Media Bureau Issues Second Biennial Ownership Report Reminder

On September 18, 2023, the FCC’s Media Bureau issued its second reminder that licensees of commercial and non-commercial full power television, Class A television, low power television, AM radio and FM radio stations must file biennial ownership reports between October 2 and December 1, 2023.

All information in the biennial report must be accurate as of October 1, 2023.  For commercial stations, a filing fee of $95 per station must be remitted at the time of filing.  Paying the fee is a critical step, as failure to do so will result in a “dismissal” of the report fourteen days later, and the result (if not caught and remedied within the filing window) is that the station is deemed not to have filed a timely report.  Non-timely or unfiled ownership reports are a significant matter before the FCC, and often result in inquiries or fines at license renewal.

Stations do have the opportunity to load and submit a prior report when there have been no changes from a prior biennial report.  As of this writing, the ownership report is currently accessible in LMS for reviewing, but cannot yet be submitted (since it still has the prior October 1, 2021 date as the “current as of” date for reporting purposes).