Monty Tayloe

The FCC hasn’t made an effort to meet the four-year due date for its 2018 quadrennial review, and its arguments that Congress didn’t specify a deadline (see 2308080062) are “a recipe for eternal stasis” and would “justify perpetual delay,” said NAB in a response filing in its mandamus proceeding at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (docket 23-1120) (see 2304250029). “It is unreasonable for the Commission to have sat on its hands for years.”

Softness in the media advertising market appears to be affecting TV broadcasters and tech companies less than other media entities, according to quarterly earnings calls and analysts.

The FCC unanimously approved an FY 2023 regulatory fee order last week that closely resembles the NPRM issued in May.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska unanimously voted at a hybrid meeting Wednesday to make permanent an emergency extension of the state’s universal service program. The Alaska USF sunset date is now June 30, 2026. The emergency regulations otherwise would have ended Oct. 28.

TV broadcasters are seeing increases in commercial advertising, but they have concerns about being compensated for their programming and don’t see big M&A opportunities on the horizon, said Tegna, Gray Television and Sinclair Broadcast executives in those companies’ Q2 earnings calls last week. “Increased competition from technology companies, streaming content providers, and the [broadcasting] networks as well as continued regulatory constraints means that we must transform to remain relevant and to grow impressions and revenue,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley.

The FCC unanimously approved an order and NPRM on digital FM, said an agency news release Tuesday (see 2301130053). The item was on the agenda for commissioners' open meeting Thursday but was instead voted Monday, and a deletion notice was issued. Stemming from petitions filed by NAB and Xperi, the item proposes relaxing restrictions on digital FM power levels to make it easier for more stations to improve their digital FM coverage. The FCC said the proposals in the NPRM would “offer more efficient FM digital operation, increase digital signal coverage and provide a more robust digital signal for reception inside buildings,” though some raised concerns about increased interference. “This would AM-ize the FM band,” said broadcaster Robert McAllan, CEO of Press Communications, referring to the high levels of background interference from multiple sources in the AM band.

Broadcasting has “a black eye on Wall Street” after the FCC blocked the private equity-backed Standard/Tegna deal, said Beasley Media CEO Caroline Beasley at a Media Institute lunch Thursday. Beasley said the FCC should relax local ownership caps on radio to preserve local broadcasting: “We need interest from private equity, we need investment in our space.”

Congress should continue to fund the affordable connectivity program, the FCC may not be the right entity to regulate AI and the agency's spectrum auction authority should be restored, said former FCC chairs and commissioners at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s 2023 virtual Former Chairs’ Symposium Tuesday. Panelists -- including former acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and former Chairman Richard Wiley -- also discussed diversity, the failed Standard/Tegna deal, and the confirmation of nominee Anna Gomez. Gomez is “a mainstream Democrat” who will “work well on a bipartisan basis,” said former Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. “She’s not particularly ideological even though she’s been a strong fighter.”

The FCC’s 2022 $518,000 forfeiture order against Gray Television over the 2020 buy of another broadcaster’s CBS affiliation in Anchorage doesn’t violate the First Amendment and doesn’t amount to the creation of new regulations without notice, the agency said in a brief filed Monday in Gray’s challenge of that forfeiture (docket 22-14274) in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2301040059).

An FCC draft order on FM6 low-power TV stations is expected to change little from the draft version and to be unanimously approved Thursday, FCC and industry officials said. The stations -- sometimes called “Franken FMs”-- broadcast primarily audio content that can be picked up with FM radio receivers and “will get to stay on the air and continue serving the public,” said Wiley broadcast attorney Ari Melzer, who represents several FM6 broadcasters.