FCC To Consider Allowing Alien Ownership of More Than 25% of Broadcast Licensees
FCC To Consider Allowing Alien Ownership of More Than 25% of Broadcast Licensees - Comments Due April 15 By DAVID OXENFORD - February 27, 2013 - Broadcast Law Blog The limits on the ownership of broadcast stations by those who are not US citizens is being re-examined by the FCC according to a recent Public Notice . Under Section 310(b)(4) of the Communications Act, foreign ownership of a broadcast licensee is limited to 20% of the company's stock, or no more than 25% of a parent company of the licensee. Over the years, there has been a significant body of precedent developed about applying these caps to other business organizations, including LLCs and Limited Partnerships. But the caps remain in place, limiting foreign ownership . While the statute gives the FCC discretion to allow greater amounts of "alien ownership", the FCC has not exercised that discretion for broadcast companies (though, for non-broadcast licenses, the FCC has many times found greater perce...