Our Advocacy Story

Like many other industries, broadcasters were hit hard by the pandemic. While committing resources to educate communities and report on the pandemic, broadcast stations suffered enormous declines in advertising revenue.

NAB fought for COVID-19 stimulus relief for broadcasters, including expansion of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and directing federal advertising dollars to local stations. With the support and engagement of hundreds of lawmakers and multiple legislative proposals over the year, NAB delivered for broadcasters on both fronts.

At the end of the year, final COVID-19 relief legislation included provisions that would expand eligibility to PPP loans for local media outlets, including those radio and television stations which were previously excluded. These provisions, in addition to the bill’s second round of PPP funding for which many stations will also be eligible, help local broadcasters maintain their operations during this difficult time and continue to provide news and information critical to local communities as vaccine distribution commences across the country.

Final COVID-19 relief legislation also established a five-year, $75 million COVID-19 vaccine public awareness campaign to be managed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) that lists television and radio first amongst eligible media. Language encouraging government agencies to prioritize local media in spending on public awareness advertising campaigns is also included.

NAB will continue to fight for station relief in the implementation of this pandemic relief legislation and to maximize public awareness campaigns on our airwaves. NAB also looks forward to being a partner to the incoming administration and Congress on keeping Americans safe and informed during this challenging time.

NAB worked closely with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to address the unique challenges broadcasters faced during the pandemic. This resulted in several extensions of deadlines, clarifications and exceptions to existing rules and policies, including:

• Spectrum Repack Relief: The FCC allowed stations assigned to Phase 9 that were impacted by COVID-19 to move to Phase 10.
• Local News Sharing Filings: The FCC clarified that stations are not required to enter into formal written agreements or place in their online public files temporary agreements for shared newsgathering efforts related to the coverage of COVID-19.
• Ownership Rule Relief for Collaborating on COVID-19 News Coverage: The FCC clarified that broadcasters may request temporary waivers of the local TV rule to provide more news coverage to brokered stations during the pandemic.
• Annual Children’s Television Reports and Quarterly Issues/ Programs Lists: The FCC granted additional time to file Children’s Programming Reports and Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists.
• Calculating Lowest Unit Rate (LUR): The FCC announced helpful guidance regarding the calculation of the LUR for political ads. Many advertisers had to cancel their ads due to financial challenges arising from COVID-19, and some broadcasters wanted to offer free time to their clients to assist them. Under the guidance, broadcasters were able to exclude such grants of free time in calculating the LUR.

NAB will continue to work with the FCC to address regulatory concerns broadcasters raise during this time of national crisis.

NAB continued to fight for policies to ensure a strong and vibrant future for local radio stations. While the big record labels aggressively lobbied for a performance fee on local radio stations simply for airing and promoting artists’ music, broadcasters worked with congressional leaders to grow the number of bipartisan cosponsors of the Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution that opposes a performance tax and recognizes the critical role local radio plays in every community. At the end of the year, 27 senators and 223 members of the House supported the resolution – dealing a major blow to the record labels' effort to tax local radio.

The music licensing marketplace is a complex system. Performance rights organizations, ASCAP and BMI, license more than 90 percent of the market for musical works performances. To ensure they operate consistently with antitrust laws, the Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into antitrust consent decrees that provide these organizations the ability to conduct business in a fair, efficient and equitable manner. Unfortunately, the DOJ recently initiated a review of these long-standing consent decrees that underpin the music licensing system and signaled an interest in terminating them. NAB strongly opposes terminating the consent decrees, which would cause chaos in the music marketplace, threatening the availability of music to consumers on every platform and in every venue across the country.

In the coming year, NAB will urge Congress to stand up for local radio station listeners by opposing a performance tax and continue to fight termination of these decrees, which would upset the balance Congress strived to achieve in the recently enacted Music Modernization Act.

NAB also worked before the Copyright Royalty Board to address record companies' attempts to raise streaming rates. We argued our case in the Webcasting V proceeding at the Copyright Royalty Board, which will establish streaming rates for webcasters for the years 2021-2025. Due to delays as a result of the pandemic, the Copyright Royalty Board will issue a decision by April 15, 2021. New rates will still go into effect in January 2021 and may be retroactively applied if a final determination on rates occurs in April. NAB remains committed to ensuring that streaming is a viable option for local stations across the country.

NAB Leadership Foundation programs, such as Broadcast Leadership Training, are helping to ensure station managers, senior executives and owners are as diverse as the communities they serve. But the most impactful program to expand diversity in broadcast ownership – the Minority Tax Certificate Program – was eliminated by Congress in 1995. NAB strongly supports the Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act in both the House and Senate, which would reinstate a diversity tax certificate program at the FCC. The legislation would encourage investment in broadcast station ownership for women and people of color and dramatically help underrepresented voices realize their dreams of radio and television station ownership. For the first time since its introduction, this bill advanced significantly with both a hearing and markup in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, setting a strong floor for more activity next Congress. NAB applauded the passage of a resolution by the House of Representatives pledging lawmakers’ support for working with media organizations to increase diversity within the media industry. In the coming year, NAB will continue to urge Congress to reinstate a tax certificate program to help ensure station owners reflect the diversity of their communities.

In a major victory for broadcasters, the Supreme Court granted a request by NAB and the FCC to review a lower court ruling that had blocked changes designed to modernize broadcast ownership regulations. For almost two decades, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked common-sense changes to outdated regulations to the detriment of local journalism. In a brief filed with the Supreme Court, NAB argued that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals erred when it invalidated an FCC order updating several local ownership rules. NAB asked the Court to reinstate the FCC’s modernization order and end the Third Circuit’s 16-year assertion of authority over the FCC’s media ownership rulemakings. NAB looks forward to presenting our case before the Supreme Court in January.

Broadcasters achieved a great victory in the ongoing fight against an advertising tax in the nation's capital. In response to NAB’s strong advocacy and broadcasters’ engagement on this issue, the D.C. Council pulled back from imposing a 3% ad tax that would hurt local radio and television stations, newspapers and other small businesses at a time when they were already struggling to survive amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The strong response from NAB, radio and TV stations, state broadcaster associations and advertising groups made this win possible, sending nearly 30,000 emails to D.C. Councilmembers in opposition to an ad tax. Broadcasters demonstrated to the Council that they should not attempt to find new revenue sources at the expense of small business owners and local media. In the coming year, NAB will keep fighting to ensure that any attempts to impose a tax on advertising will be rejected.

TV and radio broadcasters use spectrum in the C-band and the 6 GHz band every day to transmit and receive critical, live content for their broadcasts. In 2020, the FCC adopted changes to the use of these spectrum bands to allow for new services, which could impact the news, information and entertainment listeners and viewers rely on. NAB will continue to work with Congress and the FCC to ensure that any changes in C-band spectrum protect existing users and their listeners and viewers from harmful interference or loss of service entirely. The FCC is considering additional changes for the 6 GHz band that could further undermine the use of the band for newsgathering, and NAB will continue to work with the FCC to protect these services.

Microsoft is also lobbying Congress and the FCC for expanded access to TV airwaves to operate unlicensed devices which can interfere with television reception. The company falsely claims this would unlock broadband for rural America, but instead it will put Americans’ lifeline local TV service at risk. In 2021, NAB will urge policymakers to reject Microsoft’s spectrum grab to ensure viewers have access to the critical news and emergency information local TV stations provide.

Throughout 2020, NAB worked with Congress on bipartisan solutions to level the playing field in the digital marketplace and to preserve local journalism. A ranking member of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee released a comprehensive report regarding the impact of large digital platforms on the future of local journalism. NAB strongly supported the report's findings that a handful of competitively powerful digital platforms dominates the marketplace for advertising and audiences, putting locally-based news and information sources at an unfair disadvantage, especially at a time when they face severe economic challenges. The report’s findings followed a House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee that addressed the major tech platforms' overwhelming competitive power and impact on local media outlets' ability to invest in, produce and deliver local news and information.

NAB highlighted in comments filed with the House Judiciary Committee that the marketplace power of these dominant digital platforms puts local broadcast radio and television stations at a competitive disadvantage for advertising revenue and impedes broadcasters' ability to effectively monetize their own content online. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act – a bill that would create an antitrust safe harbor for broadcasters and news publishers to negotiate collectively with these dominant digital platforms – was also introduced in the House and Senate with bipartisan support. In 2021, NAB will urge Congress to support laws and policies that recognize and uphold broadcasters’ unique and essential role in democracy and a free press.

NAB spearheaded discussions with the FCC to address broadcasters’ challenges in complying with the political file rules, helping a number of member stations avoid significant monetary penalties. We successfully urged the FCC to focus on promoting broadcasters’ compliance with the political file rules on a going forward basis, rather than imposing penalties for stations’ previous violations of those rules. To help our members improve their compliance, NAB produced a political file manual for stations to use in formulating their political file compliance plans and conducted an educational webinar on the political file rules. NAB also persuaded the FCC to reconsider its clarification of political file rules pertaining to issue advertisements, resulting in a reaffirmation that the agency would defer to broadcasters’ good faith judgments in the disclosure of certain political file materials.

The final phase of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) spectrum repack ended in July. In total, almost 1,000 TV stations changed frequencies over 10 phases that began in September 2018. NAB advocated on behalf of these stations to ensure they were not forced off the air if they were unable to meet their assigned deadlines due to circumstances outside their control and that viewers did not lose access to their local channels. NAB was proud to support stations with the TV Answers campaign, preparing millions of over-the-air viewers for changes coming to their local TV stations.

More than 500 broadcasters from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C., in February for the 2020 NAB State Leadership Conference – the last major event NAB hosted before the pandemic hit the U.S. Attendees received updates on policy issues before Congress and the FCC, met with their legislators on the issues that impact their businesses and educated them on the vital role local radio and television stations play in their local communities. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (NC-01) and Rep. David Cicilline (RI-01) were among the featured speakers. Rep. Greg Walden (OR-02) was presented with the 2020 Broadcast Champion Award in recognition of his strong support of local radio and television stations’ vital role in our communities. ”Get Up DC” News Anchor Annie Yu and Meteorologist Miri Marshall from Tegna station WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C., emceed the event.

The NAB Political Action Committee (NABPAC) is a bipartisan, advocacy tool for all broadcasters. By aggregating personal donations from NAB members, NABPAC continues to support pro-broadcast candidates and legislators throughout the year.

We are grateful to these contributors for their support and engagement that enabled NABPAC to weather the pandemic and ensure broadcasters’ voices were heard in Washington, D.C. Though 2020 was a challenging year for fundraising, NABPAC was able to exceed $1 million in fundraising for the seventh year in a row. NABPAC's win rate for the 2020 election cycle was 91 percent and was in support of over 254 pro-broadcast members. These contributions were updated as of December 21, 2020.

To get involved, contact Jennifer Flemming, vice president, NABPAC and Advocacy Initiatives, at jflemming@nab.org or (202) 429-5314.

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2020 NABPAC A-List and Diamond Club

Members of NABPAC’s prestigious A-List make a personal contribution of $5,000 in a calendar year.

Diamond Club (Diamond Club donors earmark funds in addition to their A-list donation.)
Power Player (2020 contributors that increased their donations by 20 percent)

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2020 NABPAC Contributors

Power Player (2020 contributors that increased their donations by 20 percent)