The FCC’s Media Bureau today announced changes to the filing window for submitting Biennial Ownership Reports for commercial and noncommercial stations. The opening of the filing window will be delayed from October 1, 2019 to November 1, 2019, and the window will now close on January 31, 2020, rather than the previously-announced deadline of December 1, 2019.
According to the announcement, the reason for the one-month delay in opening the filing window relates to the implementation of “additional technical improvements” to the form, which will include “burden-reducing capabilities.” In particular, the Media Bureau indicated that filers will have the ability to pre-fill certain forms, and copy and paste already-entered information from other forms. In light of the one-month delay in opening the window, the Media Bureau extended the deadline for filing as well, and provided additional time due to the intervening holidays. Even though the window will not open until November 1st, the Media Bureau made clear that the “as-of” date for the information to be reported will remain October 1st.