A draft FCC order that would eliminate a requirement for broadcaster midterm equal employment opportunity reports is widely expected to be approved with minimal changes at the agency’s Jan. 30 meeting -- if that meeting happens (see 1901160051), broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us.
The partial federal shutdown isn’t affecting the repacking directly. But inability to get transaction applications and other non-auction filings processed is making things tough for some broadcasters, lawyers and industry officials told us.
Using public TV spectrum to datacast important information to first responders will allow navigation of increasingly complex emergency situations for agencies that have become more dependent on connected devices, datacasting advocates said during a public safety webinar. Such backers said the fact they were invited to speak about it at the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) event is a step toward getting wider traction for the technology.
A draft NPRM that would simplify processes for prospective low-power FM and noncommericial educational (NCE) station operators to apply for licenses during filing windows isn’t expected to draw controversy or much pushback at the FCC, said broadcast attorneys and industry officials in interviews. Most of the proposed rule changes would have little practical effect until a filing window for LPFM or NCE licenses is opened. It’s unlikely such windows would be opened until the rulemaking proceeding kicked off by the NPRM is complete, said Garvey Schubert's Melodie Virtue. The current proposals would mostly “get rid of some regulatory gotchas” that were barriers to entry, Virtue said. The NPRM is set for commissioners' Jan. 30 meeting.
Judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit appeared skeptical of the FCC’s position on a 15-year-old defaulted debt by former C-block spectrum licensee GLH, during oral argument Wednesday. Courts are operating during the shutdown (see 1901080004) but FCC attorneys were able to proceed only because the hearing concerned a spectrum auction, and spectrum auction matters are funded independently of other commission operations, the agency said.
An FCC-created demo webpage may have inadvertently caused broadcasters to violate online public file rules, Pillsbury Winthrop broadcast attorney Scott Flick blogged Tuesday. The webpage -- publicfiles-demo.fcc.gov -- was created in 2016 to show broadcasters how to file documents in their online public files, but broadcasters apparently have been mistaking it for the actual filing page, and filing their documents there, Flick said. “If it was a phishing site, it couldn’t have been better constructed,” Flick said in an interview. The page was taken down Tuesday after Flick’s post. An FCC spokesman told us the agency will work with broadcasters after the shutdown “to remedy any problems.” Before being removed, the page was the initial result on Google for “public inspection file,” and remained up even after the actual FCC inspection file database went offline because of the shutdown, Flick said. Flick heard about it after a broadcaster unaware the site was only a demo told him the FCC’s database was back online. “The website looked like the online Public File database in every respect,” Flick said, but showed uploads only through September. “Curiously, there is no hint anywhere on the demo webpage that it is just a demo and not the real online Public File database,” Flick said. The test site likely has led many broadcasters to think they uploaded their public files when they actually haven’t, he said. That could leave them vulnerable to thousands of dollars in fines, he said. The demo page also could be responsible for the FCC finding in December that over 1,000 radio stations hadn’t uploaded their required files, Flick said. Quarterly kidvid reports and issues program lists are due Thursday, and broadcasters will have to upload them to the correct database after the shutdown ends, Flick said.
The new year won't see a major decline in uncertainty for radio and TV station owners considering big mergers and acquisitions, at least right away. Questions about the final disposition of FCC rules on M&A, divestitures that haven't been finalized and other issues remain pending, an array of experts agreed in interviews last week.
RM Broadcasting should register as a foreign agent and may not be accurately representing its control over the content on WZHF(AM) Capitol Heights, Maryland, by Russian government-controlled news agency Rossiya Segodnya, said DOJ in filings (in Pacer) in Florida federal court Monday. WZHF broadcasts content provided by Russian radio service Sputnik. Justice has called for RM to register as a foreign agent since 2017, and RM sued DOJ over the matter in October. RM is a broker of broadcast time on WZHF and doesn’t have any control over content, said Nicole Waid, RM’s attorney with FisherBroyles, in an interview. “The allegation that RM Broadcasting engages in the ‘business of leasing broadcast airtime’ is vague and may not fully characterize the nature of RM Broadcasting's relationship” with FCC licensees, DOJ said. FCC records show WZHF is licensed to Way Broadcasting, and Waid said Way is an entirely separate company from RM. Wednesday, Way, DOJ and Rossiya Segedonya didn’t comment. “The relationship between RM Broadcasting and Rossiya Segodnya is strictly an arms-length commercial business transaction” and doesn’t involve “an agency relationship,” RM said in its complaint. Reston Translator, a broadcaster retransmitting Sputnik, reluctantly registered as a foreign agent in 2017 after similar DOJ demands (see [Ref:1712040054]). Registering as a foreign agent would allow DOJ more scrutiny of RM’s activities and make it harder for the company to do business, Waid said: “There are ramifications to registering as a foreign agent.”
A $495,000 settlement with NBC/Telemundo-owned stations over years-old, repeated violations of the FCC children’s TV rules doesn’t make clear the exact extent of the transgressions and may be a prelude to expected action to relax kidvid rules, said broadcast and children’s advocacy attorneys in interviews Wednesday. The consent decree and license renewal order were released early afternoon on New Year’s Eve -- the same day it was adopted, said a spokesperson. The item was also in Wednesday's Daily Digest.
Broadcasters Aren't Depending on FCC Repacking Outreach; Public Television Seeking to Handle for All
FCC consumer education efforts about the repacking and channel rescanning are focused on local markets, but broadcasters aren’t depending on the agency to get the word out, and public TV stations are looking to take on consumer outreach for all, said FCC and industry officials in interviews.