Monty Tayloe

A draft NPRM on FCC regulatory fees circulated on the 10th floor uses a revamped methodology for assessing which full-time equivalents are connected with which bureaus, leading to proposed lower fees for Media Bureau regulatees such as broadcasters, and higher fees for Wireless and Wireline bureau industries, said FCC and industry officials. The rulemaking notice appears headed for unanimous approval soon, FCC and industry officials told us.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska unanimously tabled action on Alaska’s June 30 USF termination to hold a supplementary 10-day comment period for feedback on last-minute draft regulations from the Department of Law (see 2305080035). The additional comment period was jointly requested just before Wednesday’s meeting by many entities, including Alaska's Office of the Attorney General, the Alaska Telecom Association, Alaska Communications, the city of Ketchikan and public interest group Native Movement. The DOL proposal is “different than anything we’ve seen” and “merits feedback,” said Birch Horton attorney Elisabeth Ross, who represents Alaska Communications. The supplementary comment period is from Friday to May 22.

TV broadcasters are getting presidential campaign ad buys earlier than in any previous race, expect opportunities for sports deals, and vary on whether a possible recession is affecting their businesses, said executives from E.W. Scripps, Gray, Sinclair and Nexstar on recent Q1 earnings calls. “We candidly don't see current signs of recession looming on the horizon,” said Gray co-CEO Hilton Howell last week. “There is no question that there are economic headwinds out there,” said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook Tuesday.

The FCC’s Democrats haven't agreed to meet with Standard General, May 22 will be “like midnight for Cinderella” for the company’s deal to buy Tegna, and the transaction’s likely dissolution could affect confirmation prospects for FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, Standard General executives and supporters said during a Monday news conference. “We know that there are senators who are openly now, like Sen. Menendez on the floor (see 2304260066), saying that those who hurt the chances of diversity in media will face a harsh and unlikely confirmation,” said Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee, during the news conference, referring to New Jersey's Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. The deal’s end date comes in two weeks, Standard emphasized in a news release Monday that called the news conference “a final push.”

Broadcasters shouldn’t wait for the FCC to gradually phase in audio description requirements in all markets over the next 10 years, said consumer groups in comments filed in docket 11-43 by Friday’s deadline. Broadcasters should “voluntarily advance the rollout of audio description for people who want and need to access audio description now and not in five, ten, or twelve years,” said the American Council of the Blind. “There is no reason why some communities must wait more than a decade to benefit from technology that already exists and is in use elsewhere.”

The Florida Senate passed online privacy bill SB-262 Friday, 38-0. The bill would allow consumers to opt out of online data collection and ad targeting, and prevent companies from selling their data (see 2304240045). Bill sponsor Sen. Jennifer Bradley (R) called the measure a “digital bill of rights” that's friendlier to small businesses than other state digital privacy laws, but critics such as the Computer and Communications Industry Association and Consumer Reports said the bill wouldn’t provide meaningful privacy protections.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied the Standard/Tegna broadcasters’ petition for writ of mandamus, according to a brief, unpublished decision in docket 23-1084 Friday morning.

Protesters called on the FCC to hold a vote on the Standard/Tegna deal Thursday morning at a demonstration outside FCC headquarters, prompting the agency to remind open meeting attendees of the agency’s rules. Though Standard General Managing Partner Soohyung Kim has said he believes three commissioners can force a vote on the deal, one of those commissioners seen as supportive of the transaction said Thursday he doesn’t believe that is possible. “There is no mechanism in FCC rules for non-chair commissioners, no matter how many of them are in support of a particular position, to force a vote on anything,” Commissioner Brendan Carr said in a news conference.

LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters and broadcast CEOs believe the FCC’s Future of TV Initiative (see 2304170056) will speed the ATSC 3.0 transition and that datacasting revenue could start flowing to TV stations as early as 2024, they said on panels Tuesday at the NAB Show 2023.

Standard General received only 15 to 20 minutes' notice from the FCC that the agency was about to issue a hearing designation order, and Standard doesn’t plan to go away if the Tegna deal falls apart, Managing Partner Soohyung Kim said in an interview Monday. “I don’t think a regulator should dislike the industry it regulates,” he told former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly during an onstage Q&A at the NAB Show Tuesday.