Sinclair will offload stations into a divestiture trust to bring its proposed buy of Tribune under the 39 percent FCC national ownership cap. The final combination, under the UHF discount, would reach 37.3 percent of households, Sinclair said in an amendment to deal filings Wednesday. In three markets, Sinclair will seek to take advantage of the FCC’s new openness to common ownership of two top-four stations in the same market, and offloads other stations to bring the deal into compliance with current rules.
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The looming fight on Capitol Hill over President Donald Trump’s bid to cut federal funding to CPB in the president's FY 2019 budget proposal is shaping up to end the same way as did the administration’s CPB elimination proposal for FY 2018, with lawmakers instead maintaining CPB’s existing appropriations level, congressional appropriators and public broadcasting supporters told us. The administration proposed cutting federal funding to CPB and 21 other entities beginning in FY 2019 as part of a bid to cut the deficit by $3.6 trillion (see 1802120037). The House and Senate Appropriations committees cleared FY 2018 federal budgets last year maintaining CPB annual funding at $445 million (see 1705230041, 1707200065 and 1709070064).
Workforce automation won't result in the mass unemployment many experts predict, but modern American workforce-training programs are ill-equipped to deal with rapidly changing tech, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reported. Forecasts say 15 to 85 percent of the workforce could transition to automation in coming decades. McKinsey & Co. in November projected as much as 30 percent of modern workforce activity could be replaced by automation by 2030, saying 15 percent is more realistic. ITIF President Robert Atkinson said during an event Tuesday that many agree with 15 percent, but some have much bleaker forecasts, painting a technological “apocalypse.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai rejected calls he recuse himself on Sinclair buying Tribune, in a letter to Senate Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., released Tuesday. The Office of Inspector General is investigating Pai's actions on rulemakings that benefited Sinclair. Free Press and Demand Progress sought recusal (see 1802150031).
RALEIGH -- Capitol Broadcasting remains “on the fence” whether to use 4K or 1080p in the transition to ATSC 3.0, Pete Sockett, head of engineering and operations, told us Monday, repeating comments he made at May’s ATSC conference (see 1705160044). Sockett spoke at a demonstration that Capitol organized with partners, including NBCUniversal, NAB, LG, Samsung and the Korean government-funded Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), to showcase 3.0's capabilities. In addition to showing 3.0 as a carrier for Ultra HD video, the demo also previewed 3.0-capable advanced emergency alerting on an LG TV and showcased a prototype 3.0 home gateway for interactive content developed by NAB Pilot.
Iridium continues to have profound worries about Ligado's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service, CEO Matt Desch said in an interview. He said there needs to be industry-driven discussion on tackling space debris management. The company, meanwhile, expects this year to be in a position to start paying down debt and generating free cash flow instead of investing vast fortunes on building and launching satellites, he said.
Arizona lawmakers are moving a bill to ban state regulation of VoIP and IP-enabled services, after the Vermont Public Utilities Commission decided fixed VoIP is a telecom service under federal law and while the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals weighs Charter Communications’ challenge of the Minnesota PUC claiming authority. States continue to address VoIP authority in absence of a definitive FCC ruling on whether fixed interconnected VoIP is a telecom service that states may regulate or an information service that states may not regulate.
Stakeholders in the local number portability administrator transition remain deadlocked over a contingency plan to roll back LNPA functions to incumbent Neustar if the systems of incoming administrator Telcordia (iconectiv) initially fail, parties told the FCC. Telcordia, which backs a North American Portability Management "industry-led" manual rollback plan, said "discussions are at an impasse" and unlikely to be resolved under an existing timetable. Neustar, which prefers an automated approach, said it and NAPM weren't able to agree on the testing of a manual rollback to meet a scheduled April 8 initial regional system handoff. The FCC and NAPM didn't comment. Chairman Ajit Pai demanded parties reach agreement by last Friday (see 1802020070).
Carriers sat out buildup to the FCC NPRM on spectrum above 95 GHz, the spectrum horizons proceeding, teed up by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for a vote at Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting. The NPRM appears headed to a 5-0 vote, agency and industry officials said Tuesday. The outlook is less clear on a second mostly wireless item -- rules implementing Section 7 of the Communications Act, which require the FCC to respond to petitions or applications proposing new technologies and services within a year, the officials said. The agency didn't comment.
MVPDs and broadcasters largely backed the FCC in its NPRM proposing changes to its Part 76 rules to allow more use of electronic delivery of MVPD communications. Broadcasters in docket 17-317 comments also called the proceedings good opportunities for changes in triennial carriage election rules. Replies are due March 2.