“No aspects” of NAB’s proposal to relax radio subcap rules “would require, or even directly encourage” radio groups to sell off their AM stations, the association replied on the quadrennial review in docket 18-349 (see story in the May 2 issue). The FCC shouldn't reject FM ownership deregulation “based on speculation about reduced demand for AM stations,” NAB said. “That would be the regulatory equivalent of cutting off radio’s nose to spite its face.” Other filers disagreed, in comments posted later Thursday.
Broadcasters aren't sure precisely what the most profitable application for ATSC 3.0 will be, but the financial viability of the new standard isn't dependent on getting the tech into phone handsets, said industry officials from Fox, Nexstar and Tegna at the 2019 Next Gen TV Conference Thursday. Inclusion in mobile phones “would be nice to have, but none of us were counting on that when we made the investment,” said Tegna Senior Vice President-Strategy Ed Busby. NAB President Gordon Smith at the 2019 NAB Show expressed concern about smartphone makers including 3.0 tech (see 1904080066).
The biggest challenges to setting up an ATSC 3.0 station are legal rather than technical, said Pearl TV Engineer Dave Folsom Wednesday on a panel. Technical issues are “straightforward,” but programming agreements, sharing arrangements and rights issues generate an “immense amount of legal work” behind the scenes, said Folsom, who oversees Pearl's ATSC pilot project in Phoenix. “The legal piece is going to be by far the long pole in the tent,” said Sasha Javid, chief operating officer for the Spectrum Consortium, at the ASTC event.
Weather delays from the rainiest 12 months on record, a shortage of tower crews and, to a slight degree, steel tariffs are making the post-incentive auction repacking tough for some broadcasters. FCC flexibility and increasing use of auxiliary antennas are keeping it largely on track for the moment, said broadcasters, attorneys, manufacturers, tower crews and the FCC. Though at the repack’s start, industry officials had been concerned that snowballing delays would become a big problem by the current phase (phase 3), they now predict big problems in 5 and 6, which have the tightest deadlines.
The FCC will begin accepting applications Tuesday for TV stations to transition to ATSC 3.0, said a Media Bureau public notice Thursday. Though the commission’s ATSC 3.0 order was approved in November 2017, broadcasters have been waiting for the agency to create a form and process in the FCC’s license management system (LMS) for the transition.
Low-power FM and noncommercial educational broadcast interests expressed general support in comments posted through Tuesday in docket 19-3 for FCC-proposed changes to processes for licensees to apply for NCE and LPFM licenses during filing windows. They also suggested some tweaks. “Most of the changes proposed are inconsequential for most existing operators or most prospective operators,” said LPFM broadcaster Jeff Sibert, president of Park Public Radio. “Substantial reform is needed to address significant short-comings in the NCE and LPFM service.”
The industry-sponsored TV Parental Guidelines Oversight Monitoring Board (TVOMB) has been “insufficiently accessible and transparent to the public,” said the FCC Media Bureau in a report to Congress. It was posted Thursday on the TV ratings body and the accuracy of its ratings, as expected (see 1905140069).
A draft order on cable leased access rules set for the June commissioners’ meeting would eliminate requirements that cable companies provide part-time access to leased access programmers and include a Further NPRM on modifying the rate formula, FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson said Wednesday at a Media Institute luncheon. Cable companies have supported eliminating the part-time requirement, while leased access programmers want it preserved (see 1905140059). Along with leased access, Johnson discussed upcoming FCC legal cases and the Office of General Counsel (OGC) under Chairman Ajit Pai.
The FCC will deliver its report to Congress on the TV ratings system Wednesday but won’t release the report publicly until 48 hours later, an FCC spokesperson told us. Wednesday is the due date for the report, which was required in the 2019 Consolidated Appropriations Act. It was provided to eighth-floor offices ahead of its release but was put out by the Media Bureau on delegated authority, requiring no commissioner votes, the spokesperson said. Parents Television Council President Tim Winter declined to comment on the report before he has seen its contents but said the bulk of the record supports improving the TV ratings system. PTC is widely seen as the impetus behind the directive from Congress, and the group delivered 1,400 petitions to the FCC calling for change last week (see 1905070046). Little action is expected to result from the report (see 1903010046).
The only media item the FCC will tackle at its June 6 commissioners’ meeting concerns cable leased access rules, meaning action on relaxing kidvid rules isn’t likely until at least July, agency and industry officials told us this week. Broadcast industry officials and child advocates expect revamped kidvid regulations this summer. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said last week he hopes “to be concluding” the kidvid proceeding “in the very near future.”