A draft order on regulatory fees circulated to FCC commissioners’ offices last week would create a 13% FY2022 regulatory fee increase for broadcasters and doesn’t include proposed shifts in the way full-time equivalents (FTEs) are allocated to bureaus, industry and FCC officials told us.
Consumers and advertisers are increasingly gravitating toward free ad-supported streaming television (FAST), from linear and on demand viewing, said panelists Tuesday at the Stream TV virtual advertising summit. FAST channels such as Amazon’s Freevee and Paramount’s Pluto are free, easy to access because many don’t require logins, and are increasingly offering a wider variety of high-quality content, said panelists from Tivo, Roku and Crackle. Combined with ad-supported video on demand, FAST offerings are starting to supplant MVPD video subscriptions, said Scott Maddux, TiVo vice president-global content strategy & business.
Nexstar bought a controlling interest in the CW network, the broadcaster announced Monday. Other broadcasters have purchased content networks in the past, but the largest U.S. station owner buying a national network just beneath the scope of the big four is a new sign of broadcast groups’ increasing drive to own programming, analysts and industry officials said. The deal is intended to give Nexstar “a seat at the table regarding future changes in the network affiliate ecosystem,” and increased exposure in the national ad market, said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook on a press call about the transaction Monday.
Broadcasters want the FCC to allow the ATSC 3.0 substantially similar requirement to sunset and remove other limits on 3.0 broadcasts, but MVPD groups and Public Knowledge say those restrictions must remain to avoid pressure on consumers, according to comments posted Tuesday in docket 16-142.
An anticipated FCC order on ATSC 3.0 multicasting is taking longer than expected and may be slowing aspects of the transition to the new standard, broadcast industry officials told us. The Media Bureau has continued to grant requests for special temporary authority as a workaround, but some say that’s not enough. “We have markets backed up where we aren’t going to be able to launch until we have this flexibility,” said John Hane, CEO of 3.0 consortium BitPath.
Lawmakers and diversity groups disagreed with industry trade groups about a petition for the FCC to require a vast swath of media companies -- including streaming services -- to report diversity data to the FCC. The schism surfaced in comments filed by Friday’s deadline in docket 22-209. “The media and entertainment industry is notorious for excluding people from historically underserved backgrounds,” said a letter of support from 20 Democratic House and Senate lawmakers, including Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.
The FCC's Communications Equity and Diversity Council needs more time to draft model policies for localities to prevent digital discrimination, the group said at its meeting Friday, which had been expected to include a vote on final recommendations for the agency (see 2202230065.
The Universal Service Fund should be revised and the FCC should consider requiring contributions from tech companies, said a bipartisan group of current and former commissioners on a virtual panel Wednesday hosted by the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council. The group, including former Chairs William Kennard and Richard Wiley, also discussed the lack of an FCC majority, the digital divide and media ownership.
NPR and FM6 broadcasters now agree that existing FM6 stations should be allowed to continue and that Channel 6 should be made available for noncommercial educational stations, but NAB and public TV groups have concerns about repurposing spectrum needed for the ATSC 3.0 transition, according to comments posted in docket 03-185. “Any reduction in available spectrum could hinder both noncommercial and commercial television stations as they voluntarily and rapidly adopt NextGen TV,” said a public TV joint filing. Proposals to limit the number of FM6 broadcasters and drop Channel 6 interference protections also drew concern from broadcast commenters. “Limiting FM6 operations to those who happened to take a stab at investing in the technology for a six-month Engineering STA is an arbitrary cut-off,” said Common Frequency.
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington’s call last week for the FCC to examine its dependency on Nielsen Media Data (see 2207140055) has broadcaster and programmer support, but an accredited alternative isn't available, said broadcast and ratings industry officials in interviews. In some instances, moving away from Nielsen could be prohibitively disruptive, they said. “For some rules there are viable alternatives,” said Rob Folliard, Gray Television senior vice president-government relations and distribution. “But the entire industry is built on Nielsen" designated market areas. “We believe that this could open up competition and allow for competitors to Nielsen,” said LPTV Broadcasters Association Executive Director Peter Saad.