Media Bureau Announces the Effective Date of the Television Joint Sales Agreement Attribution Rule

On April 15, 2014, the Commission released a Report and Order in the 2014 Quadrennial Regulatory Review -- Review of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In the Report and Order, the Commission adopted an attribution rule for television joint sales agreements (JSAs), establishing that same-market television JSAs for more than 15 percent of the weekly advertising time for the brokered station are to be counted toward the brokering station’s ownership totals, just as the Commission has long done with respect to radio stations. To avoid disruption of current business arrangements, the Report and Order provided a two-year compliance period -- from the effective date of the Report and Order -- for parties to same-market JSAs in existence as of the release date whose attribution results in a violation of the broadcast ownership limits to come into compliance with the broadcast ownership rules. The effective date of the Report and Order is 30 days after it was published in the Federal Register on May 20, 2014; thus, the effective date of the television JSA attribution rule is June 19, 2014, and the two-year compliance period will end on June 19, 2016.