Photo by AMagill/flickr.com

This article was produced by the independent, nonprofit news organization ProPublica.

The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 this morning to require broadcasters to post political ad data on the Web, making it easier for the public to see how as much as $3.2 billion will be spent on TV advertising in this election.

The files, which detail the times ads aired, how much they cost and whether stations rejected ad buy requests from campaigns, among other things, are currently available only on paper at each station.

The FCC rejected an industry push to water down the measure. But the adopted rule also has serious limits. For example, the data will not be searchable or uploaded in a common format.

The rule will first apply to affiliates of the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) in the top 50 TV markets. All other stations will have until July 2014 to comply.

“(L) arge areas of some swing states, like Virginia, Missouri, Wisconsin and Michigan, could see an influx of advertising in markets outside of the top 50,” the Sunlight Foundation noted in an analysis today.

(ProPublica has invited readers and other journalists around the country to retrieve the paper political ad files so we can post them online for all to see. We’ll continue to collect files from key markets not covered by the ruling. Sign up if you would like to contribute. )

Then there’s the crucial question of the format in which the files will be available. FCC spokeswoman Janice Wise told ProPublica that the commission is not creating a searchable database of the political ad files.

“We’ll accept whatever (file) format they provide,” she said in an email.

That will make it much more difficult to analyze the information.

Wise said there are no specific plans to make the database searchable.

By opting to allow stations to submit political data in any format, the commission departed from a recommendation made last year in an FCC working group report.  The report called for the political ad files to be put online and that “as much data as possible (be) in a standardized, machine-readable format” that “could also enhance the usefulness and accessibility of the data.”

Also unclear is how the broadcast industry, which vigorously lobbied against the rule, will react.

“(W)e will be seeking guidance from our Board of Directors regarding our options,” the National Association of Broadcasters said in a statement decrying the vote.

In March, the industry group submitted a supplemental statement to the commission raising “serious questions about the FCC’s authority” to require stations to put political ad data online.

“That was written as a legal memorandum, which is code for ‘we’ve lawyered up, and we’re ready to sue over this,’” says Andrew Schwartzman, a longtime FCC watcher at the Media Access Project.

The broadcasters’ group declined to comment beyond its statement.

On a Thursday earnings call for Belo Corp., one of the companies that has been fighting the disclosure measure, CEO Dunia Shive suggested that broadcasters would continue to fight the new disclosure rule.

“I don’t think the conversation is over with respect to being able to continue talking about if we will ultimately have to include ad rates online,” she said, Broadcasting & Cable reported.

Belo spokesman R. Paul Fry told ProPublica that the company merely “want(s) to continue the dialogue on this subject.”

The FCC also said today it would review the new rule after a year to see whether any changes need to be made before all stations are required to come into compliance in July 2014.

Wise, the FCC spokeswoman, said stations in the top 50 markets will have to start posting files 30 days after the Office of Management and Budget approves the rule. She said the FCC does not expect approval to take long.

Photo by AMagill/flickr.com

This article was produced by the independent, nonprofit news organization ProPublica.

With the Federal Communications Commission set to vote today on whether to require broadcasters to post political ad data online, the industry has been scrambling to water down the proposed rule.

The data is currently available only on paper at TV stations. We’ve been tracking the flurry of lobbying against the rule by big media companies, including the owners of many of the nation’s largest news outlets. In the latest development, Communications Daily reported earlier this week that the FCC has become more receptive to the industry’s attempts to soften the proposed rule.

The exact contents of the rule may be in flux until the vote today, and we won’t get a look at the text of the rule itself until sometime after the vote. Those who follow the FCC closely say that while we will likely know the broad outlines of the rule today, the exact text is sometimes not completed and released until days or even weeks after a vote.

But because the FCC might water down the rule, it’s a good time to take a look at exactly what the broadcasters’ counterproposal would mean for the public’s access to the political ad data.

The FCC is made up of two Democrats who have spoken broadly in favor of the proposed rule and one Republican who has criticized it. Citing unnamed “agency and industry officials,” Communications Daily reported Monday (subscription required) that the two Democrats appeared to be showing some give on the crucial issue of whether broadcasters would have to put all — or just some — political ad data online.

“(T)hey said the potential for changes appears higher now than it did earlier last week, when (FCC Chairman Julius) Genachowski seemed set against any modifications,” the publication reported.

In a speech at the annual tradeshow of the National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas last week, Genachowski appeared to stand firm against the industry’s lobbying. He answered the industry’s arguments one by one and decried its stance “against transparency and against journalism.”

But Mignon Clyburn, the other Democratic commissioner, reportedly struck a “conciliatory note” in her remarks on the political ad files at the NAB show. “I can affirm to you that in terms of this process, this office is still open for engagement,” she said, according to Communications Daily.

Republican Robert McDowell has echoed the industry’s opposition to the proposed rule.

Lobbying disclosures filed with the FCC this week outline a final proposal written by a Washington attorney for a group that includes the National Association of Broadcasters, Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, Univision and other stations. (Here is the full list.)

The proposal represents a last-ditch bid by the industry to undermine the rule, which is expected to pass in some form. Just a couple of weeks ago, NAB chief Gordon Smith, a former senator, visited the FCC to express the industry’s flat opposition to any online disclosure rule.

Under the industry’s proposal, broadcasters would post to an FCC website the aggregate amount of each purchase of political ads instead of the full itemized information that is currently in the paper files.

Advocates of full online disclosure argue the broadcasters’ proposal is lacking in a few key respects.

The Public Interest Public Airwaves Coalition pointed out in a April 19 letter to the FCC chairman that the broadcasters’ proposal would conceal “more detailed information about how much stations charge for the purchase of political advertising time, as well as whether a station accepted or rejected a request to purchase time, the date and time a political advertising message aired, and the class of time purchased.”

Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, told ProPublica that the full, itemized data are important in assessing whether broadcasters are abiding by rules requiring that they offer candidates the cheapest rates and equal opportunity to buy ad time.

“Only by looking at each ad request can you determine whether they are abiding by the statute,” said McGehee, whose organization is a member of the public interest coalition.

Jonathan Blake, the Covington & Burling attorney who authored the broadcasters’ proposal, declined to comment.

Corie Wright, senior policy counsel at Free Press, wrote the public interest coalition’s letter. She told ProPublica that information on the so-called disposition of political ad requests — that is, whether a station rejected a candidate’s request to purchase time — “is extremely important because it enables communities to assess whether broadcasters are using their government-granted monopoly of public spectrum to slant democratic outcomes in favor of one side of an issue over another.”

McGehee, of the Campaign Legal Center, said she won’t be surprised if the FCC bows to the broadcasters’ demands.

“I never underestimate the power of the broadcasters,” she said. “They have a pretty powerful combination. They are big political givers. They are right there in the communities of the members of Congress who are loathe to offend their broadcasters.”