FCC Symposium on Access to Capital for Small Broadcasters

RADIO ONLINE | Friday, October 23, 2020

FCC

The FCC has issued a public notice announcing that the agency's Access to Capital Working Group of its Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment (ACDDE) and the FCC's Media Bureau will co-host a virtual symposium entitled Path to Media Ownership and Sustainability on November 6, from 9am to 5pm ET. The symposium will examine access to capital for small and diverse broadcasters. The event will be convened virtually via WebEx and will be available to the public streaming via the Internet at www.fcc.gov/live.

The symposium will feature broadcasters and lenders discussing how to obtain financing for broadcast station transactions in today's challenging financial circumstances, as well as experts discussing the history of the previous broadcast tax certificate policy and the potential for a new tax certificate policy to increase broadcast ownership diversity. The symposium will also include presentations from Nielsen Global Media on ratings measurements for multi-ethnic broadcast stations, and a discussion of how small and diverse broadcasters can attract increased advertising revenue. Additionally, Congressional staff members will provide updates on pending legislation intended to increase diverse media ownership.

Members of the public may submit comments to the ACDDE using the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System, ECFS, at www.fcc.gov/ecfs. Comments to the ACDDE should be filed in GN Docket No. 17-208.

More information about the ACDDE is available at here.