FCC’s Temporarily Pauses Biennial Ownership Reporting Requirement

posted on 8.01.2025

Texas broadcasters will have one less FCC report to file this year.

The FCC announced it is suspending, at least temporarily, its required filing of Biennial Ownership Reports.

In its July 29 Public Notice the FCC said it waived “the requirement for broadcast licensees to file their biennial ownership reports on FCC Form 323 or 323-E for a period of 18 months.” 

It went on to set a new filing deadline of “June 1, 2027, or until further notice, whichever comes first.”

The FCC’s timing means Texas broadcasters will not be compiling the required reports this fall.

“The reports are normally due by December 1 of odd-numbered years (like 2025) and report a broadcaster’s ownership as it existed on October 1 of that year,” said Scott Flick, an attorney with TAB’s

FCC legal counsel Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

TAB and other state broadcast associations, as well as the NAB, filed comments about the onerous nature of filing certain FCC reports as part of the FCC’s recent Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding.

“Multiple commenters have urged the Commission to revisit the current biennial ownership filing requirement, which they maintain is a costly and burdensome requirement without a sufficient offsetting public benefit,” said the FCC.

Flick noted that the “waiver does not affect the requirement that broadcasters file Ownership Reports after each station assignment or transfer, as well as after grants of initial construction permits and license.”  

Questions? Contact TAB’s Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.

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