This week, the FCC’s Media Bureau released a Public Notice to remind broadcasters that new foreign sponsorship identification requirements go into effect June 7, 2026. These rules clarify the existing obligations of broadcasters to determine whether buyers of program time on a station are foreign governments or their representatives. The obligation to get certifications from buyers of program time as to whether they are foreign governments or their agents has actually have been in effect since 2022 (see our article here). The June 7 effective date applies to a new method of compliance with the verification obligation, adopted by a Commission Order in 2024. The 2024 Order also extended this certification obligation beyond leased program time, to cover commercial advertising on a station except for ads for commercial products or services and ads for political candidates (see our article here). In other words, ads for Tide or Coca-Cola or by the John Smith for Congress official campaign committee are not subject to the rule, but ads that are not for commercial products and services or by political candidates are subject to the rule – including political issue ads and paid PSAs. However, this week’s Public Notice put on hold the extension of the certification obligation to spot time while the Commission reassesses the costs and benefits of that requirement, except where the station has “actual knowledge” that the spots were provided by a foreign governmental entity.
This is a convoluted set of requirements, so let’s break it down.
As background, in 2021, the FCC adopted rules requiring broadcasters to determine whether any party “leasing” programming is a foreign government or an agent of a foreign government (a “foreign government entity”). Broadcasters must also assure themselves that these foreign government entities have not paid for the furnishing of that time anywhere in the program’s production chain. These rules became effective in March 2022. Since then, broadcasters have been obligated to determine if buyers of program time are foreign government entities. The FCC required that broadcasters obtain written certifications from program buyers as to whether or not they were representatives of foreign governments, but it did not specify the form of those certifications.
Initially, the FCC also mandated that broadcasters verify the written certifications by checking a Department of Justice database to see if the buyer was registered as a foreign agent. There was litigation as to whether a broadcaster could be forced to take this extra step of verifying the certifications – which ended with a ruling that the DOJ database verification could not be mandated (see our article here). But the underlying obligation to get the written certification from program buyers was not affected by the court’s ruling, so it has been in place since 2022. Thus, when a radio station sells an hour on Sunday morning to a church to broadcast their service, or when a TV station sells a half hour block of time to a real estate company to provide a video gallery of homes, the stations need to get certifications from the program buyers that they are not foreign governments or their agents (or, if they in fact are, then certain on-air and online disclosures are required).
After the FCC’s obligation to force broadcasters to use the DOJ database was overturned, the FCC proposed to instead require a lengthy, standard certification form for each program buy. In 2024, the FCC did adopt a template for compliance, but that template was not particularly lengthy. The new template can be found in Appendix C and D, at pages 47 and 48 of the PDF of the Commission’s Order adopting the new form (it is in two Appendices as the form requires certifications from both the station and the program buyer). While a broadcaster can still use its own form if it gathers all the required information, the new FCC form provides a safe harbor for broadcasters – use it and you have done what the rules require. June 7 is the effective date for the language in this form becoming the standard for what is required from a program buyer to assess if they are a foreign government entity. The FCC also authorized an alternative approach – allowing the programmer to provide screenshots to the broadcaster showing search results generated by the programmer’s search for its own name on two specific federal government websites – but that approach is likely to be impractical in most cases.
As noted in the opening paragraph above, the 2024 FCC order went far beyond what it was expected to address, as it also adopted a new interpretation of what is meant by the “program time” from whom a certification is required. The Commission determined that the obligation to verify the sponsor extended to spot time that was not advertising a commercial product or service (or spot time purchased by a political candidate which a broadcaster cannot censor – see our article here on the “no censorship” requirement). This extended the obligation to “issue advertising” (including advertising for or against candidates where that advertising was not purchased by the candidates or their own political committees) and to paid public service announcements. It was assumed that obligation would also go into effect on June 7, but this week’s Public Notice suspends that deadline for two years or until further notice, whichever comes first, while the FCC considers the cost of compliance with this obligation.
The Commission did warn, however, that broadcasters still have on-air and public file disclosure requirements for these spot advertisements where the licensee has actual knowledge that the material was provided by a foreign governmental entity. So, if you know that the Canadian Government Tourist Bureau or the Chinese government is buying ads on your station, you don’t have the requirement that they sign the new forms, but you do have the obligation to provide an enhanced on-air sponsorship identification and to make public file disclosures.
The June 7 date really is not one that imposes a new obligation – it instead provides a Commission-approved way to meet the obligation that has been in place since March 2022. Existing leases entered into before June 7 with a foreign ownership certification that does not comply in all respects with the new templates are considered grandfathered, and they do not need to comply with these new requirements until the lease is renewed.
Broadcasters are permitted to keep these compliance records in their internal files, as long as the documents are made available to the FCC promptly upon request. These compliance materials must be retained for the length of the station’s license term or one year, whichever is longer.
As we said, these rules are convoluted. They involve many details and nuances not covered in this article. Consult your FCC counsel about how these rule changes impact your compliance requirements and be sure that your station is doing what it needs to do to comply with both the existing rules and the new requirements that go into effect on June 7.