Telecom equipment provider CommScope's purchase of consumer electronics company Arris for about $7.4 billion is expected to face smooth regulatory sailing. CommScope is getting a $1 billion minority ownership investment assist from the Carlyle Group, which used to own a stake, the equipment maker announced Thursday. CommScope CEO Eddie Edwards said the deal would position the two companies to take advantage of the rise of 5G and the IoT. Edwards will remain chief of the combined company (see the personals section).
Sinclair, Tribune and several other broadcasters agreed on a consent decree with DOJ connected with an investigation into sharing advertising sales “pacing” information, according to Sinclair, Tribune, broadcast attorneys and a Justice official. The department is expected to file the settlement in court Thursday, Sinclair said. The consent decree will resolve the DOJ investigation, Sinclair said.
The FCC hasn’t arrived at a number for a new national TV ownership cap and is considered unlikely to address the matter in 2018. Lack of industry consensus on a single proposal for a new national cap, the absence of outside pressure to act, uncertainty about Tuesday's elections, and the FCC schedule for the rest of the year may be factors in the lack of action, industry watchers told us. The limit isn't on the November FCC meeting agenda.
NAB and low-power broadcast group HC2 endorsed the National Translator Association’s “fast track” proposal, in replies on repacking reimbursement posted Monday in docket 18-214. NTA’s fast-track option would cap reimbursable repacking expenses for users at $31,000 and eliminate the requirement for upfront estimates, which could help reduce costs, HC2 said. This proposal could “help streamline filing requirements for small entities that lack dedicated staff ... [and] contain costs by encouraging parties to file for fast track reimbursement capped at a reasonable level,” NAB said. The plan is intended to ease the reimbursement process for translators and LPTV stations with fewer resources and staff, NTA said. NAB also sparred with T-Mobile over whether stations that accepted repacking aid from T-Mobile should be eligible for reimbursement funds. Not reimbursing the stations “would simply punish third parties like T-Mobile for their efforts to accelerate the relocation of LPTV stations and strongly discourage any other third parties from coming forward in the future,” T-Mobile said. NAB characterized reimbursing the stations as indirectly reimbursing T-Mobile, and said “Congress appropriated additional funding to protect broadcasters, viewers and listeners -- not to provide ancillary benefits to other entities.” NTA opposed a proposal from Microsoft to reimburse LPTV stations for full-mask filters to preserve white spaces. “There is no justification for a station adopting a particular filter beyond its own needs, and receiving government reimbursement,” NTA said. “If Microsoft wants this to be done, it should establish its own reimbursement fund.”
E.W. Scripps’s $521 million buy of 15 TV stations from Cordillera Communications isn’t expected to run into regulatory problems. The deal and spinoffs acquired as part of the pending Gray Television/Raycom deal would put Scripps’ reach at 21 percent of U.S. households -- the cap is 39 percent -- and the Scripps purchase doesn’t include any overlaps or combinations that require top four approval from the FCC, Scripps executives said in a conference call and release Monday.
White House tariffs on steel are beginning to increase prices for companies involved in the post-incentive auction repacking, but the tariffs aren’t pushing up costs as much as competition for crews and resources is, said antenna and tower industry officials in interviews. “The main thing increasing the costs are the crew prices,” said Electronics Research Inc. Vice President-Marketing Bill Harland. “It’s an impact,” said FDH Infrastructure Business Development Manager Don Doty of the tariffs. “But the repack itself -- the demand -- is raising prices higher.”
A First Amendment challenge of FCC kidvid rules could be successful yet politically fraught, broadcast attorneys told us, reacting to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's remarks at a Media Institute event Wednesday evening. In a speech on First Amendment threats, O'Rielly cautioned opponents of the proceeding that they “might want to reconsider” opposing his deregulation effort because a successful First Amendment challenge could lead to the rules being struck down altogether. Legal scholars "quite convincingly" have made the case kidvid rules are content-based restriction that don't fulfill a compelling government interest, and thus are contrary to the Constitution, he said.
Arguments the FCC lacks authority to relax children’s TV rules are “specious,” NAB replied, posted Wednesday in docket 18-202. Falling audiences for broadcast children’s content obligate modernizing rules, NAB said. ”Children do not rely on commercial stations’ E/I [educational and informative] content, even in OTA [over-the-air] homes.” The association responded to comments from a collection of children’s media groups, including Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Center for Digital Democracy and Common Sense Kids Action. The record doesn’t show that nonbroadcast platforms provide “significant educational programming for children,” those groups replied. “Despite changes in viewing habits, large numbers of children still watch broadcast television.” The National Hispanic Media Coalition said the FCC should “pause” the proceeding to gather more information or risk not complying with the Administrative Procedure Act: “Neither the NPRM nor the comments filed in the record meaningfully evaluate the potential unintended effects of deregulation.” Others also urged the FCC to reset the proceeding and gather more information. “A doctor should not prescribe a litany of prescriptions before carefully examining a patient and diagnosing an illness; and neither should the FCC prescribe a litany of prescriptive remedies without a more thorough examination of what ails the Kid Vid issue,” said the Parents Television Council. Continue requiring broadcaster kids' TV reports, the children’s media groups said: “Neither broadcasters nor MVPDs should be allowed to simply certify compliance with the [Children’s Television Act] when there is no viable way to verify their compliance.” Current filing rules are a burden on small cable companies and broadcasters, said the American Cable Association and every broadcast commenter. Some content companies, such as Litton Entertainment, argued allowing broadcasters to satisfy requirements with children’s shows aired only on multicast channels will discourage production of new kid content. Lower ad revenue on multicast channels would destroy the market for new educational children’s shows, Litton said. “Allowing broadcasters to move all E/I programming to lesser-watched multicast streams would mean lower-quality (i.e., standard definition, not closed-captioned or video-described) programming and significantly fewer viewers,” said Hearst. Ion and broadcast network affiliate associations praised the FCC’s efforts, saying the media landscape “more than justifies the rule changes proposed by the Commission, and supported by most of the comments, because they will serve the public interest.”
Equal time rules for broadcast political advertisements could one day be tested by candidates campaigning on social media, said Media Bureau Assistant Division Chief Robert Baker on the FCC podcast. Traditionally, candidates running write-in campaigns have been considered eligible for equal time on stations if they can demonstrate they are campaigning, Baker said: “They're giving speeches, they've got campaign materials, they have campaign headquarters and the kinds of things that are indicative of being a candidate.” The rise of digital and social media campaigning is complicating that determination, he said. “We just had a presidential election campaign where the successful person running for president used social media in ways that will indicate, I think, for a lot of people are a much different way of campaigning." Policy remains unchanged, but “one of these days it's going to be tested,” he said. Baker’s role at the FCC is “not to be a cop and not to punish people if at all possible to avoid,” he said. In his 25 years heading the bureau’s political ad efforts, his office has gone from 15 lawyers to two and now issues far fewer complaints than his predecessor. Baker is “there to help” and lawyers and broadcasters trust they can ask questions without getting in trouble, he said. “They know I don't write things down,” Baker said. “We've eliminated a couple thousand potential disputes and those disputes are inefficient for many reasons,” he said. “Certainly, they waste the resources of the FCC.”
A draft on eliminating requirements broadcasters send hard copies of contract documents to the FCC hasn’t been subject of negotiation among eighth-floor offices, we're told. The order isn’t expected to change ahead of Tuesday's commissioners’ meeting, said officials Friday.