Monty Tayloe

The FCC adopted the 2018 quadrennial review order 3 to 2 late Friday -- on the eve of a three-day holiday weekend -- with both Republican commissioners dissenting. Released Tuesday afternoon, the item extends the top-four prohibition to low-power TV stations and multicast TV channels and makes methodology changes for determining a top-four station. Yet it declines to reconsider the markets in which broadcasters compete or to loosen radio ownership caps. “We take this action to preserve the efficacy of the Top-Four Prohibition because we find it necessary to prevent further exploitation of unintended ambiguities or gaps in the rule,” the order said. “Such exploitation harms competition and denies consumers the benefits of competition.

A Warner Bros. Discovery/Paramount Global combination will likely receive regulatory approval but could encounter challenges at the FCC or DOJ, said industry analysts, reacting to rumors Warner is eyeing a purchase of Paramount.

The FCC’s draft 2018 quadrennial review order had just two votes as of Wednesday evening, which could mean it won’t win approval in time to meet the Dec. 27 deadline that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit set (see 2309290056), according to FCC and industry officials. The item hasn’t undergone many changes since it was circulated. It would extend prohibitions on new top-four combinations to multicast and low-power TV stations and maintain rules limiting local radio ownership.

Wireless technology companies, satellite operators and a host of broadcast industry entities pitching ATSC 3.0-based methods responded to the FCC Public Safety Bureau’s call for partners to test ways to deliver wireless emergency alerts without using cell towers, according to comments filed in docket 22-160 by Monday’s deadline. “In some cases, mobile networks can be disrupted by the very emergency to which a WEA pertains,” said NAB. “A successful partnership with the Bureau could further bolster the case for ATSC 3.0 abroad” and encourage manufacturers to include 3.0 chips in their phones, said Sinclair’s ATSC 3.0 subsidiary One Media. Qualcomm, Skylo Technologies, PBS, 5G broadcast company XGen and others suggested their own solutions.

Twenty-seven Senate and House Democrats in a letter Friday urged the FCC to reinstate the collection of broadcaster equal employment opportunity data, seconding a Dec. 11 call for urgent action from Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y. (see 2312110067). Although broadcasters were anticipating an EEO item since a 2021 Further NPRM (see 2306020056) and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said one was in the works during the 2022 NAB Show (see 2204250067), it hasn’t materialized. “In 2021, after nearly 20 years, the FCC took the important step of soliciting comment on how to recommence this important data collection using Form 395-B,” said the lawmakers' letter. “It is now time for the Commission to follow through.”

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez wants to focus on empowering and engaging with underserved consumers and combating media disinformation, she said Tuesday during the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s inaugural Celebrating Latina Excellence event. A news release from her office called it “her first major speech.” Gomez was sworn in Sept. 25. In a news conference after her remarks Tuesday, Gomez said that her most immediate policy goals for the FCC are implementing continued funding for the affordable connectivity program and spectrum auctions authorization, both of which would require congressional action before the agency could act. “I am a firm believer in the power of competition to drive innovation that improves services and lowers prices for consumers,” Gomez said. “But competition only works when the market works”

The Maine legislature’s joint Judiciary Committee is weighing whether a state consumer privacy law should allow a private right of action, exempt small businesses or limit allowed data collection to what is “strictly necessary,” according to a livestreamed work session Monday. Comments on possible provisions for privacy legislation are due Dec. 18, when the committee is expected to have updated draft language on dueling consumer privacy bills: LD-1977, which is similar to the proposed federal American Data Privacy and Protection Act, and LD-1973, which is based on Connecticut’s privacy statute.

An FCC draft report and order slated for commissioners' open meeting Wednesday creating a one-year window allowing certain low-power TV stations to convert to Class A status is expected to receive unanimous approval and perhaps an early vote, agency officials told us. The Class A window would open on the draft order’s effective date. The draft item has attracted little lobbying since it was announced last month, with the most recent filings in the docket (23-126) from June.

An FCC draft order on the 2018 quadrennial review would extend the restriction on owning top-four duopolies to multicast channels and low-power TV stations but wouldn’t alter local radio ownership limits or rules barring major networks from purchasing each other, agency and industry officials said in interviews. The draft QR order, which officials told us runs some 90 pages, uses language that resembles the FCC’s arguments in an enforcement action and ongoing court case against Gray Television involving the company’s top-four combination in Anchorage, FCC and industry officials told us.

Broadcast attorneys don’t expect seismic shifts in the sports betting and cannabis advertising landscapes soon, according to two virtual sessions convened Monday by the Federal Communications Bar Association. FCC guidance on whether broadcasters can advertise recreational marijuana use “would offer some great clarity,” but the likelihood of the agency issuing it while cannabis is classified as an illegal drug “is absolutely zero,” Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David O’Connor said. Orrick attorney Behnam Dayanim said, “It’s looking grim, at least in the immediate future” for shifts toward legalizing sports betting in states that haven’t already done so, such as Texas and California. Dayanim represents sports betting company Draft Kings.