Low-power TV stations using analog channel 6 to air content intended to be received by FM radios on channel 87.7 filed similarly formatted comments posted through Wednesday in docket 03-185 asking the FCC to allow such channels to continue operating. Kid’s Television, Prism Broadcasting, Delta Media, Omega Media Broadcasting, Almavision Hispanic Network and NY Metro Radio Korea used nearly identical language. They asked the FCC to grandfather the existence of such stations and allow analog broadcasts in that format after the LPTV digital transition is complete. “This would allow our service to greatly expand into multiple video streams in support of the local communities in the Jackson, MS market, and to keep our successful and well supported radio service,” said Kid’s Television. The stations oppose FCC proposals to designate 87.7 FM as an ancillary service.
An expected FCC appeal to the Supreme Court of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Prometheus IV would likely have to be approved by the Office of the Solicitor General and could face an uphill battle to obtaining certiorari, said attorneys and legal professors in interviews. “The Court gets about 8000 petitions a year last I checked, and grants about 80,” emailed University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock. “But the FCC has the great advantage that it is part of the federal government.”
Federal restrictions against radio payola are “asymmetric” and affect the radio industry’s financial well-being and stability, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly wrote compliance officers at Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. He sought information on how the music labels prevent payola. The letter said O’Rielly’s interest involves broadcasters being treated differently than digital media.
A court dismissed AT&T's breach of contract and a trade secrets violation complaint against a negotiator handling retransmission consent talks for a group of Sinclair sidecar stations. That prompted speculation by industry lawyers we spoke with Friday on whether the decision will affect broadcasters' appeal of an FCC ruling that they violated good faith rules.
Advertisers need more education about the timeline and capabilities of ATSC 3.0, and the consumer experience is especially important, said panelists at the NextGen TV Summit put on by SMPTE and the Society of Broadcast Engineers Thursday,
Terrier Media wants to sell the Ohio daily newspapers acquired from its buy of Cox’s stations, said an FCC Media Bureau letter posted Wednesday in docket 19-98. Terrier planned to reduce the daily publication schedule of the papers -- which include the Dayton Daily News -- to three days a week to comply with the restored newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules (see 1911220069). It was granted an extension of the deadline to arrange the sale, said the Media Bureau. The Thursday deadline to reduce publication was extended to March 16.
The FCC doesn’t need to clarify or firm up noncommercial educational station underwriting rules, said broadcasters and their attorneys in interviews last week. Underwriting violations led to a $76,000 penalty for two stations connected with the University of Arkansas last week (see 2001070048). The Enforcement Bureau noted the agency hasn’t adopted “quantitative guidelines” for underwriting announcements and the FCC “affords some latitude” to licensees that exercise reasonable good faith judgment.
TV stations that must change frequencies following the incentive auction continue (see 1908090050) to make their phase deadlines by shifting their signal to interim antennas that don’t reach all viewers, said broadcasters, FCC officials and antenna manufacturers in recent interviews. Phase seven -- out of 10 -- of the post-incentive auction repacking ends Jan. 17.
The FCC “placed the interest of a private equity firm ahead of everyday people” by approving Terrier Media’s buy of Cox Enterprises stations (see 1911220069) and Terrier’s plan to comply with newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules by reducing the Dayton Daily News publication schedule, wrote Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley (D) and former FCC Commissioner Mike Copps in USA Today Thursday. “A region of nearly 1 million people will bear the brunt of these devastating cuts to its primary news source.” The deal's OK “with its explicit endorsement of profit over the public interest demonstrates that the FCC has lost its way.” The FCC had done away with the cross-ownership rules when Terrier proposed the purchase, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ Prometheus IV restored the rule before the agency approved the transaction. Copps is a special adviser to Common Cause, a Prometheus petitioner. “FACT CHECK: The FCC eliminated the stupid and outdated rule that is leading to this outcome, but the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, at the urging of your co-author, reinstated it,” tweeted Matthew Berry, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's chief of staff. “I suspect your co-author neglected to inform you that the very restrictions he supports are one of the major elements responsible for the decline in local journalism (in Dayton and elsewhere),” tweeted NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan to Whaley. In the absence of the Prometheus "ruling we would not have revised the filing this way," emailed a Terrier spokesperson. "From the beginning, we saw our investment to improve services to local communities and this operational change was not our intent nor in our original filing.”
The FCC’s clarification of political file rules creates new, subjective disclosure obligations that aren’t backed up in the law, burden companies and raise First Amendment questions, said broadcasters, network affiliates and NCTA in comments posted Tuesday in docket 19-363 supporting NAB’s petition for reconsideration (see 1911180068). “This decision will harm the entire local advertising ecosystem and burden the speech of political and nonpolitical advertisers alike,” said a joint filing from Gray Television, E.W. Scripps, Meredith, Block Communications and WBOC. Transparency groups including Campaign Legal Center, Sunlight Foundation and Common Cause disagree. “Any possible burden” is “clearly outweighed by the benefits of public disclosure,” the groups said.