iHeartMedia Settles FCC Payola Probe With Compliance Plan
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- iHeartMedia agreed to a consent decree with the FCC to end a probe into whether it gave artists greater or less airplay based on whether they performed for free or at reduced fees at the iHeart Country Festival '25 in Austin on May 3, 2025.
- Under the deal, iHeart will develop a compliance plan that includes a designated compliance officer, regular annual reports, a training program, and a whistleblower hotline.
- FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the agreement adds "significant new protections" and ensures artists "retain their right to decide when and where they will perform," invoking payola and "showola" regulations.
- Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) alerted the FCC to the alleged practice on January 30, 2025, prompting the agency to issue an enforcement advisory the following month.
- The consent decree includes a provision in which iHeart "makes no admission of liability or violation of any law, regulation, or policy."
- Both the FCC and iHeart acknowledged that continuing the investigation would be "time-consuming" and require "substantial expenditure of public and private resources."
Why it matters: This formalizes new compliance requirements — compliance officer, training, whistleblower hotline — for the nation's largest radio conglomerate in response to allegations of trading airplay for free festival performances. Artists gain documented procedural protections, but because iHeart admits no liability, the decree leaves no factual record that artists or future whistleblowers can cite as a binding precedent.
