A combined Sinclair/Tribune will use its increased leverage over the repacking to force wireless carriers to incorporate ATSC 3.0 technology into handsets, said T-Mobile and the Competitive Carriers Association in replies posted in FCC docket 17-179 Wednesday. “If Sinclair is allowed to proceed with its acquisition of Tribune, Sinclair’s attempt to force inefficient, costly behavior from wireless carriers and their customers is likely to succeed,” CCA said.
The Sept. 27 nationwide test of the emergency alert system (see 1612280045) is expected by FCC and state EAS officials and industry EAS experts to yield results similar to last year’s. The exercise will be done using very similar parameters to 2016, but unlike that test won’t debut new test codes or procedures, FCC and EAS industry officials told us.
Petitions to deny Sinclair buying Tribune are either “naive” or transparently self-serving, the two companies said in a partially redacted opposition filing Tuesday. It punched back at accusations from opponents such as Dish Network, Newsmax and Free Press that the deal would slow the incentive auction repacking, hurt broadcast localism, squeeze out independent programmers or break FCC ownership regulations. “None of the petitioners provides a shred of evidence demonstrating that the post-merger company will violate any Commission rule,” Sinclair and Tribune said. “Each of the petitioners is either trying to use this proceeding to stifle competition for its own economic interests or is still living in a pre-cable, pre-internet, pre-smartphone world, untethered from the economic realities of the current media market.” Despite the diverse opposition, the deal is expected to be approved (see 1708150063).
An FCC reconsideration order that would relax broadcast ownership rules is still expected in September or October, attorneys and industry officials told us (see 1707190054). The item, an order on reconsideration of the 2014 quadrennial review, is expected to make it easier for the Sinclair/Tribune deal to be approved without divestitures. Industry officials and attorneys said it's widely expected to roll back newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules and rules on joint sales agreement (JSA) attribution, and may also relax or change the eight-voices test and top-four network rule. The American Television Alliance met with FCC officials last week to urge the commission not to eliminate the top-four network rule.
An apparent increase in FCC announcements of pirate radio enforcement action partially stems from a minor procedural change, but is also the result of increased commission action against pirates, said industry and agency officials in interviews. The FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai have been “appropriately stepping up pursuit of pirate radio broadcasters,” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told us. O’Rielly has vocally supported increased pirate enforcement (see 1707280046).
A shortage of experienced broadcast tower crews to do the work required for the post-incentive auction repacking likely means the FCC's deadline won't be met, tower company executives and broadcast equipment manufacturers told us. Though equipment manufacturers such as Dielectric and GatesAir told us they were able to ramp up production to be ready to meet the heavy demands of repacking broadcasters, there’s no practical way to create more experienced tower workers required to install that equipment on the tallest TV towers, they said. Combined with challenges of upgrading existing towers and concerns about the weather, industry officials are skeptical the repacking can be accomplished in the 39-month time frame laid out by the FCC. “I think it will take more like five to seven years,” said Kevin Barber, CEO of Texas-based tower company Tower King II.
By combining companies and associations with more expected merger opponents like Public Knowledge, the new Coalition to Save Local Media may succeed in blocking the Sinclair/Tribune deal at an FCC widely seen as likely to approve Sinclair's Tribune buy, public interest and broadcast industry attorneys told us Tuesday.
The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition is pushing a plan to solve the “vacant channel war” by partnering with a tech company, buying up low-power TV stations and seeking service waivers from the FCC to allow LPTV spectrum to provide a home for unlicensed use. Some low-power industry officials are skeptical, according to interviews. “Waivers are a heavy lift,” said attorney Michael Couzens, who represents low powers and translators. “We take the energy being directed at having this war, and are redirecting it to a solution in which everyone wins,” said coalition Director Mike Gravino. The coalition pitched the plan as a “truce” (see 1708020041), without support from other entities.
Lack of investor interest in the radio industry is affecting Entercom joining with CBS Radio, attorneys and analysts said in interviews Wednesday. Though its revenue has grown, unlike much of the industry, Entercom stock slid 35 percent this year, causing CBS shareholders to have doubts about the deal, said Justin Nielson, senior researcher for S&P Global Market Intelligence. Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker called the situation “messy” in an email to investors. The sliding shares stem from a perception the radio industry is shrinking, exacerbated by looming likely restructurings of the industry’s two largest companies, Cumulus and iHeartMedia, attorneys and analysts said. The lack of clarity about the future of those companies is causing uncertainty for the industry, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Dan Kirkpatrick.
Some opponents of Sinclair buying Tribune argue in petitions to deny posted by the FCC Tuesday that the new company would have unprecedented ability to drag the post-incentive auction repacking to a halt, and would want to do so because of its massive investment in ATSC 3.0. “Sinclair’s ‘all-in’ posture on ATSC 3.0 gives it a strong self-interest in using whatever leverage it has to promote the adoption of this standard,” petitioned T-Mobile. A delay in repacking would give Sinclair more time to lobby the commission to devote more reimbursement funds to paying for stations to buy 3.0 equipment, said the filing in docket 17-179.