Broadcasters need to move as quickly as possible to transition to ATSC 3.0 or they're in danger of losing their spectrum and market share to other industries, said FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and Spectrum Consortium President John Hane in separate speeches Thursday to the ATSC Next Gen TV Conference. Through 3.0, broadcasters need to maximize the use of their existing spectrum, or it will be given to another industry, Hane said. Under the current technology, broadcasters provide a valuable service but take up too much spectrum to provide it, leading regulators to periodically pursue “progressive reclamation” of it as with the incentive auction, Hane said.
Radio station owners are conflicted over how the FCC should proceed on AM/FM subcaps, and it’s not clear what position NAB will take or which way the agency will go, broadcasters, brokers and industry attorneys told us. “There’s a tremendous difference of opinion,” said outgoing NAB radio board member and Eagle Communications General Manager Gary Exline. “It is more nuanced than just large versus small,” said broker Bob Heymann from the Chicago office of Media Services Group.
The FCC put Sinclair’s amendments to its proposed buy of Tribune out for public comment, said a public notice Monday. With the final deadline July 12, the transaction likely wouldn’t be voted on before August or September, communications attorneys told us. A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision that could knock down the UHF discount is expected around then.
PMCM was peppered with questions from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit during oral argument Thursday over the broadcaster’s contention the FCC should allow its WJLP Middletown Township, New Jersey, to broadcast on virtual channel 3 (see 1805140068). When PMCM attorney Donald Evans of Fletcher Heald said there was “ambiguity” in rules on channel assignment to a station relocated to a new market as WJLP did, Judge Thomas Griffith interrupted. “What do we do with ambiguities in this court?” Griffith asked. In such cases, the court generally “defers to an administrative agency,” Evans conceded. “That’s what the law tells us to do,” said Griffith, nodding.
Free Press and other petitioners challenging FCC restoration of the UHF discount in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit haven't shown they have standing, said an FCC court filing Wednesday. The three-judge panel challenged petitioners’ standing in oral argument last month, but allowed the anti-consolidation groups to file supplementary information last week (see 1805090075). Those supplemental filings weren’t sufficient, the FCC said Wednesday, showing the anti-consolidation groups never believed their initial filings were enough. “Petitioners’ belated submission of hundreds of pages of declarations, following a court order, demonstrates it was unreasonable for petitioners to have previously believed their standing was obvious,” the agency said. Most of the petitioners’ supplemental filings “are founded on speculation about the effects of proposed broadcast acquisitions” that the FCC has yet to rule on, and the rest “don’t establish standing at the time petitioners brought suit,” the commission said. Broadcast intervenors including Ion, Nexstar, Sinclair and Univision responded (in Pacer) to the petitioners Wednesday, along with a motion (in Pacer) asking the court to allow their filing. No supplemental filings “allege a certain and concrete injury” traceable to restoration of the UHF discount, the intervenors said. The groups’ instead focus on injuries caused by Sinclair’s purchase of Bonten Media or planned buy of Tribune, the intervenors said. The petitioners’ “purported injuries resulting from Sinclair’s proposed acquisition of multiple stations in the same market” aren’t caused by the reinstated discount, since even without the discount, companies can own multiple stations in a market, the intervenors said.
Lawmakers of both parties fretted over White House reversal on ZTE and discussed balancing supply chain security with avoiding protectionism, at a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said the committee should send a formal letter to the White House detailing its concerns about ZTE. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., hopes President Donald Trump’s comments on loosening sanctions against the Chinese smartphone maker were misinterpreted or that the stance changes. “We can’t play footsie with these companies,” Eshoo said.
It’s unlikely that Sinclair's buying Tribune would be approved on FCC staff delegated authority rather than go before the full commission, industry lawyers and ex-officials said in interviews. Delegating such a highly scrutinized deal to the bureau would look bad politically, lengthen the appeals process for the transaction, and could violate FCC rules requiring that new and novel proceedings be decided by the agency's members, they said. “What are commissioners for if they don’t vote on a deal that would create the biggest broadcast group in history?” said former Commissioner Mike Copps, now with Sinclair/Tribune opponent Common Cause. “That would be a complete abdication of responsibility.”
CBS and a committee of its board filed a lawsuit and motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent controlling stockholder National Amusements from “interfering with a special meeting of the Board of Directors” that would redistribute CBS stock to dilute National Amusement’s voting interest, the broadcaster said in a release Monday. Shari Redstone controls National Amusements. The dividend “would dilute National Amusements, Inc.’s voting interest from approximately 79% to 17%,” the release said. The court documents were filed in Delaware Court of Chancery. The special committee was formed in response to the proposed combination of National Amusements-owned Viacom and CBS, and voted Sunday that the proposed deal isn’t in CBS’s interests, the motion said. “The Special Committee believes that the Company and its public stockholders face a serious threat of imminent, irreparable harm in Ms. Redstone’s potential response to the Special Committee’s unanimous decision.” Such a significant change in ownership of a company that controls numerous broadcast licenses is likely to require FCC approval, broadcast attorneys told us. The suit makes it less likely that CBS will buy Viacom, Citibank analyst Jason Bazinet emailed investors. It appears "CBS management and part of the board has effectively decided either to take control away from the Redstones and chart their own course or to in effect be removed,” Barclays' Kannan Venkateshwar emailed. “If the restraining order is allowed by the court, the CBS board is likely to vote on the new shares on Thursday, but the shares won’t be issued till a decision is laid out on the lawsuit itself," Venkateshwar said. “For both CBS and Viacom, this lawsuit is likely to result in a period of uncertainty and a lack of closure one way or the other for some time,” the analyst said. “The lawsuit may take about six months to resolve itself.”
Gray Television, Nexstar and NAB support the FCC proposal to streamline reauthorization of satellite broadcast stations, they commented in docket 18-63 for Friday’s comment deadline, posted that day and Monday. The NPRM sought comment on relaxing rules so when such stations change owners, the FCC would no longer require the new owner to make extensive showings that the station should keep its satellite status (see 1803190048). No other entities commented, and there was no opposition to the proposal, unanimously approved by commissioners. The proposal would “increase the efficiency” of FCC oversight and reduce waste, Nexstar said. “The showings required to demonstrate the need for satellite designations are costly and time-consuming,” NAB said. All three commenters said the FCC should take up Gray’s request that a station’s satellite status shouldn’t require extensive showings even if the parent station changes. The status of a parent station is immaterial to a station’s satellite status, Gray said. The FCC’s review “focuses on whether the satellite could operate without its association with any full power station -- not on the merits of a particular parent/satellite combination,” the company said.
Broadcaster PMCM will argue that its WJLP Middletown Township, New Jersey, should be assigned virtual channel 3 over the FCC’s objections, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday (see 1709280034). The broadcaster won a previous case against the agency to be allowed to relocate the station from Nevada to New Jersey (see 1212170043) after the DTV transition, but the FCC and the courts rejected the broadcaster’s arguments this time around. Since the case deals with arcane concepts such as virtual channels and the Program and System Information Protocol, broadcast attorneys told us it’s likely the court will defer to the FCC now. “The FCC’s insistence that WJLP utilize major channel number 33, rather than major channel number 3, is flatly inconsistent” with the commission’s own rules, PMCM said (in Pacer).