The “time lag” will be shorter on the release of future form 323 ownership data, said FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey at an FCBA brown-bag lunch discussion Thursday, after being asked about the bureau’s recent release of 2017 ownership data. Carey and other Media Bureau officials at the event also discussed the transition from the consolidated database system (CDBS), upcoming rulemakings and ATSC 3.0. Carey said the bureau is already working on the data collected from the 2019 forms but didn’t say whether the next such report would include the most recent information.
The FCC’s latest broadcast ownership data shows falling minority and female ownership in 2017 and is already 3 years old, said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and groups opposed to media consolidation, about Friday’s report. “To effectively address the lack of media ownership diversity, we cannot use stale data and must get better at assessing the extent of the problem in a timely manner,” Starks said. “While supposedly the FCC improved data collection in 2016, the data released today is from 2017,” said Cheryl Leanza, the United Church of Christ Communications Office attorney who successfully represented Prometheus Radio Project and other petitioners before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the most recent FCC media ownership case. The data “is out of date upon release,” Leanza said.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks’s planned Puerto Rico field hearing on disaster preparation and response in Puerto Rico is a chance to draw attention to issues on the island, but the short lead time between the event’s announcement Thursday and its Feb. 21 date have caught some stakeholders by surprise, they told us (see 2002130012). “We’re playing catch-up to this announcement,” said Reuben Jusino, who consults on FCC matters for the Puerto Rico Radio Broadcasters Association. “We’re trying to get a turn at the table,” he said. “It’s an important opportunity.”
The ongoing license hearing for radio broadcaster Entertainment Media Trust -- with Sinclair Broadcast’s hearing designation order (see 2001270054) and the action against prison phone provider Securus (see 1904020076) --- could indicate an FCC crackdown on issues related to misrepresentation or a lack of candor, attorneys told us. The case at hand is expected to be dismissed over EMT’s failure to participate if the company doesn’t make a Monday deadline to demonstrate why that shouldn’t happen (see 2001240052).
A TV white spaces NPRM circulated on the eighth floor by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Wednesday seems to incorporate concepts pushed by Microsoft, a broadcast industry official said Wednesday. The TVWS NPRM is set for a vote at the Feb. 28 commissioners’ meeting (see 2002050013). The proposal "would allow white space devices to reach users at greater distances, thus enabling improved broadband coverage," said an FCC release. The item includes proposals to increase the minimum separation distances for white space devices operating at higher power.
FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he’s not “professionally embarrassed” about the state of the TV industry, in a letter to longtime consumer activist and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader posted Monday. “I am proud of the accomplishments of my work and this Commission,” O’Rielly responded to letters Nader sent to all five commissioners in March and in January. The March letter called the FCC “an inert toady” for the radio, broadcast TV and cable industries and Chairman Ajit Pai “a textbook poster boy for future scholars of regulatory capture.” Last month, Nader rebuked commissioners for not responding. "This is not good protocol," Nader told the commissioners. "Remember, the agency that you have been entrusted with is called the Federal Communications Commission, not the Federal Stonewalling Commission." In an interview Monday, Nader said TV content is largely “junk” and the FCC let down the public interest by allowing too much advertising and getting rid of regulations that served the public, such as the fairness doctrine. Licensees are taking advantage of public resources in the form of broadcast spectrum and cable licenses, Nader told us. “They’re using our private property!” Nader said. “I respectfully disagree,” O’Rielly said in his response letter. Nader faulted the other FCC members for not responding. He’s waiting for more responses before deciding whether to reply to O’Rielly.
The New Jersey Broadcasters Association has claimed for years that the state’s emergency alerting system is out of date and on the brink of failure. Now, things may come to a head, some warned. Microsoft ends support in January for the Windows 7 software that the state’s EMnet software runs on means the problem has worsened, said NJBA President Paul Rotella.
The FCC hinted at the possibility of a Supreme Court appeal of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Prometheus IV decision, in a status report in another case Wednesday. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai declined to comment Thursday whether his agency is in discussions with DOJ about seeking certiorari for a SCOTUS appeal by the Feb. 18 deadline. In a joint filing with the News Media Alliance in another 3rd Circuit case, News Media Alliance v. FCC (On Pacer, No. 17-1108), the FCC asked the court to delay because of a possible cert petition. The 3rd Circuit should “hold this case in abeyance until any timely filed petitions for writ of certiorari in the Prometheus cases are disposed of and (ii) extend the deadline prescribed by the Court’s November 20, 2018 Order until 30 days after the certiorari petitions, if any, are disposed of,” said the joint filing. The alliance case was a 2017 challenge to the FCC ban on newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership that has been on hold while similar cases such as Prometheus proceeded.
Two FCC commissioners expressed doubts Thursday about a $12.9 million fine proposed against Scott Rhodes for apparently making thousands of spoofed, racist robocalls. A notice of apparent liability was approved 4-1 at the commissioners' meeting. Comments answering an FCC request for proposals to stop robocalls posted through Thursday in docket 17-59. Some comments were posted earlier (see 2001290024).
The FCC’s new political ad file rules would burden broadcasters, swamp transparency advocates in irrelevant disclosures, and may be unconstitutional, said NAB, America's Communications Association, state broadcast associations and station groups. Their replies were filed in docket 19-363 by Tuesday night’s deadline in support of NAB’s petition for reconsideration. The rules cross “a constitutional line,” said Tech Freedom, comparing them to the fairness doctrine.