[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]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P