[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 79 (Tuesday, April 23, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17864-17866]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-10051]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
47 CFR Parts 73 and 74
[MM Docket No. 96-90, FCC 96-169]
Telecommunications Act of 1996; Broadcast License Terms
AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: We issue this Notice of Proposed Rule Making (``NPRM'') to
implement Section 203 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (``Telecom
Act'') (Broadcast License Terms). Section 203 eliminates the statutory
distinction between the maximum allowable license terms for television
stations and radio stations, and provides that such licenses may be for
terms ``not to exceed 8 years.'' Amendment of the Commission's Rules is
necessary to conform them to Section 203 of the Telecom Act. We seek
comment on our proposal to amend our rules to extend broadcast license
terms to 8 years, as well as on our proposal for implementing this
change within the framework of existing license renewal cycles.
DATES: Comments are due on or before May 20, 1996, and reply comments
are due on or before June 4, 1996. Written comments by the public on
the proposed and/or modified information collections are due on or
before May 20, 1996.
ADDRESSES: Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C. 20554.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Somers (202-418-2130), Mass
Media Bureau.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a synopsis of the Notice of Proposed
Rule Making in MM Docket No. 96-90, FCC 96-169, adopted April 11, 1996
and released April 12, 1996. The complete text of this Notice of
Proposed Rule Making is available for inspection and copying during
normal business hours in the FCC Reference Center (Room 239), 1919 M
Street NW., Washington, D.C., and also may be purchased from the
Commission's copy contractor, International Transcription Service,
(202) 857-3800, 2100 M Street, N.W., Suite 140, Washington, DC 20037.
Synopsis of Notice of Proposed Rule Making Extending License Terms for
Broadcast Facilities
1. Section 307(c) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47
U.S.C. Sec. 307(c), authorizes the Commission to establish the period
or periods for which licenses shall be granted or renewed. Prior to the
enactment of the Telecom Act, Section 307(c) provided that the licenses
of television stations, including low power TV stations, could be
issued for a term of no longer than 5 years. It further provided that
license terms for radio stations, including auxiliary facilities, could
be for a period not to exceed 7 years. These were the maximum allowable
license terms and the Commission had the discretion to grant or renew a
broadcast license for a shorter period if the public interest,
convenience, and necessity would be served by such action. Consistent
with these statutory provisions, Section 73.1020 of the Commission's
Rules currently states that ``[r]adio broadcasting stations will
ordinarily be renewed for 7 years and TV broadcast stations will be
renewed for 5 years. However, if the FCC finds that the public
interest, convenience and necessity will be served thereby, it may
issue either an initial license or a renewal thereof for a lesser
term.'' Section 73.1020 also sets forth a renewal schedule for
broadcast stations based on the geographical region of the country in
which each station is located.
2. Section 203 of the Telecom Act amends Section 307(c) of the
Communications Act to read as follows:
Each license granted for the operation of a broadcasting station
shall be for a term of not to exceed 8 years. Upon application
therefor, a renewal of such license may be granted from time to time
for a term of not to exceed 8 years from the date of expiration of
the preceding license, if the Commission finds that public interest,
convenience, and necessity would be served thereby. Consistent with
the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the Commission may by
rule prescribe the period or periods for which licenses shall be
granted and renewed for particular classes of stations, but the
Commission may not adopt or follow any rule which would preclude it,
in any case involving a station of a particular class, from granting
or renewing a license for a shorter period than that prescribed for
stations of such class if, in its judgment, the public interest,
convenience, or necessity would be served by such action.
3. Length of License Terms. Although the language of Section 203 of
the Telecom Act lengthens the maximum permissible broadcast license
term to 8 years for both television and radio stations, the statute
does not require the Commission to extend license terms to 8 years as a
matter of course. The statutory language provides that licenses are to
have terms ``not to exceed 8 years'' and expressly states that the
Commission ``may'' grant renewals for terms not to exceed 8 years if
the public interest would be served thereby. Moreover, the language
indicates that the Commission may, by rule, adopt different license
terms for different classes of stations. Given this discretion under
the statute regarding how we might amend our rules, we believe it is
appropriate to determine through notice and comment rulemaking the
proper length of broadcast license terms as a general matter.
4. For several reasons, we propose to amend our Rules to provide
that broadcast licenses ordinarily have the maximum 8-year term
authorized under the statute. First, the practice of ordinarily
granting television and radio licenses for the maximum terms will
reduce the burden to broadcasters of seeking the periodic renewal of
their licenses and the associated burdens on the Commission. Second, it
is consistent with past Commission practice; our
[[Page 17865]]
current rules provide for the maximum license terms in accordance with
previous statutory maximum terms of 5 years for television stations and
7 years for radio stations. Finally, this approach is consistent with
the legislative history of the Telecom Act. While the statutory
language provides the Commission discretion in this area, the
Conference Report indicates that Congress intended the Commission to
adopt the maximum term, stating that Section 203 of the Telecom Act
``extends the license term for broadcast licenses to eight years for
both television and radio.''
5. We seek comment on this proposal to amend Sections 73.1020 and
74.15 of our Rules to provide that the Commission will ordinarily grant
licenses for the 8-year terms allowed by Section 203 of the Telecom
Act. Irrespective of what the Commission ultimately determines to be an
appropriate standard license term, we note that Section 203 of the
Telecom Act explicitly reserves the Commission's authority to grant
individual licenses for less than the statutory maximum if the public
interest, convenience, and necessity would be served by such action.
6. Classes of Stations. Section 203 of the Telecom Act states in
part:
``the Commission may by rule prescribe the period or periods for which
licenses shall be granted and renewed for particular classes of
stations. * * *'' While this provision provides us authority to
designate different license terms for particular classes of stations
(provided that they do not exceed 8 years), we propose to treat all but
experimental broadcast stations uniformly.
7. With respect to television and radio stations the statute
eliminates the current distinction between these services for purposes
of establishing the maximum allowable license terms. In this regard,
the legislative history states: ``By applying a uniform license term *
* * for all broadcast station licenses, the Committee simply recognizes
that there is no reason for longer radio license terms than for
television licenses. The Committee intends that applying a uniform
license term * * * for radio and television licenses will enable the
Commission to operate more efficiently in the awarding of new or
renewed licenses for all broadcast licenses.'' H.R. Rep. No. 104-204,
Section 304, 104th Cong., 1st Sess. 122 (1995).
8. Similarly, we propose to track the approach we take with full-
service stations and adopt an 8-year license term for FM and TV
translator facilities and low power TV stations, as well as for
international broadcasting stations. This approach is consistent with
our previous decision to treat these different classes of stations
uniformly. See Report and Order in MM Docket No. 92-168, 59 FR 63049,
December 7, 1994. We further propose to continue our practice, set
forth in Sections 74.15(b) and (c) of our Rules, of tying the license
terms for auxiliary and booster facilities to the license terms of the
broadcast stations with which they are associated. We seek comment on
these proposals.
9. Finally, we propose to continue our practice, set forth in
Section 74.15(a) of our Rules, of issuing licenses for experimental
broadcast stations for a term of 1 year. We believe that a longer
license term would not be warranted for this class of station and seek
comment on this proposal.
10. Implementation of Amended License Term Provisions. Section 203
of the Telecom Act and the legislative history are silent as to whether
existing broadcast station licenses may be modified immediately to
conform to any new license terms that may be adopted.
11. The implementation issue is important because of the logistics
involved in renewing broadcast licenses. Under Sections 73.1020 and
74.15 of the Commission's Rules, all of the licenses for a particular
class of broadcast stations expire at fixed intervals over a 3-year
period. To stagger the processing of renewal applications and thus
perform this task more efficiently, the country is divided into 18
different regions containing 1 or more states for purposes of
establishing synchronized schedules for radio and television license
renewals. The radio renewal schedule and the television renewal
schedule operate on separate and distinct cycles that do not run
concurrently. Accordingly, once all radio licenses have been renewed as
scheduled, there is a 50-month hiatus before the radio renewal cycle
begins again. Similarly, once all television licenses have been renewed
as scheduled, there is also a 26-month hiatus before the television
renewal cycle begins again.
12. Because of the cyclical nature of this process, any change in
the length of the license term implemented in the middle of a renewal
cycle could adversely affect the synchronization of the whole process.
13. By the time the Telecom Act of 1996 was enacted in February
1996, the renewal cycle had already begun for radio stations in several
regions of the country. The practical effect of this situation is that
radio licenses that have already been renewed for the current maximum
allowable 7-year term will have shorter terms than radio licenses
renewed later in the renewal cycle, if we adopt the 8-year term we now
propose. When these previously granted licenses expire the radio
renewal process will no longer be synchronized. We wish to maintain the
efficiencies inherent in the existing synchronized schedule of renewal
cycles. Should we ultimately adopt an 8-year license term, we therefore
propose to implement it as follows. For broadcast renewal applications
that are granted after the effective date of a decision in this
proceeding, we propose to ordinarily grant the renewed license for the
maximum proposed term of 8 years. For renewal applications that have
been filed as part of the current renewal cycle (i.e., the cycle
beginning October 1, 1995 for radio stations) and that have been
granted only the maximum 7-year license term provided under our current
rules because they were processed prior to a decision in this
proceeding, we propose to extend by rule the already renewed 7-year
license term for such stations to the proposed 8-year term. These
licenses will thus be modified by rule to have the new maximum term and
will come up for renewal in synchronization with future radio renewal
cycles. The Commission adopted a similar approach in 1983 when it
extended existing common carrier and satellite licenses from 5 to 10
years. As noted in that decision, the Commission's authority to modify
the provisions of existing licenses by rulemaking has been upheld on
several occasions. This type of approach is also consistent with the
discretion we are given by the Telecom Act to prescribe rules governing
the period or periods for which licenses are granted for particular
classes of stations. We solicit comment on this proposed approach for
implementing the new maximum broadcast license terms authorized by the
Telecom Act.
14. By this Notice of Proposed Rule Making we request comments on
how to best implement the provisions of Section 203 of the Telecom Act.
Specifically, we seek comment on whether we should amend Sections
73.1020, 73.733, and 74.15 of the Commission's Rules to provide that
broadcast licenses ordinarily should have 8-year terms, the maximum
provided under the Telecom Act. We also seek comment on the treatment
of different classes of broadcast stations and how best to implement
the transition to any amended license term in an equitable manner given
that the renewal cycle has already begun.
15. This action is taken pursuant to authority found in Sections
4(i), 303(r), and 307(c) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended,
47 U.S.C. 154(i),
[[Page 17866]]
303(r), and 307(c), and Sections 0.204(b), 0.283 and 1.45 of the
Commission's Rules, 47 CFR 0.204(b), 0.283 and 1.45.
List of Subjects
47 CFR Part 73
Radio broadcasting, Television broadcasting.
47 CFR Part 74
Radio broadcasting, Television broadcasting.
Federal Communications Commission.
William F. Caton,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 96-10051 Filed 4-22-96; 8:45 am]
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