In apparent memory lapse, Commission fails to mention last-minute effective elimination of all-encompassing SSN-based FRN requirement
Has it really been two years already?
The Commission has announced that the time has come for the next round of biennial Ownership Reports (Form 323) for commercial broadcasters. And get this, the initial public notice about the upcoming deadline for filing pushes that deadline back a month, to December 1, 2011.
Note that the last round of Form 323s was filed in July, 2010, which (contrary to the whole “biennial” aspect of things) isn’t really a full two years ago. But as long-time readers may recall, that initial round was originally scheduled for the fall of 2009, but got postponed several times. (You can read a collection of our posts about the FCC’s 2009-2010 Form 323 travails here.)
Form 323 requires all commercial licensees to file reports by a uniform nationwide deadline, once every two years. The next reports were to be due November 1, 2011, reflecting ownership data as of October 1, 2011. Apparently responding to concerns that one month is not enough time to compile data and submit a report, the FCC has extended this year’s filing deadline to December 1, 2011. This is a one-time extension and does not apply to reports due in 2013 and subsequent years (at least for now).
The ownership information to be reported must still reflect the reporting entity’s relevant information as it stands of October 1, 2011. Reports may be filed any time between October 1 and December 1; they must be filed electronically on Form 323, using the FCC’s electronic CDBS system. A filing fee must be paid at the time of filing.
The Commission’s terse notice doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty specifics of Form 323, but merely refers interested readers to the form’s instructions and to the FAQ page about the form on the Commission’s website. Heads up for some clarifications, though, since neither the form itself nor the FAQ page addresses an important change that the Commission committed to back in late June, 2010.
The change involved the question of including separate FCC Registration Numbers (FRNs) for each individual and entity reflected in each report, whether or not that individual or entity was in fact the licensee or even in a position to wield anything akin to control of the licensee.
We won’t bore you with the details of the back-and-forth we had with the Commission on that touchy point – you can read all about it in our previous blogs on the subject. All you – and apparently, the folks at the Commission – need to recall is that we here at FHH (on behalf of ourselves and a number of clients) asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to tell the FCC that the Commission could not lawfully impose the FRN requirement as that requirement had been described up to that point. The Commission fussed a bunch, delayed the filing deadline to give it a chance to tweak things, but eventually tried to stick to its FRN guns. We went back to the Court. The Court ordered the FCC to respond to our arguments.
A funny thing happened at that point. After it was ordered to respond but before it did so, the Commission revised the FRN language in Form 323. It then explained to the Court that the form, as revised, made it “clear” that “users are not required to provide SSN-based FRNs for the July 8 filing if they object to the submission of their Social Security Numbers”. (Note that that gloss on the revised form might not have been 100% consistent with the language of the revision, at least in the minds of some folks, but that’s the way the FCC explained it to the Court.) The Court, in turn, interpreted the FCC’s statement to say that “no individual attributable interest holder will be required to submit a Social Security number to obtain an FRN [i.e., FCC Registration Number] for the July 8, 2010, biennial filing deadline or for any imminent non-biennial filing of Form 323.” And, based on that interpretation, the Court denied our petition.
None of that history is reflected in the form’s instructions or on the FAQ page, at least as of today (August 23, 2011). But the fact of the matter is that, in its explanation to the Court, the Commission clearly indicated that nobody would be required to submit a Social Security Number-based FRN if he/she objects to such submissions, regardless of the basis for any such objection. To the extent that the form’s instructions and the FAQ may seem to say otherwise, those indications can and should be disregarded (unless, of course, the Commission is inclined to schlep down to the Court again to explain why what it told the Court in 2010 should no longer apply 2011).
Keep an eye out – particularly here on www.CommLawBlog.com – for any further wrinkles that might pop up on this front in coming months.
Remember that the filing requirement applies to full power TV, commercial radio, and all Class A and low power TV stations, but not TV or FM translators or low power FM stations. Noncommercial educational AM, FM, and TV stations must file biennial reports, but they use FCC Form 323-E and must file on staggered dates corresponding to the state where they are licensed rather than the uniform nationwide date that applies to commercial stations.
