Originally posted on the Broadcast Law Blog.
On Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit followed the FCC's lead in denying the NAB's request for stay of the requirement for TV stations to post their public inspection files online. Accordingly, that rule goes into effect on Thursday, August 2, 2012.
Effective that date, TV stations should post all new public file documents online in the FCC database created for this purpose. Stations will have six months in which to post pre-existing public file documents into that database. The online posting requirement applies to TV stations only...not to radio stations or cable systems.
Posting of the political public file will not be required until July 1, 2014, except for the top four network affiliated stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox) in the top 50 markets. No station will be required to post political file documents created prior to August 2, 2012.
To facilitate the process, the FCC is holding online/teleconference seminars on Monday, July 30th and Tuesday, July 31st. The Monday seminar will be held from 9-11 AM EDT while the Tuesday seminar will be held from 4-6 pm EDT. Details of how to join the online seminars are available at the FCC website here.