We are about to embark on what will no doubt be another busy year for broadcasters. The change in Administration will result in Republican FCC Commissioner Carr becoming the new FCC Chairman. With another Republican likely to be nominated for what will be, after Inauguration Day, an open seat on the FCC, the FCC will likely have a new regulatory perspective for broadcasters. FCC Commissioners Carr’s and Simington’s dissents to the FCC’s collection and use of workforce composition data from broadcasters through the reinstated Form 395-B filing requirement may well signal a reexamination of the FCC’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policies. These Commissioners’ dissents to the proposal for broadcasters to disclose the use of AI in political advertising also suggest that the FCC will be less likely to try to expand its Congressionally-delegated authority into new areas. However, one of the FCC’s delegations of authority has been to regulate “in the public interest,” a standard that has defied specificity since it was adopted in 1934. Chair-designate Carr has promised to have his FCC help define what the standard means. We will all be watching to see what that might mean for broadcasters.

As these broader issues are hashed out, routine regulatory filings and deadlines remain to fill a broadcaster’s calendar. These include the requirement to prepare an annual EEO public inspection file report and upload it to the public file, to upload Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists to the public file, and to pay annual FCC regulatory fees. TV stations also have children’s television reporting obligations at the end of January. And, as this is an odd-numbered year, Biennial Ownership Reports will be due from all stations by December 1.
To help keep track of many of these obligations, we have put together this advisory to provide a preview of, and some guidance for, many of the important FCC compliance-related dates, as well as other deadlines broadly applicable to significant portions of the broadcast industry. The attached calendar is not intended to cover all filing dates that apply to every station or licensee. Instead, the calendar is meant to highlight some of the more critical deadlines that we are able to identify in advance. Remember, these dates can change, and new deadlines for action can be added, so be sure to keep up with the latest developments.

The warning about changing dates is particularly true with respect to the dates for lowest unit rates for political elections in 2025. Coming off the 2024 elections, some may think that we are done with political until the next Congressional election cycle comes around in 2026. But there many elections, particularly state and local elections, scheduled for 2025. While stations do not have an obligation to sell time to candidates for state and local races, once they decide to do so, all other political obligations, including lowest unit rates, apply. We have included the dates for the beginning of the lowest unit rate windows for the state and local elections which we have been able to identify as occurring in 2025, which we believe to be accurate as of the date we put this calendar together. But be on alert for changes and new dates for special or local elections that are not on their state’s normal election cycle. Lowest unit rates (LUR) begin 45 days before any primary, and 60 days before any general, election (including municipal elections).

It is also important to check with your accountant, tax advisor, and local counsel on dates for filings such as those relating to local business and real estate fees and taxes, filing dates for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission submissions for large employers, and other requirements that may be applicable to your station(s). Obligations under the Corporate Transparency Act requiring most companies in the U.S. to file ownership information with U.S. Treasury Department also were scheduled to go into effect in 2025, but the requirement has been put on hold for now by Court actions. Watch for more developments on the implementation of this law in 2025.

In our calendar, we provide a description of the obligation, the due date, and the place where compliance is required (e.g., through an FCC filing, an addition to the public file). When broadcasters have an online public file obligation, they must ensure that the required documentation (e.g., the Annual EEO Public Inspection File Report or the Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists) is uploaded by the applicable deadline to the station’s FCC-hosted online public file. The online public file makes all of these deadlines even more important because interested parties (including the FCC) need no longer come to your station to review whether you have met your public file obligations. Instead, they can review the public file anywhere there is an Internet connection and assess your compliance with the various public file obligations. Don’t let your station be caught with an incomplete public file because violations of these rules often lead to FCC fines.

As the year progresses, there will no doubt be other compliance deadlines that arise. We try to provide information about many of these deadlines and about other regulatory issues that arise during the course of the year on our blog: http://www.broadcastlawblog.com.

Check our blog regularly or talk to any of the attorneys in our Broadcast Group for more information about the many deadlines and other issues that will be important to broadcasters in 2025.

Access the 2025 Broadcasters’ Calendar here.