The Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, along with 46 other State Broadcasters Associations, joined in filing with the FCC an ex parte letter in continuing opposition to the requirement that television stations post their political files online, particularly given that there is no parallel regulation requiring cable and satellite providers to post online the same competitively sensitive information about political advertising rates.
We urged the Commission to lift its current broadcast-only, asymmetric online political file rule at least until the FCC requires cable and satellite operates to post the same information online. For the same and other reasons, we also urged the Commission to defer its tentative deadline of July 1, 2014, by which the FCC would apply its online political file rule to all television stations, irrespective of affiliation and market size. Lastly, we strongly opposed the one-size-fits-all proposal of a coalition of public interest groups, which is urging the Commission to mandate that all television stations to use the same form to record political time information, because such a requirement would impose “substantial costs, not only for the time spent by station personnel but also for the necessary training, sale material redesigns, and software development.
The letter can be read here.
