NAB Compromise Would Allow Some JSAs

In an effort to head off an all-out Federal Communications Commission ban on joint sales agreements, the National Association of Broadcasters rolled out a detailed compromise proposal that would allow some JSAs to continue.

The proposal essentially asks the FCC to carve out an exemption from the blanket ban on JSAs that the agency is widely expected to adopt as soon as March 31. The exemption would protect JSAs that broadcasters can show provide public interest benefits and meet a series of specific tests intended to limit one station from using a sharing agreement to control one or more additional TV stations in the same market.

Under one key test in the NAB proposal, a brokered station in a JSA deal would be required to retain control of at least 85% of station programming and keep at least 70% of the brokered station’s net advertising revenue. In addition, the NAB proposal would require the licensee of the brokered station to retain “ultimate control over rates charged for advertising” and to retain an “option to hire its own advertising sales staff or retain other sales services,” said NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith in a letter to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

Also under the NAB proposal, it would be up to the broadcaster who wants to continue an existing JSA -- or create a new one -- to “demonstrate clear and specific public interest benefits,” Smith said.