Monty Tayloe

LAS VEGAS -- The structure of FCC regulatory fees and the way they’re applied to broadcasters is a thorny issue that's complicated to change, but this year’s fees will be “closer to a regulatory fee balance,” said David Strickland, media adviser to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, on a panel at the NAB Show Monday. , Media Bureau staff and 10th-floor aides in panels also discussed AM inclusion in cars, media ownership, virtual MPVDs and other topics. The FCC has authority to add Big Tech companies to the payor base, said Adam Cassady, media adviser to Commissioner Nathan Simington: “It may be time for a broad rethinking” of the regulatory fee structure.

LAS VEGAS -- ATSC 3.0 could be used to create the only viable backup for GPS and address a major U.S. national security vulnerability, said broadcasters and experts at this week's 2023 NAB Show. The U.S. power grid, financial markets and telecom industries rely on precise timing based on GPS to function, and would grind to a halt within days if it were rendered inoperable, said Key2Mobile founder Patrick Diamond, a member of the National Space Based Position, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC will create a public-private partnership to generate a road map for the ATSC 3.0 transition, announced FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at the NAB Show Monday.

The FCC misrepresented the Standard/Tegna deal as complex and refused to engage with the broadcasters, and Friday’s Supreme Court opinion on agency adjudications underscores that the hearing process is unconstitutional, said Standard General, Cox Media Group and Tegna in their final response filing supporting their petition for mandamus at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2304110072).

Broadcasters are expecting to talk ATSC 3.0, the future of AM radio in cars, and FCC regulatory fees at 2023’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, which kicks off Saturday. It's the second in-person show since the 2020 and 2021 iterations were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Broadcasters, attorneys and industry officials told us they expect the show to be the best attended since 2019. “I don't think there's any question that will be a lot more people than last year's show,” said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford.

The complicated series of transactions in the Standard/Tegna deal and the companies’ own submission of “narrowly crafted” concessions at a “late stage” of the process led to the protracted review of the purchase and subsequent hearing process (see [Ref;2304040063]), said the FCC in a partially redacted response filing Tuesday (docket 23-1084) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The broadcasters' response is due Friday.

A draft ATSC 3.0 order on sunsets for the substantially similar and A/322 physical layer requirements remains a moving target that's unlikely to be voted quickly, said FCC and industry officials (see 2303130068). The draft report and order circulated in February would extend the substantially similar and A/322 physical layer requirements indefinitely, but broadcasters said there should be a specified date for the requirements to end. Under current FCC rules, the substantially similar requirement would end in June without FCC action. The A/322 physical layer was to sunset in March, but that was temporarily stayed by the agency last month.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed the Standard/Tegna broadcasters' appeal of the FCC’s hearing designation order (HDO), but expedited their petition for mandamus relief. It also ordered the FCC to respond to the petition by April 11, said an order Monday.

FCC regulations on broadcasting, telephony and accessibility will “become increasingly hollow shells of themselves” unless Congress decides to what degree the FCC should “move into the app ecosystem,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington at this week’s Free State Foundation Conference. Panelists at the event, including Commissioner Brendan Carr, also discussed broadband deployment and definitions, and the agency’s spectrum authority. The FCC “isn’t currently regulating the edge space, but that doesn’t have to last forever,” Simington said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should take up the Standard/Tegna broadcasters’ appeal of the FCC’s HDO, said NAB in an amicus filing Thursday. “This Court should treat this order according to its intent and effect—a de facto final denial of the license application—and hear the appeal,” NAB said in the brief filed late Thursday. Refusal to act is itself an agency final action, said the Standard/Tegna broadcast parties in a filing opposing the FCC’s motion asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to dismiss their appeal (see 2303280072). The FCC Media Bureau’s action “on gossamer evidence” injects “untenable unpredictability into license transfer applications,” NAB said.