Federal Register: FCC (Broadcasting)

In this document, the Commission seeks comment on the extent to which we should clarify or modify our existing rules in order to further promote the deployment by television broadcasters of new, innovative ancillary and supplementary services, which we refer to as ``Broadcast Internet,'' as part of the transition to ATSC 3.0. We first seek comment generally on potential uses of the new technological capability from ATSC 3.0 and any existing regulatory barriers to deployment. We then consider specifically whether any changes or clarifications are needed to the ancillary and supplementary service fee rules and the rules defining derogation of service and analogous services. A Declaratory Ruling relating to the broadcast ancillary and supplementary service rules is published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved non-substantive and non-material changes to the information collections associated with certain rule amendments adopted in the Report and Order, FCC 20-8, MB Docket Nos. 19-165, 17-105 (Report and Order), to modernize certain notice requirements for cable operators and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers. The Commission also announces that compliance with the revised rules is required. This document is consistent with Electronic Delivery of Notices to Broadcast Television Stations, published March 20, 2020, which stated that the Commission would publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the compliance date for the revised rules listed in the DATES section below.

In this document the Commission adopts changes to its rules and procedures for broadcast station applicants to provide public notice of application filings to the principal area that is served or to be served by the station. The changes are designed to improve, streamline, and standardize the notices, including replacing notice by newspaper with online notice. The changes are further designed to enhance rule compliance and public participation in the application process, increase public access to filed applications, and reduce applicant burdens.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) adopts a Report and Order (Order) to improve technical rules that primarily affect Low Power FM (LPFM) radio stations.

In this document, the Commission seeks comment on whether to modify the Commission's rules governing the use of distributed transmission system (DTS) technologies by broadcast television stations. Specifically, the Commission seek comment on amending section 73.626 of its rules to permit, within certain limits, DTS signals to spill over beyond a station's authorized service area by more than the ``minimal amount'' currently allowed; how DTS signals extending beyond their current service areas should be treated for interference purposes if such spillover is allowed; potential impacts to other spectrum users, such as TV translators and LPTV stations, including whether there are alternatives to the proposed rule changes that could accomplish the intended objectives; whether to modify the DTS rules as they relate to Class A and LPTV licensees; and whether and to what extent the proposed changes are also appropriate for stations broadcasting in ATSC 1.0.

A Petition for Reconsideration (Petition) has been filed in the Commission's proceeding by Michael Couzens and Alan Korn, on behalf of Discount Legal.

This document summarizes the public notice that announces the indefinite postponement of Auction 106, an auction of construction permits in the FM broadcast service, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this document, the Commission makes non-substantive, editorial revisions to the Commission's rules to eliminate regulations that have become unnecessary because they no longer have any applicability. These relevant provisions are now without legal effect and therefore obsolete due to the completion of the transition from local hard copy public inspection files to online public inspection files.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) amends its rules related to the two methods that may be used for determining and achieving compliance with the Commission's existing limits on human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields: Exemption--consideration of whether a particular device or deployment is so clearly compliant, based on criteria in the Commission's rules, that it qualifies as exempt from the requirement to undertake a more thorough RF exposure analysis--and evaluation--a more specific examination of an individual site or device, which considers factors beyond those utilized for exemption and may be performed with a variety of computational and/or measurement methodologies. It also amends the rules related to an increasingly important part of demonstrating and maintaining RF exposure compliance: mitigation--the restriction from or limitation of RF exposure in controlled areas to keep RF exposure within the Commission's established limits by, for example, using signs or barriers. The amended rules are intended to provide more efficient, practical, and consistent RF exposure evaluation procedures and mitigation measures to help ensure compliance with the existing RF exposure limits. The amended rules replace the various inconsistent service-specific criteria for exempting parties from performing an evaluation to demonstrate compliance with the RF exposure limits with new, streamlined criteria. The amended rules also allow the use of any valid computational method to determine potential RF exposure levels, remove the minimum evaluation distance requirement for frequencies above 6 GHz, and establish post-evaluation RF exposure mitigation procedures (e.g., signage), to help ensure that persons are not exposed to RF emissions in excess of the existing limits. The Commission also affirms its prior decision to classify the pinna (outer ear) as an extremity in RF exposure compliance testing, finds no appropriate basis for and thus declines to propose amendments to existing RF exposure limits at this time, and terminates the inquiry in which it sought comment on the Commission's existing guidelines for limiting RF exposure to humans.

In this document, the Commission announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the information collections associated with the carriage election procedures adopted in the Commission's 2019 CEN Order, FCC 19-69, and that compliance with the modified rules is now required. This document is consistent with the 2019 CEN Order, FCC 19-69, which states that the Commission will publish a document in the Federal Register announcing a compliance date for the modified rule sections and revise the rule accordingly.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) modernizes its rules regarding certain written notices that cable operators and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers are required to provide to broadcast television stations. Rather than continuing to require that cable and DBS providers deliver these notices on paper, the Commission is revising its rules to require that the notices be delivered to broadcast television stations electronically via email.

In this document, the Commission adopts changes to its rules and procedures to select and license competing applications for new noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcast stations and low power FM (LPFM) stations. The changes are designed to improve the comparative selection procedures, reduce confusion among future applicants, expedite the initiation of new service to the public, and eliminate unnecessary applicant burdens.

This document summarizes public notices that announce the procedures and upfront payments amounts and minimum opening bids for the auction of certain FM broadcast construction permits as well as a temporary freeze on the filing of minor change applications for FM stations. The Auction 106 Procedures Public Notice summarized here is intended to familiarize applicants with the procedures and other requirements for participation in Auction 106.

This document amends the broadcast ownership rules to reflect the mandate of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which vacated and remanded the Commission's 2018 Incubator Order and 2017 Order on Reconsideration in their entirety, and the definition of eligible entities adopted in the Commission's 2016 Second Report and Order. This document implements the Third Circuit's mandate and clarifies which rules are currently in effect.

In this document, the Media Bureau adopted an Order, granting a Motion for Extension of Time filed by the Campaign Legal Center, Sunlight Foundation, Common Cause, the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society and Issue One in MB Docket No. 19-363 (DA 19-1292).

The Federal Communication Commission proposes to amend its rules to allow AM broadcasters to use all-digital transmissions. All- digital AM broadcasting has the potential to provide a more reliable and robust radio signal than analog, as well as auxiliary digital services.

In this document, the Media Bureau seeks to update the record in MB Docket No. 03-185 on the operation of analog radio services by digital low power television stations (LPTV) as ancillary or supplementary services.

This document seeks comment on whether the Commission should modify or eliminate its rule (the radio duplication rule) that bars same-service (AM or FM) commercial radio stations from duplicating more than 25% of their total hours of programming in an average broadcast week if the stations have 50% or more contour overlap and are commonly owned or subject to a time brokerage agreement.

In this document, the Commission announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collections associated with the rules adopted in the Report and Order in MB Docket Nos. 18-202 and 17-105, FCC 19-67, In the Matter of Children's Television Programming Rules; Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative, which stated that the Commission would publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective date of those rules.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC/Commission) is correcting final rules that had typographical errors that were published in three separate reports in the Federal Register. In those documents, the Commission used table 8 MHz maximum authorized bandwidth channels that had an error in various rules. This document corrects the errors.