The FCC should limit the scope of its lowest unit rate (LUR), applying only to political ads that are at least 50% candidate funded, said a joint letter Wednesday to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel from campaign finance groups, including End Citizens United Action Fund and Campaign Legal Center. Under LUR, candidates buying broadcast advertisements can be charged only the lowest rate that commercial advertisers paid for the same class of time. LUR applies to federal, state and local candidates but not PACs or issue advertisers. However, some campaign finance groups say Republican joint finance committees are benefiting from LUR and running TV ads where the National Republican Senatorial Committee provides the majority of funds, not the individual candidates. That's “a blatant attempt to bypass contribution limits and undermine our campaign finance system,” said a news release from the groups, which also include Public Citizen and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The NRSC didn’t comment. Rosenworcel should “publicly confirm” that LUR applies only to ads that candidates pay for, and that a candidate must pay for at least 50% of an ad to trigger the lower rates and other FCC political ad rules, the letter said. The FCC lacks a policy on how much of an ad a candidate must fund before triggering LUR, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in an interview. The agency’s long-standing stance is “even though a spot was bought by the party on a national basis, if the candidate authorized it, it would be entitled to lowest unit charge,” Oxenford said. Changing that would likely require notice and comment periods rather than a simple clarification, he said. That makes it unlikely LUR policy would change in time for the November election. There are some indications broadcasters might support such clarifications, Oxenford said. In 2023, the Florida Association of Broadcasters filed a petition for a declaratory ruling calling for a clarification on when LUR applies, but that petition was later withdrawn. The matter of when an ad should enjoy the lowest unit charge “is really a question that ... needs to [be] resolve[d],” Oxenford said. NAB didn’t comment.

A news distortion complaint filed at the FCC against CBS isn’t “facially ridiculous,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington in a Fox News segment Thursday, though he also vowed not to “prejudge” the matter. The complaint argues that editing of an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris changed her answer to a question on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making it sound more favorable. Although the complaint was brought against CBS’ owned and operated station WCBS New York, the content it focuses on was from network programs Face the Nation and 60 Minutes. For the FCC to find that news distortion occurred, the conduct would have had to occur at the level of the licensee rather than the network, Simington said. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday had reposted on Truth Social Simington's early posting about the complaint in which the commissioner wrote, “Interesting. Big if true. Will look into it.” Trump appointed Simington to the FCC in 2020, after the then-president withdrew his renomination of former Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in the wake of an O'Rielly speech critical of social media content regulation that the executive branch proposed.

A Florida group behind a ballot initiative seeking to limit the state’s interference in abortions has sued Florida Department of Health officials for threatening TV stations airing the group’s campaign ads (see 241008056). “The state of Florida’s crusade against Amendment 4 is unconstitutional government interference – full stop,” said Lauren Brenzel, Campaign Director for Floridians Defending Freedom’s campaign in favor of Amendment 4, which would bar the state from restricting abortions. Ads for Amendment 4 were the focus of recent letters from the Florida Department of Health threatening legal actions against the stations airing them, including prosecution as a public health nuisance. “The State cannot coerce television stations into removing political speech from the airwaves in an attempt to keep their abortion ban in place,” said Brenzel in a news release. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida against Florida DOH head Joseph Lapado and former Florida DOH General Counsel John Wilson, seeks an injunction barring the state from threats or coercion against broadcasters. It also seeks injunctions barring enforcement action against Floridians Defending Freedom, punitive and monetary damages, and attorneys fees. The Florida DOH and NAB didn’t comment.

The Media Bureau will open a filing window for applications for new noncommercial educational TV stations from Dec. 4 to Dec. 11, said a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. Effective Friday, the FCC won’t accept petitions to amend the Table of Allotments for new NCE channels, the PN said. Additionally, during the NCE window, there will be a freeze on petitions from full-power and Class A TV stations seeking to change channels or make minor and major changes, the PN said.

The FCC’s order allowing geotargeted radio broadcasts let broadcasters “go after new revenue streams” and is “the dawn of new possibility for radio,” said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in remarks at the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters Black Media Summit and Power of Urban Radio Forum. The order is “a game changer,” especially for “small and singleton owners that are working hard to stay on the air,” said Starks. Both the commissioner and NABOB were vocal supporters of the radio geotargeting order before it was approved unanimously in April. REC Networks and Press Communications targeted the order with petitions for reconsideration (see 2406210054). The FCC is working to wrap up the 2022 quadrennial review “as soon as we can,” said David Strickland, media adviser to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, in a panel discussion Thursday. Strickland declined to comment on the timing of the 2022 QR or say whether ongoing litigation over the 2018 QR could influence it.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday called for an investigation into 60 Minutes over the editing of the CBS program's interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. In a Truth Social post, Trump said that the CBS “News Division” “must be licensed.” However, the FCC doesn't license news programs. Trump, who reportedly backed out of a similar interview with 60 Minutes, said editing of the interview was intended to make Harris appear more favorable and was “possibly illegal” and “may be a major Campaign Finance Violation.” Trump's post is the latest in a string of threats and calls for government action against broadcasters over their news content (see 2409230022). “This is an open and shut case, and must be investigated, starting today!” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has repeatedly condemned calls for agency action against broadcasters over their content (see 2410080056). CBS didn't comment.

Panasonic will begin offering a range of ATSC 3.0 receivers and ADTH is offering a USB stick-sized receiver, said a news release Tuesday from Pearl TV ahead of the NAB New York trade show. Along with the new receivers, Pearl announced increased availability of features from ATSC 3.0 broadcasters such as high dynamic range and multichannel broadcast audio. HDR is available to 80 million households from ATSC 3.0 broadcasters, said Pearl Managing Director Anne Schelle in the release. Broadcasters will also kick off a holiday-themed ATSC 3.0 advertising campaign after the November election, the release said. “Anywhere that NEXTGEN TV is on the air, we’d like our member stations to run an informational campaign to let consumers know that they should be looking for the NEXTGEN TV certification mark as they shop for new receivers during the holidays,” Schelle said in the release.

Congress should remove the FCC's authority to impose content-based restrictions such as the broadcast indecency rules on broadcasters in the wake of Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump's repeated calls for action against ABC's license (see [Ref:2409120056), said American Action Forum Director-Technology and Innovation Policy Jeffrey Westling in a post Tuesday. “While many were quick to dismiss Trump's call, it is indeed possible for the federal government to revoke a broadcast license, even in response to what is essentially a political offense,” Westling said. He said Congress should do away with the news distortion rules and indecency rules, which remain on the books but are used infrequently. The news distortion rules bar broadcasters from deliberately distorting a factual news report, while the indecency rules bar egregious nudity or profanity. The FCC hypothetically could use the news distortion rules to block a license renewal for a station that aired a story the president disapproved of, Westling said. Elimination of the rules would give broadcasters more freedom and allow them to better compete with other media that aren't bound by such rules, he said. “The freedom to succeed would also entail the freedom to fail: If a station airs content that consumers do not want to see, it will simply go out of business,” he said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday condemned a letter from the Florida Department of Health threatening a TV station over an advertisement. Sent to Nexstar's WFLA-TV Tampa and other Gray Television stations, the letter claimed a political ad running on the station critical of Florida's abortion policies constituted an illegal “sanitary nuisance” and threatened the station with criminal prosecution. The station's First Amendment right “does not include free rein to disseminate false advertisements which, if believed, would likely have a detrimental effect on the lives and health of pregnant women in Florida,” the DOH letter said. Rosenworcel, in a release, responded, “The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment.” She continued, “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government's views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.” The ad, the DOH letter said, characterized a Florida law that strictly limits abortions as banning them and leading to the deaths of pregnant women. The ad is “not only false, it is dangerous.” Women faced with pregnancy complications posing a serious risk of death “may and should seek medical treatment in Florida,” the letter said. Nexstar, Gray and NAB didn't comment.

The Media and Democracy Project has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FCC for any records of Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington communicating with Fox and the Heritage Foundation or that mention Project 2025 or the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, among other things. MAD has opposed the license renewal of Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia (see 2407250056), and filed the FOIA in the docket on that proceeding Monday, docket 23-292. A number of prominent officials, including former FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan, former FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes and former Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol, co-signed the MAD FOIA request. The request should be granted because the policy positions of a future Trump administration are “matters of extreme interest for members of the public who wish to ensure that the Commission impartially applies its policies” to MAD’s petition and the matter of station licensing, it said. “It is obvious that candidate and former President Trump would oppose the MAD Petition, even though he has suggested that content- and viewpoint-based station licensing decisions are appropriate,” MAD said, noting Trump’s recent statements about ABC (see 2409230022). Simington dealt a blow to the FCC’s credibility when he “prejudged” the MAD petition in a recent letter to lawmakers (see 2409130062), MAD said. In addition, MAD said, Carr's and Simington’s involvement in Project 2025 (see 2407050015) also calls the agency’s objectivity into question. “It is essential that the FCC’s ethical integrity be confirmed through full disclosure of Commissioners’ official and personal communications related to the MAD petition and standards for station licensing, so there is no suspicion that any Commissioner has been influenced with respect to these important issues by partisan political interests or by partisan efforts to staff an upcoming administration,” the FOIA filing said. Fox, Carr and Simington didn’t comment.