Media Bureau Updates on Broadcast Ownership Data, ATSC 3.0 Rulemakings, LMS Transition
The “time lag” will be shorter on the release of future form 323 ownership data, said FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey at an FCBA brown-bag lunch discussion Thursday, after being asked about the bureau’s recent release of 2017 ownership data. Carey and other Media Bureau officials at the event also discussed the transition from the consolidated database system (CDBS), upcoming rulemakings and ATSC 3.0. Carey said the bureau is already working on the data collected from the 2019 forms but didn’t say whether the next such report would include the most recent information.
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“Think spring” for an order on relaxing rules requiring broadcasters to publish notices in local newspapers, said Media Bureau Deputy Chief Holly Saurer. Bureau staffers are working to complete the order in time to allow TV stations renewing their licenses this summer to benefit from the expected rule changes, said Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner.
Several ATSC 3.0 items -- including the distributed transmission systems petition, leftover matters from the 3.0 further notice, and petitions for reconsideration -- are also being actively worked on and should get action in “months,” said Carey. The bureau is also looking at expanding video description requirements to more designated market areas and a media modernization item addressing program carriage issues cited by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in a January blog post.
The bureau isn’t likely to put out further clarifications or orders on the remanded rules from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Prometheus IV decision, said Industry Analysis Division Deputy Chief Radhika Karmarkar. The agency doesn’t want to get ahead of itself with the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in the works, she said. That also means there’s unlikely to be further action on the agency’s broadcast incubator program until that case is resolved, she said. The Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment, which worked extensively on the incubator program, will meet next in the spring, she said.
The post-incentive auction repacking has “gone pretty well,” said Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman. As of Feb. 20, 778 stations have vacated their pre-auction channels, with 83 percent having transitioned to their final facilities, she said. Kreisman said there are about 200 left to transition. Phase eight of the repacking ends in March.
The bureau is planning to finish transitioning audio functions from CDBS to the licensing management system sometime this year, Shuldiner said. He said the transition has been “painful to some extent.” Audio renewal forms and all FM functions have been transitioned to the LMS, and the next targets are assignment and transferal applications and AM radio forms, he said. As the transition continues, the information on CDBS becomes less complete, so users should check both CDBS and LMS for the information they need, he said. Carey said modernization of the cable operations and licensing system has been funded and updates on that process will be available by October.