,JULIUS GENACHOWSKI
CHAIRMAN
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
October 5,2012
The Honorable Dan Coats
United States Senate
493 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Coats:
Thank you for your letter concerning the ability of noncommercial educational broadcast
stations to air messages on behalf of for-profit entities. I appreciate your interest in this matter
and have directed the Chief of the Media Bureau's Office of Communications and Industry
Information to respond. I am pleased to provide the enclosed correspondence discussing this
matter.
If you have any additional questions or need further assistance, please do not hesitate to
contact me.
Enclosure
445 12n-1 STREET S.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20554 • 202-418-1000
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
October 5, 2012
IN REPLY REFER TO:
CN-1201097
The Honorable Dan Coats
United States Senate
493 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Coats:
Thank you for your letter concerning the policies and rules governing the ability of
noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcast stations to air commercial messages on behalf of
for-profit entities. I appreciate learning your views on this important matter.
The Communications Act prohibits all public broadcast stations from airing commercial
advertisements, defined as messages which are intended "to promote any service, facility, or
product offered by any person who is engaged in such offering for profit." The Commission's
corresponding rules also state that NCE stations may not broadcast promotional announcements
on behalf of for-profit entities in exchange for the receipt of consideration to the licensee, its
principals, or employees. At the same time, NCE stations, including independent and religious
programmers, are permitted to engage in "enhanced underwriting" that allows NCE stations to
acknowledge and identify contributors on air. Such acknowledgements may include slogans and
value-neutral descriptions of the contributors' products and services, but may not promote or
make qualitative or comparative statements regarding contributors.
On a related topic, the Commission recently adopted a Notice ofProposed Rulemaking to
solicit public comment on whether and under what circumstances to allow all NCE broadcast
stations to allocate up to one percent of their annual broadcast time to conduct on-air fundraising
activities for the benefit of charities and other third-party nonprofit organizations. The Notice
specifically invites comment regarding the classes of NCE stations that may engage in
fundraising, the types of nonprofit entities that may benefit from the fundraising, and the First
Amendment implications of establishing eligibility criteria for stations and fundraising
recipients. The period for the submission of public comments closed on August 21,2012, and a
copy of your letter will be included in the record of the proceeding.
Page 2-The Honorable Dan Coats
I tlUst this information is helpful, and please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of
further assistance.
Sincerely,
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Michael S. Perko
Chief, Office of Communications and Industry Information
Media Bureau