Pai Thanks Broadcasters for Education Efforts

On Monday, March 16, NAB, network representatives and station groups had a telephone conference with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai and members of his staff regarding broadcasters’ response to the coronavirus outbreak. Chairman Pai thanked broadcasters for their efforts to keep viewers and listeners informed during this rapidly evolving crisis. The chairman noted that the Commission would shortly be issuing additional guidance for broadcast television stations that are scheduled to move during Phase 9 of the repack; that guidance can be found here.

The chairman specifically thanked NAB for its work in making a toolkit and PSAs available to stations to help inform their audiences. He asked that, going forward, the industry consider additional PSAs educating audiences about social distancing and urging them to practice such distancing to help curb the spread of the pandemic. He encouraged broadcasters to use trusted voices, including journalists, entertainers and athletes, to help in these efforts.

Chairman Pai also urged broadcasters to work with their multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) partners to avoid programming disruptions during the next 60 days, including, if necessary, by agreeing to short-term extensions of existing agreements. Finally, the chairman advised broadcasters to let his office and Commission staff know what additional Commission action, guidance or relief would be useful to ensure that broadcasters continue to have the ability to perform their central mission of keeping the public informed during this time. Please contact the NAB Legal team at legal@nab.org with any questions.