Low-power broadcasters, TV translator stations and FM broadcasters seeking reimbursement for costs from the post-incentive auction repacking have until Oct. 15 to file with the FCC, said the Incentive Auction Task Force and the Media Bureau in public notices Thursday on the procedures and banking policies. Industry officials told us many broadcasters paid for relocation costs some time ago and need the funds.
The FCC’s repacking plan is successfully relocating broadcasters to their new frequencies, but to meet deadlines many are relying on interim antennas that don’t necessarily reach all their viewers, said broadcasters and tower officials in interviews. “430 TV stations have moved off their pre-repack channels; 557 to go,” tweeted FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry Wednesday. “The process is going well, but a lot of work remains.” Success “is measured differently by the FCC,” said Ron Scalfani, logistics coordinator for tower company Precision Communications: “The FCC is reporting victory; we’re seeing a backup.” The transition's phase 4 ended last week; phase 5 has just begun and lasts until September.
Broadcaster disputes with AT&T and Dish will likely wrap up by September, political advertising will be bigger than ever before in 2020, and chipmaker partner Saankhya made its first sale of ATSC 3.0 chips, said Sinclair Broadcast executives on the company’s Q2 earnings call Wednesday. Sinclair’s total revenue for Q2 was $771 million, versus $730 million the prior year, it said in a news release.
The 2019 nationwide emergency alert system test appeared to go relatively smoothly Wednesday, said emergency alerting officials gauging early results.
A proposed $233,000 forfeiture against Cumulus and some subsidiaries wouldn’t adequately punish the company for violating a 2016 consent decree by allegedly breaking FCC sponsorship ID rules, said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks -- formerly of the agency’s Enforcement Bureau -- in a dissent on a notice of apparent liability issued Tuesday. The NAL lists $25,000 of that forfeiture specifically as the penalty for violating the consent decree, and that’s not enough, Starks said in a dissenting statement. The proposed forfeiture “does not follow well-established Commission precedent and is not, in my mind, commensurate with the misconduct and violations at issue.” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel concurred on the NAL.
A DOJ complaint and proposed consent decree on the $6.4 billion Nexstar/Tribune deal (see 1907310077) is seen as flagging an Indianapolis top-four duopoly as a possible issue in the purchase, said industry analysts. The DOJ filing also argues that MVPD and digital advertising aren’t substitutes for broadcast advertising, a view at Justice that some broadcasters had thought might be changing after a May broadcast competition workshop (see 1905020068). “I think they are recognizing the way they view broadcasting belongs in the I Love Lucy era,” said NAB CEO Gordon Smith in an interview on C-Span’s The Communicators, recorded last week.
Digital companies such as Apple and Facebook have grown so large they're comparable to “robber barons” and “corporate nation-states,” said NAB CEO Gordon Smith on an episode of C-Span’s The Communicators, set for telecast Saturday. “There comes a time where a private interest gets so large it has a public impact,” said Smith. “It is time to put some guard rails on.” The former Republican senator said he agreed with Democratic Party presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that “this is something Congress should seriously look at.”
The FCC unanimously approved an NPRM Tuesday on technical changes to low-power FM rules that had been slated for Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting. As expected, the proposals were noncontroversial and the item didn’t undergo substantive changes before getting an OK (see 1907150055). The quick approval and lack of back and forth suggests an order that arises out of the NPRM is also unlikely to meet with much opposition on the eighth floor, broadcast attorneys told us. The NPRM acknowledges that LPFM is developing into “a mature service,” said REC Networks founder Michelle Bradley in a blog post. The FCC issued a notice Wednesday announcing the item's deletion from Thursday's agenda.
Visiting the FCC eighth floor doesn’t have as much of a “dramatic impact” for the targets of enforcement proceedings as it can have in rulemakings, said Enforcement Bureau Chief Rosemary Harold in an FCBA brown-bag session Monday. Harold said she has regular meetings with commissioners and occasionally informs them of bureau proceedings to keep them from being surprised. Targets of enforcement actions only sometimes inform the Enforcement Bureau about eighth-floor visits, she said. “It doesn’t always happen,” Harold said.
The 2019 nationwide test of the emergency alert system planned for Aug. 7 (see 1907010041) is expected to be largely routine. It will involve aspects of the system that haven’t been tested since the first nationwide test in 2011, said emergency alerting officials and broadcasters in interviews. Since the 2011 test experienced some complications, they are seen as possible this time around as well, EAS and broadcast officials told us.