Sponsorship Identification Requirements for Foreign Government-Provided Programming, 24351-24352 [2025-10478]

Agencies

• FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 110 (Tuesday, June 10, 2025)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 24351-24352]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-10478]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

47 CFR Part 73

[MB Docket No. 20-299; FCC 24-61; FR ID 297603]


Sponsorship Identification Requirements for Foreign Government-
Provided Programming

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Final rule; announcement of effective date.

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SUMMARY: In this document, the Federal Communications Commission 
(Commission) announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
has approved revisions to the information collection requirements under 
OMB Control Number 3060-0174, as associated with the revisions in the 
Federal Communications Commission's Second Report and Order: 
Sponsorship Identification Requirements for Foreign Government-Provided 
Programming, FCC 24-61 (Second R&O). The Second R&O adopted a 
requirement that radio and television stations broadcast clear 
disclosures for programming that is provided by a foreign governmental 
entity and set forth the procedures for exercising reasonable diligence 
to determine whether such a disclosure is needed. This document is 
consistent with the Second R&O, which states that the Commission will 
publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective 
date for these amended rule sections and revise the rules accordingly.

DATES: The amendments in instruction 3 (47 CFR 73.1212(j)(3)), 
published at 89 FR 57775 on July 16, 2024, are effective June 10, 2025.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cathy Williams, Office of the Managing 
Director, Federal Communications Commission, at (202) 418-2918 or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This document announces that the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approved the information collection 
requirements in 47 CFR 73.1212(j)(3) on May 19, 2025. These rule 
sections were adopted in the Second R&O, FCC 24-61 (89 FR 57775, July 
16, 2024). The Commission publishes this document as an announcement of 
the effective date for these amended rules.
    If you have any comments on the burden estimates listed below, or 
how the Commission can improve the collections and reduce any burdens 
caused thereby, please contact Cathy Williams, [email protected]. 
Please include the OMB Control Number in your correspondence. The 
Commission will also accept your comments via email at [email protected].

Synopsis

    As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
3507), the Commission is notifying the public that it received final 
OMB approval on May 18, 2025, for the information collection 
requirements contained in 47 CFR 73.1212(j)(3). Under 5 CFR part 1320, 
an agency may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless 
it displays a current, valid OMB Control Number.
    No person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply 
with a collection of information subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act 
that does not display a current, valid OMB Control Number. The OMB 
Control Number for the information collection requirements in 47 CFR 
73.1212(j)(3) is 3060-0174.
    The foregoing notice is required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, Public Law 104-13, October 1, 1995, and 44 U.S.C. 3507.
    The total annual reporting burdens and costs for the respondents 
are as follows:

[[Page 24352]]

    OMB Control Number: 3060-0174.
    Title: Sections 73.1212, 76.1615, and 76.1715, Sponsorship 
Identification.
    Form Number: Not applicable.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities and Individuals 
or households.
    Number of Respondents and Responses: 52,760 respondents; 1,939,422 
responses.
    Estimated Hours per Response: 0.0011 hour-2.166 hours.
    Frequency of Response: Recordkeeping requirement; Third party 
disclosure requirement; On occasion reporting requirement.
    Total Annual Burden: 347,851 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: $2,010,723.
    Obligation to Respond: Required to obtain or retain benefits. The 
statutory authority for this collection of information is contained in 
47 U.S.C. 151, 152, 154(i), 154(j), 303(r), 307, 317, and 325(c) of the 
Communications Act, as amended.
    Needs and Uses: The Commission, in the Second Report and Order, FCC 
24-61, takes steps to ensure clear and reasonable foreign sponsorship 
identification rules. Section 73.1212(j) of the Commission's rules, 47 
CFR 73.1212(j), requires radio and television broadcast stations to 
disclose to their audiences, at the time of broadcast, when material 
aired pursuant to the lease of time on the station has been sponsored, 
paid for, or furnished by a foreign governmental entity. Section 
73.1212(k) of the Commission's rules, 47 CFR 73.1212(k), imposes 
corresponding obligations on stations with section 325(c) permits. The 
Commission's authority to impose these regulations stems from section 
317 of the Communications Act, which requires broadcast licensees to 
inform their audiences when the station has been paid to air a 
particular program, in furtherance of the longstanding broadcasting 
tenet that the public has a right to know the identity of those that 
solicit its support.
    The foreign sponsorship identification rules require broadcast 
licensees, at the time of entering or renewing a lease agreement 
(unless a once-a-year exception applies), to exercise reasonable 
diligence to ascertain whether a programming disclosure is required. To 
ensure that licensees are complying with their reasonable diligence and 
disclosure obligations, the foreign sponsorship identification rules 
require licensees to memorialize their required inquiries of lessees 
and to maintain records of their programming disclosures and their 
reasonable diligence efforts.
    In the Second Report and Order, the Commission modified the rule's 
information collection requirements by adopting an approach that 
provides licensees with two options for demonstrating that they have 
met their duty of inquiry in seeking to obtain the information needed 
to determine whether the programming provided by a lessee is sponsored 
by a foreign governmental entity. The Commission designed this approach 
to provide licensees with as much flexibility as possible and to 
minimize their paperwork costs and burdens while still ensuring 
compliance with the reasonable diligence requirements.
    One option available to licensees is the use of certifications, 
where both the licensee and the lessee complete a certification 
reflecting the communications and inquiries required under the existing 
rules. Licensees and lessees have the option either to use sample 
certification language set forth in simple, one-page, ``check-box'' 
templates appended to the Second Report and Order or to use language of 
the parties' own choosing. Most licensee and lessee employees should be 
able to complete the forms quickly and readily, based upon their 
existing knowledge and understanding. It is highly unlikely that either 
the licensee or the lessee would need to engage in any type of research 
to respond to the queries contained in the certifications. Notably, 
these are the same inquiries the Commission adopted in the First Report 
and Order, only formatted now as a certification. If licensees and 
lessees prefer not to use the Commission's templates, they may use 
their own certification language, provided that language addresses the 
points listed in Sec.  73.1212(j)(3)(i) through (iii) of the rules, 
which were adopted in the First Report and Order. The Commission 
granted this flexibility to alleviate or minimize costs for licensees 
that already had developed their own certifications based on the 
existing foreign sponsorship identification rules. A lessee's 
certification should convey the information needed to determine whether 
a disclosure is required and the information needed for a broadcast 
disclosure if one is required.
    As an alternative to the certification option, licensees may choose 
to ask their lessees for screenshots of lessees' search results of two 
federal government websites (the Department of Justice's FARA database 
and the Commission's U.S.-based foreign media outlet report). Licensees 
choosing this option must still comply with all other aspects of the 
current rules, as they have been required to do since the compliance 
date of the First Report and Order. Licensees are encouraged to include 
in their lease agreements a requirement for lessees to provide notice 
of any change in status so as to trigger the need for a foreign 
sponsorship disclosure.

Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene Dortch,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2025-10478 Filed 6-9-25; 8:45 am]
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