Broadcasters and satellite carriers clashed with wireless carriers and Dish Network on what positions the U.S. should take on spectrum use at the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019, in comments posted Thursday and Friday in FCC docket 16-185. Broadcasters want to have language removed from ITU table of frequency allocations they said would leave spectrum dedicated to broadcasters open for wireless use, and most satellite carriers are seeking power constraints on terrestrial international mobile telecom (IMT) and protection for satellite incumbents. Carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile don’t want changes to the language on the use of the broadcast spectrum, do want 37.0-43.5 GHz identified for IMT, and with Dish oppose power limits. To “most effectively promote" 5G, the FCC should adopt recommendations “that promote flexible spectrum use,” T-Mobile said.
The FCC unanimously approved an NPRM on changing the way the agency handles interference complaints involving FM translators and full-power FM stations, as expected (see 1805030043). The approved version of the NPRM in docket 18-119 is little changed from the draft and proposes allowing translators facing interference to relocate to nearly any free frequency. “Our current process for resolving such interference complaints can be nasty, brutish and long,” Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday. ”That’s why we aim to streamline and expedite it.”
Sinclair announced Fox as the final proposed buyer of the stations it said it plans divest to buy Tribune, as expected (see 1804250077), paving the way for FCC OK, said CEO Chris Ripley in an earnings call Wednesday: “We are going to go back in front of the FCC and hopefully get this on public file very shortly.” Ripley outlined possible outcomes for the proposed purchase if the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit knocks down the FCC’s restored UHF discount rule, a possibility many industry officials believe likely (see 1804200059). If the agency loses, Sinclair can “wait to see if there’s an appeal or some sort of FCC action,” Ripley said.
The FCC is planning to issue NPRMs on kids' video rules, cable leased access and cable rate regulation as part of media modernization, Media Bureau staff said Tuesday at an FCBA event. A rulemaking on leftover questions from the ATSC 3.0 proceeding is still planned for sometime this year, as is the 2018 quadrennial broadcast ownership review, staff said. The post-incentive auction repacking, which hasn’t run into the resource crunch feared by broadcasters, has progressed, Incentive Auction Task Force Deputy Chair Hillary DeNigro said. “It’s fine,” she said. “We haven’t had any requests for additional time we haven’t been able to accommodate.”
At the rough halfway point of the process of finding new homes for low power TV stations and translators displaced by the incentive auction, LPTV broadcasters and industry officials say uncertainty reigns. Though displaced LPTV owners are able to choose new channels during the ongoing LPTV displacement window and recent legislation earmarked reimbursement funds for LPTV and translators, they won’t know for a while if those new channels are final and almost no specifics about the reimbursement have been determined, LPTV broadcasters told us.
The FCC draft NPRM on reforming rules for interference complaints between FM translators and full-power FM stations is expected to be unanimously approved, industry and agency officials told us. The other media item set for commissioners' May 10 meeting, a media deregulation NPRM seeking comment on removing rules requiring broadcasters to physically post copies of their licenses, is also likely to pass with no objections, industry and agency officials said.
Allowing broadcasters to satisfy the requirements of kidvid rules with content aired only on multicast channels is one of the ideas Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s office is interested in as part of the upcoming review of those rules, an aide to the commissioner told us. That change or something similar would allow the agency to ensure that households dependent only on over-the-air TV would have access to children’s TV but also allow the FCC to make the rules less burdensome for broadcasters, which O’Rielly referenced when he told the American Enterprise Institute (see 1804190045) the agency should focus on over-the-air only households, the aide said. Advocates for the children’s TV rules told us they’re concerned that O’Rielly appears to be starting from the position that the rules are too burdensome. The review shouldn’t begin with any presumptions, said Parents Television Council President Tim Winter. “The process should be genuine,” Winter said. O’Rielly has said an NPRM on kidvid should be issued this summer.
No commenters filed in opposition to FCC media deregulation proposals in docket 18-23 to do away with the separate filing requirement for mid-term equal employment opportunity reports. Broadcasters like Nexstar cheered the FCC proposal on, but 33 diversity groups said the agency should tackle a lot more. Groups including Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council have urged the agency to complete a proceeding on overhauling EEO enforcement that dates back to 1998, the joint filing said. “At last the agency has reawakened the EEO docket from 14 years of somnolence.”
Broadcasters generally welcome FCC-proposed reforms to the way it handles interference between FM translators and full-power FM stations amid disagreements over how the agency will handle complaints and how far from a station’s contour interference can occur, broadcasters and their lawyers told us. The issue (see 1804180068) has been exacerbated by the growing number of licensed FM translators, which has swelled from around 1,850 in 1990 to nearly 7,600 in 2017, said the NPRM. “There are more than 700 new translator construction permits authorized and 1100 applications for new translator construction permits pending.”
Sinclair’s latest modifications to its deal to buy Tribune appears designed to make it more palatable to the FCC and DOJ, attorneys and analysts said in interviews. The amended plan does away with divestiture trusts, puts less pressure on the FCC’s new and untried policy on top-four duopolies, and -- as detailed Tuesday (see 1804240076) -- specifies buyers for most of the 23 stations to be divested. Though the deal still includes plans to unload stations to “sidecar” companies seen as affiliated with Sinclair, the latest iteration is expected to be acceptable to Justice because none of the stations operated through sharing agreements will be top-four stations, said Justin Nielson, senior researcher for S&P Global Market Intelligence.