Broadcaster ideas for the future of the 39 percent national ownership cap range from getting rid of it completely to applying the 50 percent discount currently reserved for UHF stations to all TV stations, said comments filed Monday in docket 17-318 responding to an FCC NPRM on modifying or eliminating the cap and discount. “The traditional competition and diversity justifications for a broadcast-only national TV ownership rule have significantly eroded,” said NAB. Anti-media consolidation groups and MVPDs argued the cap should be preserved and the UHF discount should be eliminated. The proposals in the NPRM would “overrule Congress” to “suit the interests of Donald Trump’s cronies” at Sinclair and Fox, commented Free Press.
A draft NPRM on streamlining reauthorization for satellite TV stations is considered likely to be approved 5-0 but may undergo some changes to its language before Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting, FCC officials told us. The language change in the NPRM is a compromise between two eighth-floor offices, the officials said. Broadcast attorneys said the item isn’t expected to generate much controversy (see 1803010047).
With a lack of electricity and access to funding hampering recovery efforts for communications services in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, some concerns about the FCC USF-based aid proposal have emerged, industry and government officials in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington told us. Some industry officials expressed concern about the proposal's goals and said the plan does nothing for affected broadcasters. A group of Puerto Rico broadcasters pitched a nationwide disaster relief plan for broadcasters to Chairman Ajit Pai during his visit earlier this month. “What happened in Puerto Rico can happen elsewhere in the U.S.,” said Eduardo Rivero of Puerto Rico station owner Media Power Group.
MVPDs, set-top box makers and energy efficiency advocates agreed to a four-year extension of their voluntary agreement on set-top box energy efficiency, NCTA and the Natural Resources Defense Council announced Thursday. The extended agreement includes provisions to further improve set-top energy efficiency by 2020, a reporting requirement for efforts to transition from physical devices to more energy efficient apps, and a process to move toward further efficiency increases, signatories told us. The voluntary structure is making devices more efficient, and “driving good incremental improvement,” said NRDC Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz.
Sinclair’s plan to use a divestiture trust and spin off unspecified stations in buying Tribune isn’t that unusual, but the degree to which it relies on sidecar operations is more than expected, media brokers, deal opponents and broadcast attorneys told us. An amended divestiture plan submitted last week (see 1803070050) may indicate FCC officials also have or had reservations about Sinclair’s proposals, lawyers said. The plan was filed after a meeting called by the Media Bureau. Some sources saw it as Sinclair working with the agency to fine tune its plans, but others said the meeting could be seen as an indication the first divestiture plan wasn’t acceptable. Sinclair didn’t comment.
Broadcast attorneys would like the FCC’s monthly media deregulation effort to tackle kids' video rules, quarterly issues and program lists and ownership reports, an FCBA event was told Tuesday. Those issues would likely receive more pushback than the “low-hanging fruit” regulations targeted so far, they conceded. Increased flexibility for the filing requirements for such rules would be “helpful,” said Covington & Burling's Ann Bobeck.
NAB and some public interest groups disagree on nearly every aspect of an FCC-proposed broadcast ownership incubator program (see 1711160054), in comments in docket 17-289. NAB supports a program that would include incentives such as ownership rule waivers for participating broadcasters. Groups including the Communications Workers of America, United Church of Christ Communication Office and Prometheus Radio Project said the program wouldn’t accomplish its goals.
The FCC will release a second allocation from the $1.75 billion repacking reimbursement fund in four to six weeks, said an Incentive Auction Task Force public notice Thursday. Though no amount for the second allocation was given, the PN includes a revised cost estimate for the station relocation: $1.95 billion, as of Wednesday. That number is based on verified and unverified estimates, and is an increase from the $1.86 billion estimate released at the time of the $1 billion first allocation. Broadcast attorneys told us a second allocation would ease the repacking process for many broadcasters. The knowledge that more funds are on the way gives broadcasters “comfort” that expenses will be covered, said Margaret Miller, partner at Gray Miller.
A pair of MVPD reconsideration petitions against the ATSC 3.0 order aren’t considered likely to spur the FCC to rethink requirements for the new standard, attorneys and executives on the broadcast and MVPD sides told us. The order's effective date was Monday (see 1803050049).
Though Monday was the effective date of the ATSC 3.0 order, that milestone will have little practical effect because the technology that would let stations use the new standard is largely unavailable and the portions of the order that govern outlets’ transition to 3.0 are still being approved by the Office of Management and the Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act, said broadcasters, attorneys and FCC officials.