Expanded Online Political File Requirements Would Burden Small Stations, say Broadcasters

Expanding the amount of information on political ad sales TV stations are required to post online would needlessly burden broadcasters, said NAB, Raycom, LIN Media and others Monday in comments in docket 00-168 on possible changes to the online political file rule. “No additional burdens on broadcasters can be justified by the bare desire to amplify the political file’s ancillary benefits,” said NAB, responding to a proposal from the Public Interest Public Airwaves Coalition(PIPAC), Sunlight Foundation and Center for Effective Government to have stations post political ad sales data using detailed, standardized forms of the type used for disclosures by the Federal Election Commission.

Though PIPAC and others said the standardized data would make it easier for reporters and others to use the ad sales data, a joint filing by Gray Television, Raycom and LIN Media said that’s not enough reason to expand the requirements. “The Commission cannot impose standardization, paperwork, and cost burdens on broadcasters simply to alleviate costs for the members signing the PIPAC Comments,” said the broadcasters in a joint filing.

PIPAC proposed the FEC-style data system after the Media Bureau requested comments on applying the online political file rule to all broadcasters (CD Aug 28 p7). Big Four network affiliates in the top 50 markets are already required to post political ad sales data online, but the rule is to be applied to all broadcasters starting in July, and a petition from broadcasters asking the FCC to reconsider or relax the rule led to the PN.

The commission already rejected proposals for a standardized, more data-intensive requirement during its initial rulemaking process on imposing the online political file rule, said NAB. The FCC “determined that the benefits of an online political file requirement would outweigh its burdens in large part because the burdens on stations would not include buying new software or otherwise materially changing their political sale processes or recordkeeping practices,” NAB said.

Because different stations use different methods to sell ads and record sales data even within the same company, PIPAC’s proposal would entail “massive changes” for the “entire media industry,” said the joint filing from Gray, Raycom and LIN. The data required for the forms “would need to be hand-inputted by each station’s typically already over-stretched staff during the final weeks of each political season,” said the broadcasters.

Broadcasters also cited the burden of recording and entering the ad sales data in their objections to the planned expansion of the online political file rule to broadcasters outside the top 50 DMAs. Political ad file information can change every day, require multiple requests to campaigns to assemble, and “the volume of material in most stations’ political files is as large as or larger than all of the rest of the information required to be kept in stations’ public files,” said Schurz Media.

Claims that the rules will be too burdensome for small broadcasters who have to post the data are “hogwash,” said political media buyer LUC Media. “The cost of doing so should be considered part of the public obligations they accept in exchange for being given the free and exclusive use of the public’s airwaves,” said LUC. PIPAC said since increased political ad sales mean increased revenue, the stations most burdened by having to post political ad data online would also have the resources to relieve that burden. “Even assuming it were true that maintaining an online political file is more time-consuming than a paper file, stations’ revenue increases resulting from political ad spending would more than cover additional marginal expenses,” said PIPAC.

If the commission does expand the rule, it should partially defer expanding it to the smallest stations, said a joint filing from the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters, the Ohio Association of Broadcasters and the Virginia Association of Broadcasters. The request is similar to an NAB proposal (CD Aug 28 p) that the commission give the smaller stations an election cycle under the online political ad rule before deciding whether to reconsider the requirement or not. “Any delay in the compliance date for the remaining stations would be harmful to the public,” said PIPAC. Such a delay would affect “pivotal Senate contests” in 2014 in states that don’t have top 50 media markets, such as West Virginia and Arkansas, PIPAC said.

Broadcasters and those in favor of expanding the ad file rules did agree on one possible change -- expanding the rules to cable and satellite. PIPAC, the VAB, NCAB and OAB all said the commission should address the disparity in the requirements for TV stations and other media. “The NAB is right about one thing,” said LUC Media. “There is no rational basis to exempt cable and satellite television operators, as well radio stations, from being required to post their political file documents to the Internet.” -- Monty Tayloe (mtayloe@warren-news.com)