Sinclair's divestiture trust proposal to bring its planned buy of Tribune into compliance with FCC rules (see 1802210062) doesn’t contain enough specifics to merit turning the deal’s paused shot clock back on, opponents said Wednesday in interviews and filings. “Sinclair hasn’t delivered with this filing,” said Brian Thorn, strategic research associate at the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA). “There isn’t enough to assuage our concerns.”
The “vast majority” of broadcasters are “nowhere close” to exhausting their initial allocation of repacking reimbursement funds, according to their expense filings, said Incentive Auction Task Force Chief Jean Kiddoo at Tuesday’s America’s Public Television Stations’ Public Media Summit. The timing of the agency’s release of a second allocation will be based on how quickly the first portion of funds is drawn down, Kiddoo said. “So far, we don’t see stations maxing out." Kiddoo said the IATF monitors the status of reimbursements “daily.”
Broadcasters clashed with Microsoft, MVPDs and unlicensed spectrum advocates responding to an FCC Further NPRM on ATSC 3.0, in filings in docket 16-142 Wednesday. Broadcast entities such as NAB and One Media want transitioning broadcasters to have the option to use vacant channels, but Microsoft, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge said that request is a spectrum grab. Such “a dramatic giveaway” to broadcasters is a legal violation “inconsistent” with the public interest and spectrum policy, and is “likely unnecessary to facilitate the voluntary ATSC 3.0 transition,” Microsoft said. The sides also disagree about the standards to be applied to broadcaster waivers of the 3.0 order’s simulcast requirement.
Sinclair will offload stations into a divestiture trust to bring its proposed buy of Tribune under the 39 percent FCC national ownership cap. The final combination, under the UHF discount, would reach 37.3 percent of households, Sinclair said in an amendment to deal filings Wednesday. In three markets, Sinclair will seek to take advantage of the FCC’s new openness to common ownership of two top-four stations in the same market, and offloads other stations to bring the deal into compliance with current rules.
The looming fight on Capitol Hill over President Donald Trump’s bid to cut federal funding to CPB in the president's FY 2019 budget proposal is shaping up to end the same way as did the administration’s CPB elimination proposal for FY 2018, with lawmakers instead maintaining CPB’s existing appropriations level, congressional appropriators and public broadcasting supporters told us. The administration proposed cutting federal funding to CPB and 21 other entities beginning in FY 2019 as part of a bid to cut the deficit by $3.6 trillion (see 1802120037). The House and Senate Appropriations committees cleared FY 2018 federal budgets last year maintaining CPB annual funding at $445 million (see 1705230041, 1707200065 and 1709070064).
Commissioners unanimously approved a draft order eliminating a requirement that broadcasters and cable carriers keep hard-copy books of FCC rules on their premises. The item was slated for Thursday’s FCC meeting but, as expected (see 1802160024), will be removed from the agenda after the early approval on circulation. Though the draft had already been circulated to eighth-floor offices, it was added to the on-circulation list in preparation for being approved ahead of the meeting, an official said. The requirement applies to low-power TV, TV and FM translators, TV and FM booster stations, cable TV relay station licensees, and certain cable operators. Eliminating the requirement "will advance the Commission’s goal of reducing outdated regulations and unnecessary regulatory burdens," the order said. The electronic version of the Code of Federal Regulations available online "is often more current than the printed version, which is published only once a year," the order said. "Removing this requirement also would help small broadcasters in particular by enabling them to cut unnecessary costs."
The FCC’s draft NPRM on mid-term equal employment opportunity reports is expected to receive broad support from all commissioners, and a draft item eliminating requirements for hard copies of FCC rules should be approved unanimously, possibly even before Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting (see 1801310065), FCC officials told us. Docket 17-105 has seen little activity on either issue since the items were put on the February agenda. Both are seen as minor and noncontroversial, said Wiley Rein broadcast attorney Greg Masters.
A draft NPRM on creating a new C4 FM class circulated to the eighth floor by Chairman Ajit Pai last week (see 1802060049) broadly seeks comment on the idea but contains few if any tentative conclusions, an FCC official told us. Though advocates see the idea as a way to help radio stations left out of AM revitalization, translator owner beneficiaries of revitalization and larger station owners are expected to oppose the new class, said broadcast attorneys and C4 advocates. “NAB will respectfully oppose this proposal,” said a spokesman.
Broadcasters need more information to start dealmaking after the 3rd U.S Circuit Court of Appeals’ rejection of a stay request (see 1802070053) for the FCC’s relaxation of broadcast ownership rules, said analysts, broadcast attorneys and TV brokers in interviews. Broadcasters aren’t likely to wait for the public interest challenge of the agency’s media ownership reconsideration order to be decided on the merits, but they want to see how the FCC and DOJ treat Sinclair/Tribune (see 1802090039) before pulling the trigger on transactions, said Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker. “Nobody wants to be the test case,” said Todd Hartman, vice president at TV broker Kalil & Co.
Industry is backing Commissioner Mike O’Rielly's January blog post to relax kids' video rules (see 1801260031) as public interest advocates are mobilizing against the perceived threat, officials on all sides told us last week. O’Rielly Tuesday said he believes the FCC will act in 2018. Others aren't so sure. The FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai’s office haven’t commented.