreements already in effect at the time of the required compliance date for these newly-adopted modifications, determining that such leases will need to come into compliance either at the time of renewal or when the parties to the agreement enter into a new lease. Finally, we clarify the obligations of section 325(c) permittees under the foreign sponsorship identification rules.”
The law firm Wiley noted in a blog post that the new rules “apply more broadly to include advertising (including political issue advertising and paid public service announcements),” with a number of exceptions that can be found here.
Wiley also explained that the new rules “require broadcasters to choose from two FCC-specified options to satisfy their duty of inquiry, consisting of either (1) a certification requirement (which can be satisfied using separate FCC-approved templates for the licensee and the lessee/program purchaser), or (2) a requirement to obtain from the lessee screenshots demonstrating that the party purchasing airtime is not listed in government databases that compile foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the FCC’s U.S.-based foreign media outlet report.”
More background on the issue can be found here.
