Foreign Government Broadcast Sponsorship Disclosure Rules

Summary

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) takes steps to ensure clear and reasonable foreign sponsorship identification rules, which require radio and television broadcast stations to inform audiences when programming aired pursuant to a lease of airtime on the station is sponsored by a foreign governmental entity. The document replaces a previous requirement of the rules with a new approach that provides licensees with two options for demonstrating that they have sought to obtain the information needed to determine whether the programming being provided by a lessee is sponsored by a foreign governmental entity. The revised approach addresses concerns broadcasters had regarding the burdens and complexity of the rule and clarifies when the rule applies.

Compliance Requirements

1. #1

   Licensees must inform the lessee of the foreign sponsorship disclosure requirement; Licensees must ask the lessee whether it falls into any of the categories that would qualify it as a 'foreign governmental entity'; Licensees must ask the lessee whether it knows if any individual/entity further back in the chain of producing/distributing the programming to be aired qualifies as a foreign governmental entity and has provided some type of inducement to air the programming; Licensees must memorialize the inquiries and retain such memorialization in its records for the remainder of the license term or for one year, whichever is longer; Foreign government-provided programming furnished consistent with § 73.1212(a) must include the disclosure: 'The [following/preceding] programming was [sponsored, paid for, or furnished], either in whole or in part, by [name of foreign governmental entity] on behalf of [name of foreign country]'; Licensees must choose between one of two compliance options: certification option or screenshot option; For recurring leases with same lessee and same programming, licensees need only exercise reasonable diligence obligations once per year; Licensees must exercise reasonable diligence to obtain information from employees and persons with whom they deal directly to enable required sponsorship identification announcements; Foreign sponsorship identification rules apply to programming broadcast pursuant to a section 325(c) permit; Foreign sponsorship identification rules apply to issue advertisements and paid public service announcements

   Deadline: At time of entering into new lease agreement or renewing existing lease agreement

Market Impacts

• Increased compliance burden for broadcast licensees when leasing airtime to foreign entities, requiring additional due diligence and documentation processes; Creation of new market opportunities for compliance consulting, legal services, and technology solutions to help broadcasters meet foreign sponsorship identification requirements; Restricts undisclosed foreign government-sponsored programming by requiring clear disclosure of foreign governmental entity sponsorship, potentially deterring some foreign entities from leasing airtime; Specific requirements for different types of programming: foreign sponsorship rules apply to issue advertisements and paid PSAs but not to political candidate advertisements or commercial goods/services advertising exempt under 47 CFR 73.1212(f); No exemption created for religious programming or locally produced/distributed programming, meaning these segments must comply with same foreign sponsorship identification requirements

Validated Company Impacts