The FCC could release some basic plans about disbursement of new repacking reimbursement funds approved by Congress (see 1803230038) by the April 7 NAB Show, broadcast attorneys and industry officials told us. The agency will have to create new procedures and issue documents such as cost catalogs for reimbursing radio, low-power TV (LPTV) and translators, so any information would likely be very preliminary, they said. The addition of $350 million could also affect the upcoming second allocation of reimbursement funds for full-power stations, attorneys said.
The FCC’s advisory committee on diversity unanimously approved a broadcast incubator proposal Tuesday based on congressionally authorized tax credits, immediately after Commissioner Mike O’Rielly urged them not to. The Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment also unanimously approved plans for a diversity in procurement workshop with the Office of Communications Business Opportunities, and a series of meetings with tech companies to create diversity best practices for the industry. The committee’s incubator proposal will be filed as comments in docket 17-289, the agency’s incubator proceeding.
The FCC shouldn’t eliminate requirements that broadcasters send hard copies of contract documents to the agency without also requiring that all such documents be posted in broadcasters’ online public files, commented the American Cable Association and said interest groups including Common Cause, the Communications Workers of America and Media Alliance. The comments in docket 18-4 responded to an NPRM (see Notebook at end of [Ref:1801300026]). The NPRM proposed allowing broadcasters to provide in their online public files lists of some contract documents that could be made available on request. ACA and the interest groups said that’s insufficient for documents on ownership. Eliminating the contract rule “without making certain corresponding changes to the public file rules will result in less transparency" on broadcasters’ ownership-related contracts, ACA said. The FCC should require copies of all such documents to be included in broadcaster public files within 30 days of their execution, the interest group filing said. ACA and the groups said broadcasters could redact sensitive data in such filings, but the FCC should allow only data that's confidential or proprietary to be redacted. The agency should allow interested parties to oppose specific redactions, ACA said. The only other comment, from America’s Public Television Stations, CPB and PBS, supported the FCC proposal: “Elimination of the paper copy filing requirement will reduce regulatory burdens on broadcasters (and save paper) without impact on the FCC’s or the public’s ability to review such documents.”
Broadcasters “have made no substantive case” that letting them use vacant channels for the ATSC 3.0 transition would benefit the public interest, Microsoft replied Wednesday in docket 16-142. Broadcaster arguments that unlicensed uses don’t have guaranteed access to spectrum are “a distraction,” Microsoft said. “No prospective user is entitled to use spectrum for which it does not yet hold a license.” The FCC isn’t being asked to give white space users interference protection from broadcasters, Microsoft said. “It is being asked to grant new spectrum to companies that have said they don’t need it,” the company said, referring to the broadcasters. The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance agreed, saying allowing broadcasters to use vacant channels would “diminish” prospects for white space devices “as the uncertainty over the ‘temporary’ nature of the dedicated transition channels will chill large-scale investments.” The FCC should “hold the line” on simulcast rules, NCTA said. With 3.0 authorized, broadcasters “insist on generous waivers of the requirements codifying their promises,” NCTA said. “The simulcasting rules are already excessively generous to broadcasters at viewers’ expense.” NCTA took aim at noncommercial stations’ request for a blanket simulcasting waiver, urging the FCC to deny it. PBS, America’s Public Television Stations and the CPB said the agency shouldn’t delay granting the blanket waiver because NCEs aren’t often located near prospective simulcasting partners. “It is precisely in those areas with few over-the-air options that it makes sense to preserve, not reduce, the number of viewable -- i.e., ATSC 1.0 -- signals,” NCTA said. NAB, One Media, the American Cable Association and interest groups including Public Knowledge also commented (see 1803210025).
Broadcasters seeking to use vacant channels for the ATSC 3.0 transition are attempting to “squat” on free spectrum, said Consumers Union, Public Knowledge and the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute in replies in FCC docket 16-142 Tuesday on a Further NPRM on the new standard (see 1802210064). Allowing temporary use of the vacant channels “will trigger a lobbying frenzy to make the giveaway permanent,” the groups said. That claim is “nonsense,” said One Media. “The use would be temporary in the same way the second simulcast digital channel provided to broadcasters during the analog-to-digital conversion was temporary.” Special temporary authority process would govern channel provision, ensuring temporary use, Pearl said. Mutually exclusive applications for vacant channels during the switch will be unlikely because broadcasters will coordinate with each other, but would be resolved with auctions as the rules require, NAB said. Giving broadcasters access to vacant channels “is not necessary at this time to protect consumers and it comes at a high cost,” said the interest groups. The vacant channels will let stations maintain signal quality during the transition, NAB said. “Any party claiming to be concerned about consumer protection during the Next Gen deployment should support the use of vacant channels as a concrete step that may help to minimize disruption of service.” Granting broadcasters' vacant channel request will impose costs on MVPDs, the interest groups said. “If the broadcaster‘s 1.0 signal is transferred to a transmitter other than one that is already transmitting a broadcast signal being carried by the cable system, the cable operator would need to purchase and install new receiving equipment.” The broadcaster entities also said the FCC should be flexible in granting waivers of the 3.0 simulcast requirements, and Pearl said the agency should grant blanket waivers for noncommercial and Class A stations. “Implementing this exemption would show the Commission’s support for deployment of ATSC 3.0 across the country, particularly in more remote or rural areas,” said Pearl.
The digital divide is the FCC's “top policy priority” and the Connect America Fund reverse auction is “a milestone” in modernizing a key USF program, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told an American Cable Association conference Wednesday. Pai slammed Title II Communications Act regulation of broadband service, which he said was the result of “Silicon Valley giants” claiming small ISPs such as ACA's members “posed a greater threat to a free and open internet” than Google, Facebook and Twitter.
The growing importance of internet technology issues such as privacy and cybersecurity means traditional regulatory battlegrounds like retransmission consent matter less and less, said NCTA President Michael Powell Tuesday. He used a Media Institute luncheon to expand on his concerns about tech companies (see 1803060022). Consumers and lawmakers are worried about burgeoning tech issues while the telecom industry is “trapped” in outdated fights, Powell said. The issues that “dominate” the attention of lawmakers and the public “all emanate from the internet,” he said. He doesn't expect action from lawmakers or the FCC on retrans anytime soon.
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.