As I reported previously here on AgWired, Farm Journal Media had filed a petition with the FCC regarding RFD-TV’s use of non-commercial DBS (direct broadcast satellite) channels. It’s not a real complicated issue but you have to read through some of the documents to get a handle on it.

Yesterday I received a notice from Farm Journal that the FCC has ruled on their petition. You can find a copy of the Order & Declaratory Ruling at that link.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today granted Farm Journal Media’s November 2005 Petition for Declaratory Ruling against RFD Communications, Inc. (RFD). The FCC concluded that RFD, in acting like a commercial enterprise, does not meet the criteria to be classified as a non-commercial educational programmer for FCC purposes. As a result, RFD’s commercial programming disqualifies the channel from carriage on the Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) channels set aside by Congress for the exclusive use of noncommercial entities.

I placed calls and emails to both Farm Journal and RFD-TV to try to find out just exactly why Farm Journal did this and what this means to RFD-TV. Jeff Pence from Farm Journal responded “Farm Journal is not issuing any public comment or statement with regard to Monday’s Ruling. We feel that we’ve clearly stated our position and case in the filings to the FCC, and in our press releases.” He forwarded me a number of pdf files of these documents which really helped clarify the situation and I appreciate that.

As soon as I hear from RFD-TV I’ll update this post and/or do a new one. Both of these companies touch a lot of people involved in agricultural marketing so I hope this works out for the best of all involved.