Sinclair could restructure its Tribune buy to fit under the 50 percent national ownership cap being pushed by several TV station owners (see 1806050040) if that's what the FCC decides on, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley responded to us at a panel during an S&P investor conference Thursday in New York. Ripley declined to speculate what the agency would do.
The shift to online public files for radio and TV made it easier for the FCC to catch broadcasters in violations, and is expected to lead to increased disclosures of late or misfiled documents when license renewals come around next June , broadcast attorneys said in interviews. Broadcasters saw online public files as a way to increase convenience and pave the way for eliminating the main studio rule, but the increased scrutiny of fillings is an unintended consequence, said Fletcher Heald's Steve Lovelady. “Given that the contents of the online public file can be viewed by anyone, anywhere, just by launching an Internet browser, we would expect more complaints about incomplete files, and more scrutiny by the FCC,” blogged Wilkinson Barker's David Oxenford.
The FCC Technology Advisory Council Antenna Technology working group tentatively concluded that advances in antenna technology will require rule changes, said American Radio Relay League consultant and working group head Greg Lapin at the TAC’s meeting Tuesday. Smart antennas and those constructed of metamaterials are “showing promise” at increasing efficiency and avoiding interference, Lapin said. The TAC also discussed antenna aesthetics, drones, phone theft and the progress of 5G. New agency rules for antennas will need to be “flexible enough” to allow the new ones to make “creative use of the spectrum,” Lapin said.
The FCC is seen as aiming to include an order on the national TV ownership cap on the July 12 commissioners’ meeting agenda, with the goal of getting ahead of an expected unfavorable court ruling on the UHF discount (see 1804200059), broadcasters, their lawyers and an official told us. All said it’s not clear what that order will do to the cap, and broadcasters are divided (see 1806050040). Broadcast groups such as Hearst and Gray filed a BIA Kelsey study posted Monday supporting their call for a 50 percent cap that would block Sinclair buying Tribune as currently constructed, while NAB recently met with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai on the association’s pitch to apply a rebranded UHF discount to all TV broadcasters.
Watching his decisions as chairman be reversed by what he repeatedly called “the Trump FCC” is “painful,” said former Chairman Tom Wheeler in an interview on C-Span's The Communicators, likely to be telecast Saturday and posted Friday. Wheeler, now with the Brookings Institution, disputed reports he ordered a cover-up of a distributed denial of service attack (see 1806060032 and 1806070051), praised the EU general data protection regulation and dared current Chairman Ajit Pai to push for Congress to enact net neutrality legislation. If Pai “has the courage of his convictions” and current net neutrality rules are “right for the American people,” Pai should call House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and ask for a vote, Wheeler said. It's “fascinating” the Republican position during his administration was that Congress should decide net neutrality rules and now it's the reverse, he said.
COCKEYSVILLE, Md. -- About 70 people with protest signs, a megaphone and a stack of cardboard boxes made up to look like hollow TV sets gathered to protest outside the Sinclair shareholders' meeting for about two hours Thursday, yelling back at honking cars and chanting against “Trump TV.” Most we interviewed said protesting would help to generate more public opposition to Sinclair's proposed purchase of Tribune Media but conceded their demonstration doesn't have much of a chance of swaying Sinclair's shareholders. “No, it doesn't,” said shareholder James Patterson, 63, who described both shareholder votes and peaceful protests as “part of the democratic process.”
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's “closing statement” Wednesday summed up her accomplishments at the FCC and her regrets. Though Clyburn announced she was leaving, sat out the May meeting and held a farewell ceremony last month, she has continued to vote on some things, attend events as a commissioner (see 1805180042) and issued a call for ISP data for low-income broadband package subscriber information earlier in the day. Though the statement is labeled a closing one, and reads like a farewell, it doesn’t expressly say Clyburn is now officially stepping down. Her office didn’t comment.
The FCC issued a notice of inquiry Tuesday on creating a C4 FM class, likely indicating an eventual rule on the matter isn’t an agency priority, a broadcast attorney told us. Though the NOI seeks comment on creating the new class, the agency likely would have to issue an NPRM before proceeding to an order, the attorney said. When Chairman Ajit Pai in February announced that a C4 item had been circulated on the eighth floor, he described it as an NPRM (see 1802060049). A C4 class would allow owners of Class A FM stations to upgrade their stations, and was first suggested by Pai before he was appointed chairman. Since the C4 stations would have primary status, some broadcasters worried the new class would threaten the many translators authorized under the Pai-supported AM revitalization (see 1802140060). “We would be reluctant to adopt any proposal in this area that would have a significantly negative impact on FM translators and LPFM stations,” the NOI said in two places. The NOI seeks comment on how the new class could work without impacting translators, and without increasing the noise floor on the FM band. The full commission, including outgoing Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, approved the NOI (see 1805180042).
TV broadcasters and the FCC haven’t coalesced around a single path forward on the national ownership cap, broadcasters and their lawyers said in interviews. Though many in the industry believe the FCC will try to issue an order this summer raising the 39 percent cap to get ahead of an expected U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision against reinstating the UHF discount (see 1804200059), it’s not clear what change the regulator and industry are moving toward. “They’re going to end up in court no matter what,” said University of Minnesota School of Journalism assistant professor-media law Christopher Terry.
Decisions by the FCC and Media Bureau in a long-running Indiana FM translator interference dispute could indicate leanings in the upcoming proceeding on such complaints, said several radio attorneys, though others disagree. A bureau letter denying motions appears to take aim at efforts by Radio One disputing the validity of complaints against the translator and against arguments that full-power signals aren’t entitled to protection outside a station’s contour. Those are two of the more contentious items covered in an NPRM (see 1804270065).