Monty Tayloe

After senators sent letters to all five FCC commissioners Friday calling for the agency to avoid “weaponization” of its licensing authority against broadcasters, Commissioner Nathan Simington responded, saying the FCC should renew the license of Fox station WTXF-TV Philadelphia over the opposition of public interest group the Media and Democracy Project (MAD). Letters from Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., referenced recent comments from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump against ABC (see 2409120056).

Attorneys, academics and First Amendment experts told us that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s calls for ABC to lose its license over Tuesday's presidential debate telecast (see 2409110058) are nonsensical and that government action against a broadcaster would likely ultimately fail. In addition, some said presidential calls for action against broadcasters over their reporting aren’t unprecedented. “All political players tend to do this when it suits them,” said veteran First Amendment attorney Robert Corn-Revere, now chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “None of them have the constitutional authority to back it up.”

In a dissent attached to a combined $3.6 million forfeiture against Sinclair Broadcast and others over kidvid violations, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington has vowed he will dissent from monetary forfeitures until the agency “formally determines the bounds of its enforcement authority.” Simington's move comes in the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision SEC v. Jarkesy. The order was approved 3-2, with Commissioner Brendan Carr also dissenting. The forfeiture order was adopted Aug.14, but not released until Thursday. The FCC didn't immediately comment on the delay. “I call on the Commission to open a Notice of Inquiry to determine the new constitutional contours of Commission enforcement authority,” Simington wrote. “The statutory structure governing the FCC’s forfeiture power is quite different from that of the SEC,” the FCC said in a footnote in the order, arguing that the agency’s enforcement actions don’t violate the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial as SCOTUS ruled the SEC’s do.

The FCC will vote this month on providing spectrum for satellite broadband and accessibility in videoconferencing, according to a note from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Wednesday. The Sept. 26 open meeting will also include items on expanding robocall protections and allowing increased power for digital FM stations, along with seven enforcement items, the note said. The agency typically doesn’t provide information about enforcement items on the agenda until those items have been voted on.

After more than a year of meetings, the NAB-led, FCC-involved ATSC 3.0 task force, the Future of TV Initiative, hasn’t reached consensus on controversial topics, we're told. Its members include broadcasters, cable interests, and consumer and public interest groups. Its first meeting was in June 2023, and it was expected to issue a final report in the fall, yet members told us that it's likely merely to reiterate many of the positions stakeholders held going into the effort. It's also unlikely to provide a firm timeline for the sunset of ATSC 1.0. Just before the initiative's launch, ATSC President Madeleine Noland said the goal was for the diverse group to “chart a path forward together,” and NAB told us the goal was to make concrete recommendations to the FCC by June 2024.

The FCC’s order on broadcasters' collection of workforce diversity data exceeds the agency’s authority, violates the First and Fifth Amendments, and runs afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling ending judicial deference to regulatory agencies, said a brief from the National Religious Broadcasters, the American Family Association and the Texas Association of Broadcasters. The groups filed the brief Wednesday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The order’s requirement that broadcasters make their workforce diversity data available online is intended “to pressure broadcasters to engage in race- or sex-based hiring practices,” it said, concluding that the order “is fatally flawed in multiple respects and should be vacated.” The FCC didn’t comment.

Low-power television broadcasters and NAB don’t think the FCC should broadly apply online public file requirements to LPTV, said a host of reply comments filed in docket 24-147 by Monday’s deadline. LPTV commenters also called for looser relocation limits and power increase options. In addition, LPTV company Venture Technologies argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against Chevron deference means the FCC must allow more stations to convert to Class A status. “We believe that the FCC’s failure to allow virtually any new Class A stations for more than two decades is inconsistent with the principles established by the recent Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises et al. v. Raimondo,” Venture said.

Supporters of an A-10 high-power Class A FM station designation told the FCC that spacing and interference issues with the proposal are fixable, though some engineers and broadcast groups remain skeptical. Reply comments responding to broadcaster Commander Communications' petition were due Wednesday in docket 24-183. NAB and Cumulus have said the new class would further degrade the FM noise floor (see 2407230035). “Were the Commission to approve the FM Class A-10 classification, Commander believes that hundreds of FM Class A operators would be able to realize improvements in coverage,” the broadcaster said.

The FCC’s Communications, Equity and Diversity Council may lobby for affordable connectivity program funding, according to comments at Tuesday’s CEDC meeting, the second under a new charter that lasts until 2025. The CEDC has 10 months to prepare recommendations for the FCC on implementing digital discrimination rules and getting the most for underserved communities out of federal broadband infrastructure funding, Chair Heather Gate said. “We must make recommendations to the FCC directly, but we should not be afraid to make recommendations that the FCC can communicate with other agencies,” Gate said. “We may also ask the FCC to communicate our recommendations with the White House or Congress."

The Democratic Party’s switch to Vice President Kamala Harris as its candidate for the White House is expected to provide a huge boost to broadcasters’ political advertising haul from the 2024 election, TV and radio executives said during recent Q2 earnings calls. Broadcasters also see sports returning to traditional airwaves, and Nexstar CEO Perry Sook predicted pay TV is arriving at an “inflection point” that could arrest plummeting subscriber numbers and drooping retrans dollars. Outgoing Tegna CEO Dave Lougee disagreed during what he said would be his final earnings call before retiring. “The innings of net retrans as the growth driver have certainly come to the later stages,” he said. Mike Steib will succeed Lougee next week.