FCC Fundraising Policy Adoption Still Up In the Air for NCEs
Opinions within the noncommercial broadcasting industry vary on whether the FCC will prioritize an order allowing noncommercial educational (NCE) stations to raise funds on-air for other nonprofit organizations. NCE officials noted there’s been no action by the commission on the issue, and replies in docket 12-106 were due Aug. 22. The proposal faced opposition from NPR (CD Aug 23 p13), and the Association of Public Television Stations and PBS urged the commission to uphold the current rules for stations that receive funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (http://xrl.us/bnh3fd). If the agency continues to hold off acting, waivers must be sought to run such fundraising on-air on a case-by-case basis.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The National Religious Broadcasters was expecting action on the order by the end of 2012, said Craig Parshall, NRB general counsel. The group suggested making the change to the FCC waiver process, allowing NCEs to spend no more than 1 percent of air-time raising money for other nonprofit entities (CD April 27 p8). “We were a little disappointed that we haven’t seen action on this,” Parshall said. “We really didn’t see a wealth of opposition to this proposal.” The time is right for this change, he said. “The economy is still in a bad situation, nonprofit groups are still suffering, [and] noncommercial broadcasters are still wanting to partner with nonprofit groups,” he said. But they “are hamstrung from doing so,” he said: “We're still hopeful that we can get a favorable decision from them soon.” NRB reiterated its stance in an ex parte filing recounting a meeting last week with staff from Chairman Julius Genachowski’s office (http://xrl.us/bod6vm). The FCC is reviewing the comments in the record on NCE fundraising, an agency spokeswoman said.
It’s unclear whether the proceeding is a priority issue “that’s moving in any way,” said David Oxenford, a Wilkinson Barker attorney who represents the Educational Media Foundation. EMF opposed the reporting requirements proposed in the rulemaking if the waiver process is changed (http://xrl.us/bod6tu). The proposals in the rulemaking notice “suggested there would be all these reporting obligations to the FCC on how much third party fundraising you're doing,” Oxenford said. If a commercial station does a telethon or runs promotions for raising funds for Race for the Cure, “they don’t have to get any permission and they don’t have to report on that,” he said. “Why should that be different if a noncommercial station decides to do that?"
There’s no need for the government to regulate fundraising activities of NCEs at all, Oxenford said. NRB’s proposal limiting the time period to 1 percent isn’t necessary either, he said. It seems that the government “really doesn’t need to make regulations or make judgments about how much is a proper amount,” he said. “If it serves the mission of the company and will be of interest to the viewers or listeners of the noncommercial entity station, why restrict it at all?"
Parshall said there’s a “substantial” distinction between stations receiving funds from CPB and other NCEs when it comes to choosing entities for which to raise funds. CPB recipients don’t want to be put in that position, “and we agree [that] they shouldn’t have to be put in that position,” he said. “The NCEs we talk to have no problem making that choice. They believe the stations should be the ones to make that choice.”