Grant Bryan Broadcasting’s petition for the FCC to allow AM stations to voluntarily transition to all-digital HD radio, commented NAB, posted Friday in RM-11836. “We agree with the Petitioner that all-digital AM service will allow broadcasters to provide substantially improved sound quality that could help AM stations to retain and attract listeners in the increasingly competitive audio marketplace.” There's broad support for the proposal among broadcasters, NAB said. The FCC should provide an incentive for AM stations to make the jump since HD Radio receiver penetration hasn’t reached 50 percent in any market, said engineering consulting firm Communications Technologies Inc. “Promptly” issue an NPRM on allowing a transition “on a voluntary basis under an expedited, simplified elective process,” said the California and Missouri broadcasters associations. Transmitting using all-digital MA3 mode as the petition suggests would help AM “achieve aural and visual parity with other services found in vehicle entertainment systems,” said Hubbard Radio.
DOJ’s recent successful court battle to require Florida company RM Broadcasting register as a foreign agent for arranging broadcasts of Russian state-owned media “demonstrates renewed effort” by the agency to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act, DOJ said Monday. The case was the first FARA civil enforcement action since 1991, and was decided in Florida federal court last week (in Pacer). DOJ had argued that by arranging broadcasts of Russian radio service Sputnik on WZHF(AM) Capitol Heights, Maryland, RM Broadcasting has been acting as an agent of Russian government-controlled news agency Rossiya Segodnya. RM sued DOJ in October and DOJ brought a counterclaim. Though RM Broadcasting had argued that it merely brokers the sale of airtime and had no part in content decisions, the court ruled last week that RM’s contract with Rossiya Segodnya requires it to perform a variety of services for the news agency that amount to acting as its agent. “The language of the Services Agreement contradicts RM Broadcasting’s assertion that it only buys and resells radio airtime,” said the judgment. RM Broadcasting’s attorney Nicole Waid, of FisherBroyles, said in an interview the company is evaluating options for an appeal. DOJ’s ramping up of FARA enforcement against broadcasters is a response to a 2016 Office of Inspector General report that identified FARA as an underutilized rule. So far, the agency has gone only after smaller companies such as RM Broadcasting and Reston Translator (see 1712040054), but FARA’s broad language could allow the agency to bring the same sort of enforcement actions against larger Internet and cable companies, Waid said. “Our concern is, where does it stop?” Waid said. “The American people have a right to know if a foreign flag waves behind speech broadcast in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers in the release.
Apollo Global Management hasn’t adequately demonstrated public interest benefits of its proposed purchase of stations from Northwest Broadcasting and Cox, the American TV Alliance (ATVA) commented and anticonsolidation groups petitioned to deny, in filings posted in docket 19-98 Monday (see 1903060078). The FCC should force Apollo to provide public interest justifications for the top-four duopolies and “quadropolies” that would result from the deal even though most of those combinations involve low-power TV stations or multicast channels, said ATVA. MVPD groups pushed the FCC to regulate top-four combinations of LPTV stations in recent comments on the 2018 quadrennial review. “If faced with an application for a full-power triopoly or quadropoly, the FCC would dismiss it out of hand,” ATVA said. Apollo seeks to use after-acquired clauses to raise the retransmission consent rates of all the Cox stations to match the higher rates currently enjoyed by the Northwest stations, ATVA said. “These price increases appear to be the main purpose of the transaction and why Apollo asked the Commission to approve its Northwest acquisition before its Cox acquisition.” Since it's a private equity firm, Apollo and subsidiary Terrier Media Buyer could “implement aggressive cost cutting strategies” that could include newsroom layoffs and homogenized programming, said Common Cause, Common Cause Ohio and the United Church of Christ jointly. Apollo’s filings “outlining vague putative public interest benefits and “corporate status as a private equity firm” don’t “suggest any commitment to localism,” the groups said. Darryl Beauford -- a viewer of Cox's WSB-TV Atlanta -- said the deal should be rejected because he was denied access to the station’s public file when he tried to view it in 2015 after complaining about the station’s content. “The conduct of WSB-TV is unbecoming of a trustee of the Community based on the fact that purposely, with full intention, violated this Core Regulation.” Beauford said. Cox and Apollo didn’t comment.
There’s room for TV stations to improve electronic newsroom technique (ENT) captions, said representatives of consumer groups at an FCC-hosted forum on local news captioning Friday. Broadcasters described in-company captioning audits and efforts to internally police caption quality. Advocates from the National Association of the Deaf, Gallaudet University and other consumer groups said more should be done.
Commissioners unanimously approved an order on FM translator interference Thursday. It includes a proposed 45 dBu interference contour and imposes a population-based minimum number on FM stations seeking to lodge interference complaints, Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey said. That was expected, (see 1905070064).
Sinclair executives think broadcasters made a strong case to DOJ on advertising and remain optimistic about ATSC 3.0, saying they also expect a bump from political ads starting later this year. The company's Q1 sales gained 9 percent to $722.1 million from the year-ago quarter and it expects by year-end to start feeling the political advertising boost from the 2020 election, said CEO Chris Ripley and others on Q1 call Wednesday. Ripley said the broadcaster’s recent deal with Disney for 21 regional sports networks was the largest in his company's history (see 1905030059), saying Sinclair is “diversifying its revenue mix.”
Byron Allen-owned content company Entertainment Studios will become a broadcaster through buying Bayou City Broadcasting’s four TV stations in Evansville, Indiana, and Lafayette, Louisiana, said a news release Tuesday. Allen recently partnered with Sinclair in a $10.6 billion deal for regional sports networks (see 1905030059) and is buying the stations through subsidiary Allen Media Broadcasting. Though the deal includes all of Bayou City’s stations, Bayou City CEO Dujuan McCoy will remain in broadcasting through the pending Nexstar/Tribune deal, which if approved will include the sale of divestitures in Indiana to his company Circle City Broadcasting (see 1904080046). Since Allen is a “new entrant” to broadcasting and the deal won’t involve any overlaps, it’s not likely to be held up by regulators, McCoy said in an interview. Since McCoy is staying in the industry, the deal also increases the amount of TV stations with a minority owner, he pointed out. Bayou City's stations are Evansville's WEVV-TV and WEEV and KLAF-LD and KADN-TV in Lafayette, the release said.
The FM translator interference order will require complaint minimums more in line with the 25 requested by NAB than the possible 65 (see 1905010162) that would have been needed from some full-power FM stations to lodge complaints under the draft released in April, industry and FCC officials said in interviews this week.
Panelists from Facebook, Comcast, the NAB and Tegna repeatedly agreed at a DOJ workshop on advertising competition that broadcast commercials and digital ads are substitutes for each other and therefore in competition. “We are a likely substitute or swap for your attention,” said Facebook Vice President-Business Product Marketing Ty Ahmad-Taylor. “We are trying to compete to get those dollars as well.”
Broadcast industry officials, advertisers and academics presented differing stances Thursday at the first day of a DOJ Antitrust Division workshop on whether linear local TV spots compete with digital promotions.