Delete, Delete, Delete; Removal of Obsolete Regulations

<RULE> FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION <CFR>47 CFR Parts 2 and 73</CFR> <DEPDOC>[GN Docket No. 25-133; FCC 25-51; FR ID 308263]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Delete, Delete, Delete; Removal of Obsolete Regulations</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Communications Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Direct final rule; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this document, the Commission acts to eliminate certain outdated, obsolete, and unnecessary rules. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Effective October 20, 2025, unless significant adverse comments are received by September 9, 2025. In the event the Commission receives significant adverse comments, the Commission will publish a timely withdrawal in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> informing the public the provisions of the rule(s) for which significant adverse comments were received and elimination will not take effect. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments, identified by GN Docket No. 25-133, electronically or on paper. See <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> for specific information and addresses for electronic or paper filings. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Kathy Berthot, Federal Communications Commission, Media Bureau, Policy Division, <E T="03">Kathy.Berthot@fcc.gov,</E> (202) 418-7454. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This is a summary of the Commission's <E T="03">Direct Final Rule,</E> GN Docket No. 25-133, FCC 25-51, adopted on August 7, 2025 and released on August 8, 2025. The full text of this document is available for public inspection and can be downloaded at <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-deletes-outdated-broadcast-rules-and-requirements.</E> Alternative formats are available for people with disabilities (Braille, large print, electronic files, audio format) by sending an email to <E T="03">fcc504@fcc.gov</E> or calling the Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530 (voice), (202) 418-0432 (TTY). <E T="03">Comment Period and Filing Procedures.</E> Interested parties may file comments on or before the dates provided in the <E T="02">DATES</E> section of this document. Comments must be filed in GN Docket No. 25-133. Comments may be filed using the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). See Electronic Filing of Documents in Rulemaking Proceedings, 63 FR 24121 (1998). • All filings must be addressed to the Commission's Secretary, Office of the Secretary, Federal Communications Commission. • <E T="03">Electronic Filers:</E> Comments may be filed electronically using the internet by accessing the ECFS: <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/.</E> • <E T="03">Paper Filers:</E> Parties who choose to file by paper must file an original and one copy of each filing. If more than one docket or rulemaking number appears in the caption of this proceeding, filers must submit two additional copies for each additional docket or rulemaking number. • Commercial overnight mail (other than U.S. Postal Service Express Mail and Priority Mail) must be sent to 9050 Junction Drive, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701. • U.S. Postal Service first-class, Express, and Priority mail must be addressed to 45 L Street NE, Washington, DC 20554. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Procedural Matters</HD> <E T="03">Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 Analysis:</E> This document does not contain new or modified information collections subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), 44 U.S.C. 3501-3521. In addition, therefore, it does not contain any new or modified information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees, pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4). <E T="03">Congressional Review Act:</E> The Commission has determined, and the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget concurs, that this rule is “non-major” under the Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 804(2). The Commission will send a copy of this Direct Final Rule to Congress and the Government Accountability Office pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Synopsis</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Introduction</HD> This <E T="03">Direct Final Rule</E> continues our efforts to modernize our regulatory framework by rescinding facially obsolete provisions in parts 2 and 73 of our rules. In this proceeding, we have undertaken a sweeping review eventually aimed at eliminating outdated rules, reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens, accelerating infrastructure deployment, promoting network modernization, and spurring innovation. Our objective is to streamline, simplify, and smartly deregulate across multiple fronts simultaneously to better serve the public and support technological progress. In initiating this proceeding, we generally sought to identify rules that are outdated, obsolete, unlawful, anticompetitive, or otherwise no longer in the public interest. In today's item, we specifically focus on the repeal of certain broadcast rules in parts 2 and 73 for which prior notice and comment are unnecessary, but for which we elect to provide an opportunity for input on that assessment. Absent any significant adverse comments in response to this <E T="03">Direct Final Rule,</E> these rules will be repealed. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Discussion</HD> <E T="03">Good Cause to Forgo Notice and Comment.</E> Under the Administrative Procedure Act, when an agency for good cause finds that notice and public comment “are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest,” it need not follow notice and comment procedures before modifying or repealing rules. Prior notice and comment are “unnecessary” when “ ‘the administrative rule is a routine determination, insignificant in nature and impact, and inconsequential to the industry and to the public.’ ” We have identified 71 rule provisions, including 98 rules and requirements, that plainly no longer serve the public interest because they regulate obsolete technology, <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> are no longer used in practice by the FCC or licensees, <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> or are otherwise outdated or unnecessary. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> Applying the “good cause” standard discussed above, we conclude that prior notice and comment are unnecessary before repealing the rules identified in this document. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  47 CFR 2.1400 (specifying procedures for applying for advance approval of a subscription TV system). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  47 CFR 73.58 (requiring that AM broadcast stations be equipped with specified types of indicating instruments); 73.258 (requiring that FM broadcast stations be equipped with specified types of indicating instruments); 73.297 (authorizing FM broadcast stations to transmit stereophonic sound programs); 73.558 (extending the requirements for indicating instruments set forth in § 73.258 to educational FM broadcast stations); 73.597 (authorizing noncommercial educational FM broadcast stations to transmit stereophonic sound programs); 73.688 (requiring that TV broadcast stations be equipped with specified types of indicating instruments); 73.1695 (listing requirements for proposed changes in transmission standards); 73.1710 (specifying that operation of a broadcast station is permitted 24 hours per day); for International Broadcast Stations, 73.701(b), (d), (f)-(g), (l)-(n) (each subsection defining the terms transmitter-hour, multiple operation, sunspot number, day, reference month, maximum usable frequency, and optimum working frequency, respectively); 73.702(i)(1), (i)(3)-(4), (j)-(k) (each subsection describing the filing of technical data, multiple operation, zones of operation, multiple frequency use, and frequency availability, respectively); 73.760 (describing the showing and conditions required to justify grant of an alternate main transmitter); and 73.765 (describing how to calculate operating power). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  47 CFR 73.4000-73.4280 (listing, “solely for purpose of reference and convenience,” certain policies of the FCC); and 73.713(d)-(e) (reminding applicants for International Broadcast Stations operating under program test authority to obey Commission rules and that the grant of program test authority shall not be construed as approval of the license application, respectively). </FTNT> <E T="03">Direct Final Rule Process.</E> In this <E T="03">Direct Final Rule,</E> we follow the processes previously outlined by the Commission regarding direct final rules, which we briefly summarize here. At times when the Commission has found prior notice and comment unnecessary before modifying or repealing rules, it simply adopted the relevant rule change without any additional process. Although we reserve the right to proceed in that manner, we elect in this decision to proceed using what is known as a “direct final rule” process. By proceeding through a direct final rule, the Commission chooses to provide <E T="03">expanded</E> opportunities for public comment when it is not legally required to do so under the “good cause” standard. Under a direct final rule process, rule changes are adopted without prior notice and comment, but accompanied by an opportunity for the public to file comments—and if we conclude that significant adverse comments have been filed, the relevant rule changes would not take effect until after a full notice and comment process. In particular, we will publish this item adopting direct final rules in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> , and allow for comment from interested parties within 20 days of <E T="04">Federal Register</E> publication. Until 20 days after <E T="04">Federal Register</E> publication ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 19k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━