The FCC Public Safety Bureau seeks comment on communications service outages caused by Hurricane Michael and the FCC’s response, said a public notice Friday. With 36 questions on several areas of focus, comments are due Dec. 17. The PN seeks comment on how service providers, 911 call centers and broadcasters prepared for and responded to the hurricane, and how FCC actions affected matters. The PN specifies areas of Florida that were slower to have their service restored, an issue previously highlighted by Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1810160056). “While the restoration of communications services in most areas affected by Michael proceeded at a normal speed, the recovery was much slower in Bay County and Gulf County,” the PN said. “One week after Michael made landfall, more than one-third of cell sites in those two counties were still out of service.” The PN asks if service providers implemented best practices, and for details about fiber cuts, and the wireless resiliency cooperative framework. The PN seeks comment on how the storm affected public safety answering points, and whether wireless and broadcast emergency alerts were effective. It asks about the agency’s use of the disaster information reporting system during the storm: “What DIRS information proved most useful to first responders? Are there extraneous or unnecessary data points contained in DIRS that detract from its overall usefulness?” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel previously sought hearings on the FCC’s hurricane response, and said in a statement that the PN is a good start, though not enough by itself. “Seeking comment is a correct first step,” Rosenworcel said. “We also need for the FCC to make a commitment to do a timely report. It took a year for this agency to issue a report on the 2017 hurricane season. That’s unacceptable,” she said. “We have to do better.” The FCC didn’t comment on that.
The numbers show broadcasters aren’t going to be able to complete the repacking on the FCC’s 39-month timeline without adjustment, said tower industry and broadcast industry officials in interviews. The rate at which stations are completing repacking moves, number of tower crews available to move them, and the advancing phase schedule add up to many broadcasters in later phases not completing their repacking on time, they said.
The FCC is expected to issue a proposal kicking off the 2018 quadrennial review next month. Many industry officials foresee a focus on AM/FM subcaps, top-four duopoly rules, and how competition in the media market is defined.
Telecom equipment provider CommScope's purchase of consumer electronics company Arris for about $7.4 billion is expected to face smooth regulatory sailing. CommScope is getting a $1 billion minority ownership investment assist from the Carlyle Group, which used to own a stake, the equipment maker announced Thursday. CommScope CEO Eddie Edwards said the deal would position the two companies to take advantage of the rise of 5G and the IoT. Edwards will remain chief of the combined company (see the personals section).
Sinclair, Tribune and several other broadcasters agreed on a consent decree with DOJ connected with an investigation into sharing advertising sales “pacing” information, according to Sinclair, Tribune, broadcast attorneys and a Justice official. The department is expected to file the settlement in court Thursday, Sinclair said. The consent decree will resolve the DOJ investigation, Sinclair said.
The FCC hasn’t arrived at a number for a new national TV ownership cap and is considered unlikely to address the matter in 2018. Lack of industry consensus on a single proposal for a new national cap, the absence of outside pressure to act, uncertainty about Tuesday's elections, and the FCC schedule for the rest of the year may be factors in the lack of action, industry watchers told us. The limit isn't on the November FCC meeting agenda.
NAB and low-power broadcast group HC2 endorsed the National Translator Association’s “fast track” proposal, in replies on repacking reimbursement posted Monday in docket 18-214. NTA’s fast-track option would cap reimbursable repacking expenses for users at $31,000 and eliminate the requirement for upfront estimates, which could help reduce costs, HC2 said. This proposal could “help streamline filing requirements for small entities that lack dedicated staff ... [and] contain costs by encouraging parties to file for fast track reimbursement capped at a reasonable level,” NAB said. The plan is intended to ease the reimbursement process for translators and LPTV stations with fewer resources and staff, NTA said. NAB also sparred with T-Mobile over whether stations that accepted repacking aid from T-Mobile should be eligible for reimbursement funds. Not reimbursing the stations “would simply punish third parties like T-Mobile for their efforts to accelerate the relocation of LPTV stations and strongly discourage any other third parties from coming forward in the future,” T-Mobile said. NAB characterized reimbursing the stations as indirectly reimbursing T-Mobile, and said “Congress appropriated additional funding to protect broadcasters, viewers and listeners -- not to provide ancillary benefits to other entities.” NTA opposed a proposal from Microsoft to reimburse LPTV stations for full-mask filters to preserve white spaces. “There is no justification for a station adopting a particular filter beyond its own needs, and receiving government reimbursement,” NTA said. “If Microsoft wants this to be done, it should establish its own reimbursement fund.”
E.W. Scripps’s $521 million buy of 15 TV stations from Cordillera Communications isn’t expected to run into regulatory problems. The deal and spinoffs acquired as part of the pending Gray Television/Raycom deal would put Scripps’ reach at 21 percent of U.S. households -- the cap is 39 percent -- and the Scripps purchase doesn’t include any overlaps or combinations that require top four approval from the FCC, Scripps executives said in a conference call and release Monday.
White House tariffs on steel are beginning to increase prices for companies involved in the post-incentive auction repacking, but the tariffs aren’t pushing up costs as much as competition for crews and resources is, said antenna and tower industry officials in interviews. “The main thing increasing the costs are the crew prices,” said Electronics Research Inc. Vice President-Marketing Bill Harland. “It’s an impact,” said FDH Infrastructure Business Development Manager Don Doty of the tariffs. “But the repack itself -- the demand -- is raising prices higher.”
A First Amendment challenge of FCC kidvid rules could be successful yet politically fraught, broadcast attorneys told us, reacting to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's remarks at a Media Institute event Wednesday evening. In a speech on First Amendment threats, O'Rielly cautioned opponents of the proceeding that they “might want to reconsider” opposing his deregulation effort because a successful First Amendment challenge could lead to the rules being struck down altogether. Legal scholars "quite convincingly" have made the case kidvid rules are content-based restriction that don't fulfill a compelling government interest, and thus are contrary to the Constitution, he said.