FCC Opens Limited Filing Window for New Noncommercial TV Stations
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC" or Commission") has issued a public notice, DA 24-1065, which announces the opening of a filing window for applications for construction permit for new noncommercial educational (NCE") TV stations in 12 specified communities in various areas of the United States. This window opens at 12:01 a.m. EST on December 4, 2024, and will close at 6:00 p.m. EST on December 11, 2024.
As is normally the case, all applications must be filed electronically in the Commission's Licensing and Management System (LMS"), and the deadlines will be strictly enforced. Note that the opening time and deadline time are Eastern Standard Time, not local time. Unlike some prior filing windows, applications filed early, as well as those filed late, will be dismissed.
In order to be eligible to file in this NCE TV window, all applicants must be non-profit educational organizations, and not individuals. If such a non-profit educational organization is neither a school nor a governmental entity, it must also be able to certify that a majority of its governing board or leadership are local members representative of a broad cross-section of community elements. Any address used to establish a member's localism must be that of the member's business or residence and not a post office box, lawyer's office or the like. In order to be considered broadly representative, the governing board or leadership must represent at least four different elements of the community. Examples of the different groups that are considered elements of the community are businesses, labor, minority and ethnic groups, military, professions, religion, and organizations for youth, the elderly, or women.
A further threshold requirement for all applicants is that they must propose to advance an educational objective through its programming. While not all of the planned programming must be instructive or otherwise educational, the applicant must show that the station will be used primarily for the advancement of an educational program. If an applicant has had its educational program approved in the past, it may simply refer to that prior approval.
Other certifications which must be provided are that the application is financially qualified and that it has reasonable assurance that the specified transmitter site is available to it. Financial qualification means that the applicant has sufficient funds available to it to construct and operate the proposed station for three months without further revenue. Reasonable assurance of site availability means that, if the applicant does not own the site, that is has contacted the land or tower owner and reached a basic agreement in principle that, all things being equal, after the construction permit is granted, the owner will make the site available. Absolute agreement on final terms is not required, but a basic meeting of the minds is.
Once the window closes, the Commission will determine which applications are mutually exclusive with each other. It then will apply its NCE point system selection criteria to determine the winning applicants for each allotment. Those points may be awarded on the basis of being an established local applicant, diversity of ownership, being part of a statewide network providing programming to schools, and technical parameters. Applicants must be able to document any claims of comparative qualifications and must submit any required documentation with their applications in order to have those qualifications credited. All comparative factors are fixed as of the window filing deadline and may not be improved, but only diminished, after that time.
In order to provide a stable database while the NCE TV filing window is open, the FCC has imposed a filing freeze, effective 12:01 a.m. EST on December 3, 2024, for all major and minor change applications for TV and Class A TV stations and all channel change petitions for full-power TV stations. This freeze will remain in effect until the close of the NCE TV filing window.
If you are interested in filing during this window or have any questions, please contact your FHH attorney, who will be happy to assist you.