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AGENCY:
Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION:
Notice and request for comments.
SUMMARY:
As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the following information collection(s). Comments are requested concerning: whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, including whether the information shall have practical utility; the accuracy of the Commission's burden estimate; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and ways to further reduce the information collection burden on small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. The FCC may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. No person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information subject to the PRA that does not display a valid OMB control number.
DATES:
Written comments should be submitted on or before November 4, 2024. If you anticipate that you will be submitting comments but find it difficult to do so within the period of time allowed by this notice, you should advise the contacts below as soon as possible.
ADDRESSES:
Direct all PRA comments to Cathy Williams, FCC, via email to PRA@fcc.gov and to Cathy.Williams@fcc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
For additional information about the information collection, contact Cathy Williams at (202) 418-2918.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
OMB Control Number: 3060-0174.
Title: Sections 73.1212, 76.1615, and 76.1715, Sponsorship Identification.
Form Number: Not applicable.
Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities and Individuals or households.
Number of Respondents and Responses: 52,760 respondents, 1,939,422 responses.
Estimated Time per Response: 0.0011 hour-2.166 hours.
Frequency of Response: Recordkeeping requirement; Third party disclosure requirement; On occasion reporting requirement.
Obligation to Respond: Required to obtain or retain benefits. The statutory authority for this collection of information is contained in 47 U.S.C. 151, 152, 154(i), 154(j), 303(r), 307, 317, and 325(c) of the Communications Act, as amended.
Total Annual Burden: 332,922 hours.
Total Annual Cost: $2,010,723.
Needs and Uses: The Commission, in the Second Report and Order, FCC 24-61, takes steps to ensure clear and reasonable foreign sponsorship identification rules. Section 73.1212(j) of the Commission's rules, 47 CFR 73.1212(j), requires radio and television broadcast stations to disclose to their audiences, at the time of broadcast, when material aired pursuant to the lease of time on the station has been sponsored, paid for, or furnished by a foreign governmental entity. Section 73.1212(k) of the Commission's rules, 47 CFR 73.1212(k), imposes corresponding obligations on stations with section 325(c) permits. The Commission's authority to impose these regulations stems from section 317 of the Communications Act, which requires broadcast licensees to inform their audiences when the station has been paid to air a particular program, in furtherance of the longstanding broadcasting tenet that the public has a right to know the identity of those that solicit its support.
The foreign sponsorship identification rules require broadcast licensees, at the time of entering or renewing a lease agreement (unless a once-a-year exception applies), to exercise reasonable diligence to ascertain whether a programming disclosure is required. To ensure that licensees are complying with their reasonable diligence and disclosure obligations, the foreign sponsorship identification rules require licensees to memorialize their required inquiries of lessees and to maintain records of their programming disclosures and their reasonable diligence efforts.
In the Second Report and Order, the Commission modified the rule's information collection requirements by adopting an approach that provides licensees with two options for demonstrating that they have met their duty of inquiry in seeking to obtain the information needed to determine whether the programming provided by a lessee is sponsored by a foreign governmental entity. The Commission designed this approach to provide licensees with as much flexibility as possible and to minimize their paperwork costs and burdens while still ensuring compliance with the reasonable diligence requirements.
One option available to licensees is the use of certifications, where both the licensee and the lessee complete a certification reflecting the communications and inquiries required under the existing rules. Licensees and lessees have the option either to use sample certification language set forth in simple, one-page, “check-box” templates appended to the Second Report and Order or to use language of the parties' own choosing. Most licensee and lessee employees should be able to complete the forms quickly and readily, based upon their existing knowledge and understanding. It is highly unlikely that either the licensee or the lessee would need to engage in any type of research to respond to the queries contained in the certifications. Notably, these are the same inquiries the Commission adopted in the First Report and Order, only formatted now as a certification. If licensees and lessees prefer not to use the Commission's templates, they may use their own certification language, provided that language addresses the points listed in § 73.1212(j)(3)(i) through (iii) of the rules, which were adopted in the First Report and Order. The Commission granted this flexibility to alleviate or minimize costs for licensees that already had developed their own certifications based on the existing foreign sponsorship identification rules. A lessee's certification should convey the information needed to determine whether a disclosure is required and the information needed for a broadcast disclosure if one is required.
As an alternative to the certification option, licensees may choose to ask their lessees for screenshots of lessees' search results of two federal government websites (the Department of Justice's FARA database and the Commission's U.S.-based foreign media outlet report). Licensees choosing this option must still comply with all other aspects of the current rules, as they have been required to do since the compliance date of the First Report and Order. Licensees are encouraged to include in their lease agreements a requirement for lessees to provide notice of any change in status so as to trigger the need for a foreign sponsorship disclosure.
Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene Dortch,
Secretary, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2024-19910 Filed 9-4-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P