The FCC will consider proposed revisions of its kidvid rules at the July 10 commissioners’ meeting, as expected (see 1906170040), blogged Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday. “This update of our rules is long overdue.” Though specifics on the content were scant, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly cast it as emphasizing compromise. “While there may a strong case for even further reforms, this item reflects sound and defensible policymaking,” he said. Along with items related to 5G and wireline items on multiple tenant rules, telehealth and broadband forbearance (see 1906180053), the agency will consider rules on electronic notifications by cable companies.
An FCC order on kidvid could be on the agenda for commissioners' July 10 meeting but remains a moving target. An expected NPRM on equal employment opportunity enforcement (see 1904290176) has been voted on and will be released ahead of the meeting. That's what broadcast industry, child advocacy and FCC officials told us.
The full FCC clarified expectations for market modification petitions. An order released Thursday overturns the Media Bureau’s reasons for granting four market modification petitions filed by “orphan county” La Plata, Colorado. But it affirmed the bureau’s final decision granting them. This issue had attracted media and congressional notice.
Oral argument that appeared to go against the FCC Tuesday at the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is expected to result in media ownership rules being remanded or possibly vacated (see 1906110073). That's called unlikely to slow broadcast dealmaking or affect existing combinations. It could affect the agency’s plans for the 2018 quadrennial review, academics, broadcasters and their lawyers told us this week.
PHILADELPHIA -- Judges for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hearing oral argument for Prometheus IV Tuesday aggressively questioned the FCC's lack of data on the impact on diversity of its ownership rules. They seemed skeptical of agency arguments that it wasn't required to gather additional information to justify rolling back ownership regulations. “Where the data ends, that's where the commission's judgment begins,” argued FCC Associate General Counsel Jacob Lewis Tuesday in support of the FCC's 2010 and 2014 quadrennial review orders and subsequent order on reconsideration. Since eliminating the rules served the public interest, the agency didn't need to know the impacts of those decisions on diversity, he said.
FCC-proposed 2019 regulatory fee hikes aren't transparent and the agency didn't provide enough information about them to form a basis for substantive comments, said satellite carriers, 50 state broadcaster associations and Incompas in comments posted through Monday in docket 19-105 by Friday's comment deadline. Similar criticisms were raised by NAB and other broadcasters in earlier comments (see 1906070063).
The 2019 regulatory fee NPRM doesn’t provide sufficient explanation for the hikes it proposes, commented NAB, Nexstar and Gray Television, posted in docket 19-105 Friday. The agency proposes “extraordinary” fee increases for radio stations while providing “little or no explanation” for why, said NAB. The NPRM “spends a mere four words” explaining why it proposes increasing the fees for TV satellite stations, said Gray and Nexstar. “The proposed elimination of a separate flat fee for satellite stations is unjustified as a matter of policy, would be arbitrary and capricious if implemented, and has been insufficiently noticed to regulates.” The FCC has a “checkered history” of not explaining regulatory fee changes, NAB said. Expand the base of contributors to regulatory fees beyond only FCC license holders, it said. Ray Baum’s Act eliminates a reference to licensees from the agency’s regulatory fee authority, the association said. “Unlicensed spectrum users and their advocates” have “placed significant demands on limited Commission resources,” NAB said. “As it stands now, radio and TV stations are paying for the FCC staff to handle this work.” Marantha Broadcasting said the FCC proposal to base regulatory fees for broadcasters on population served rather than designated market area will disadvantage VHF stations, which must rely on heightened power to overcome interference: “In many cases these fees are being disproportionally assessed on parties who can least afford them.” Waive the regulatory fees of radio broadcasters assisted through its incubator program, commented the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council. The fees could “render it more difficult for incubated entities to thrive under the program,” they said. Reallocate the distribution of fees between submarine cables and other international bearer circuits to put more of the burden on the cables, asked CenturyLink. Adjust the fees “to better align the fees imposed with the statutory requirement that such fees be ‘related to the benefits provided to the payor of the fee by the Commission’s activities,’” the telco said.
The FCC is widely seen to be starting from behind in Tuesday’s oral argument in Prometheus IV. That doesn’t mean anyone is certain how the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will react to an incubator program, standing challenges against petitioners, and broadcaster arguments for further deregulation (see 1905220074), said many academics and broadcast attorneys in interviews last week.
The FCC Media Bureau designated radio licensee Entertainment Media Trust for hearing over allegations it wasn’t truthful whether its St. Louis-area AM stations are under control of felon Robert Romanik. “If found to have committed these serious violations, EMT’s licenses may be canceled,” said an FCC news release issued with the hearing designation order. The stations are KZQZ St. Louis and in Illinois: KFTK East St. Louis, WQQW Highland and KQQZ Fairview Heights. A “multiyear inquiry” showed Romanik -- convicted of obstruction of justice and bank fraud -- created EMT, provided the funds to buy the stations, negotiated on behalf of the station, and identified himself as a station owner on federal forms. Romanik wasn’t listed as a party on the station’s FCC applications and he assigned EMT’s interest in the stations to his girlfriend, the release said. “The hearing will be scheduled and heard by the Commission’s Administrative Law Judge." Neither Romanik nor EMT’s attorney responded to calls for comment. Considered alongside the Sinclair HDO, Wednesday’s order seems to suggest the FCC is more willing to challenge alleged misrepresentations and designate issues for hearing than it has been in the past, said Womble Bond radio attorney John Garziglia in an interview.
The FCC should use its upcoming relocation as an opportunity to break up its “siloed” organizational structure, said a joint letter to all five commissioners signed by a collection of former officials, academics and longtime advocates. They included ex-Commissioners Henry Rivera and Deborah Taylor Tate and former General Counsel Henry Geller. “Because companies offering essentially substitutable services are often regulated by different bureaus, and thus receive different treatment, the FCC's legacy 'silo structure' is no longer viable.” The agency should replace the current Media, Wireless and Wireline bureaus with three “function-based” divisions: Economics and Policy, Licensing and Grantmaking, and Engineering, the letter said. They suggested an alternative, incremental plan that would replace the Wireless and Wireline bureaus with one focused on universal service, and another focused on competition, pricing, broadband and network deployment: “This would effectively maintain the current bureau divisions while removing their traditional industry silos.” Function-based bureaus make it tougher for industries to “capture” the agency, since it's more difficult for any one firm to use intense lobbying and “the revolving door” to dominate a pan-industry entity, the ad hoc group said. The reorganization could also aid diversity by applying nondiscrimination regulations across all industries regulated by the agency, the letter said. The FCC's upcoming move to new headquarters is a “a rare opportunity” to reorganize, the letter said. “If past relocations are a guide regarding what we may expect, many employees will use this opportunity to retire or take jobs in the private sector -- thereby creating an opportunity for a relatively painless restructure of the agency.” The agency doesn't have to wait for congressional action to reorganize, but it would be wise to make sure Congress is involved in the process, Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council Senior Adviser and letter signatory David Honig told us. The letter suggests the agency open a rulemaking and seek comment on such an organization, and convene an advisory committee to study the issue. Other signatories include Free State Foundation President Randolph May, former NAB General Counsel Jane Mago, former Cable Bureau Chief Deborah Lathen, and University of Florida Public Utility Research Center Director and Trump transition team member Mark Jamison. The agency and Chairman Ajit Pai's office didn't comment.