{"id":518198,"date":"2026-07-09T21:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/518198\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T21:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:10:10","slug":"fcc-says-iheartmedia-will-implement-compliance-plan-after-payola-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/518198\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC Says iHeartMedia Will Implement Compliance Plan After Payola Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tiHeartMedia has agreed to enter into a consent decree with the FCC<\/a> to end an investigation into whether it provided artists with greater or less airplay depending on whether they performed for free or at a reduced fee at a company-sponsored music festival last year in Austin.<\/p>\n

\n\tiHeart will develop a compliance plan that includes the designation of a compliance officer, regular annual reports and a training program, among other steps. They also will establish a whistleblower hotline.<\/p>\n

\n\tFCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement, \u201cToday\u2019s agreement adds significant new protections and offers the FCC greater transparency to ensure that artists retain their right to decide when and where they will perform.\u00a0 Artists have every right to ensure that the radio industry complies with the payola<\/a> and \u2018showola\u2019 regulations that protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe investigation started after Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) alerted the FCC on Jan. 30, 2025 of \u201ca potential new payola practice where radio stations and networks offer more airtime for an artist\u2019s songs if the artist performs a free show, with an implicit suggestion that declining to perform could result in reduced airplay,\u201d per the agency.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FCC issued an enforcement advisory the following month, and the investigation into iHeart continued. <\/p>\n

\n\tStations have to disclose payments or valuable consideration, as well as the identity of the person paying.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FCC focused on artists\u2019 performances at the iHeart Country Festival \u201825 in Austin on May 3, 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe consent decree includes a provision in which iHeart \u201cmakes no admission of liability or violation of any law, regulation, or policy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Bureau and iHeart acknowledge that any proceedings that might result from continuation of the Investigation would be time-consuming and would require substantial expenditure of public and private resources,\u201d per the decree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"iHeartMedia has agreed to enter into a consent decree with the FCC to end an investigation into whether…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[27957,156,28397,75734,257240,101937,157,111,139,69,257241],"class_list":["post-518198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-electionline","tag-entertainment","tag-fcc","tag-iheart-media","tag-iheartcountry-festival","tag-iheartradio","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-payola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}