Washington Beat

The FCC’s final Open Meeting for 2013 is scheduled for 12/12/13, and as has so often been the case over the last four years, it’s another meeting that broadcasters can pretty much ignore.

Reports indicate that one of the planks in a tax bill being put together by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) is a reduction of the advertising business deduction. But an article in the Hill puts the focus on taxing money corporations are said to have been parking or earning abroad.

The FCC has an NPRM on the table which would remove the 50% discount afforded UHF television stations when calculating group compliance with national audience caps, and now is your chance to weigh in on the matter.

Well of course MMTC is in favor of the FCC’s proposal to consider broadcast transactions that would involve foreign ownership in excess of 25% -- it has been pushing for just such a move for years. NAB also weighed in to support the measure.

The FCC voted to change its view of the 25% threshold for foreign broadcast ownership not as a cap but as a trigger for detailed scrutiny with the possibility of waiver. Here’s what the five commissioners had to say about it.

There are organizations out there that make a living complaining about indecent programming being broadcast over America’s airwaves, but there aren’t all that many citizens expressing any concern.

One facet of the recent radio dealings of Townsquare Media is the placement of three Iowa stations into a trust for resale. The FCC...

As regular readers of this space know, broadcast matters have not been a primary focus of the FCC since the completion of the DTV...

The National Association of Broadcasters and The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences are collaborating on an event that will educate television professionals on new developments in mobile television and the opportunities they present.

A great attention-grabber in a broadcast commercial is the insertion of the emergency alert signal or a reasonable imitation of it. The only problem is that it’s completely illegal. Recent cases have caused the FCC to issue an advisory, a fine and to enter into a consent decree.

The 12-year run of Gigi Sohn at communications watchdog Public Knowledge is all but over as she moves to the staff of new FCC...

New FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler hit the ground running by announcing key staff members that he says will also hit the ground running. The appointments are for his own staff in three other areas. The Media Bureau is not one of them.

New Jersey faces perhaps the most challenging broadcast environment of all 50 states, and the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) used his seat on the Senate Commerce Committee to press the case for his state. The state has a new voice there in the person of Sen. Cory Booker.

Advertisements for HCG Platinum claim that the product can help users lose a pound a day and have helped the manufacturer to multiple millions of dollars in sales. But the FTC wants to see the manufacturer in court.

The unanimous Senate approval of the nominees Tom Wheeler to become the next Chairman of the FCC and of Michael O’Rielly to be the second sitting Republican Commissioner generated the usual round of congratulations and commentary for interested parties inside the Beltway. Here’s what people and organizations had to say.