The FCC will move to the fourth and final phase of its COVID-19 reentry plan March 13, described as a return to pre-pandemic operations, said an agency-wide email memo obtained by Communications Daily. Stricter telework provisions won’t take effect until May 15. Former and current FCC employees expect a wave of staff departures once the FCC returns more fully to in-person work, though they said the extent won’t be clear for some time. Another potential concern is whether the new FCC headquarters will be able to handle all the virtual meetings being conducted each week. The move is “consistent with recent movement by other federal agencies to complete their reentry process,” the memo said.
Standard General Managing Partner Soohyung Kim vowed to continue pursuing the purchase of Tegna and urged the FCC to vote on the deal, in a release Monday, but Tegna’s earnings earnings release that morning said the company is “currently evaluating its options.”
The FCC Media Bureau designated the $8.6 billion proposed Standard General/Tegna deal for hearing, said a release Friday. “The Hearing Designation Order [HDO] focuses specifically on material concerns in the record related to how the proposed transaction could artificially raise prices for consumers and result in job losses,” said the release. Designating a deal for hearing has been historically perceived as dooming the transaction because hearing proceedings take months or years and have uncertain outcomes. “As part of the FCC’s mission, we are responsible for determining whether grant of the applications constituting this transaction serves the public interest," said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in the release. “That’s why we’re asking for closer review to ensure that this transaction does not anti-competitively raise prices or put jobs in local newsrooms at risk,” she said. Tegna's stock price dropped after hours by 25.6%
The FCC’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council is preparing final reports and recommendations to the FCC as the advisory committee’s two-year charter approaches its end, said CEDC Chair Heather Gate at the group’s penultimate meeting Thursday. CEDC working groups updated the body on several planned forums and reports on best practices for digital upskilling, improving diverse access to capital, and providing broadband to underserved populations. The reports will eventually go to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel who will take them “under advisement,” said CEDC Designated Federal Officer Jamila Johnson. The agency didn't comment on whether the CEDC would be rechartered.
Tegna’s announcement Tuesday that it would pass on Wednesday's chance to exit the long-stalled $8.6 billion Standard/Tegna deal and stay in for an additional three months is considered an indication the acquisition has a chance, but the final result is far from certain, broadcast industry officials told us. DOJ also allowed the transaction’s Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period to expire without objecting to the deal, said a Tegna news release. Standard General founder Soohyung Kim said in January he was “optimistic” the deal would close before Tegna’s merger agreement-enshrined exit ramp (see 2301230063), but that didn't happen. Tegna told the SEC Tuesday “the Merger is expected to close in March or April of 2023.” The FCC’s tracker lists the deal as being at Day 307, which is 127 days over the agency’s 180-day shot clock.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau is prioritizing privacy and robotexting matters alongside robocalls, increasingly scrutinizing confidentiality requests, and may begin paying particular attention to foreign ownership, said panelists Monday on an FCBA CLE. “Robocalling is number one at the top of the pop charts, but No. 2 is consumer privacy, said Kristi Thompson, chief of the EB’s Telecommunications Consumer Division. The division is busy “handling a multitude of privacy-related enforcement actions and investigations,” she said.
NAB’s call for an FCC task force on ATSC 3.0 appears to have broad support and is aimed at both the FCC and the consumer electronics industry, said both supporters and critics of ATSC 3.0 in interviews (see 2301260049). “A ‘NextGen Broadcast Acceleration Task Force’ is a good first step along with a firm signal to the marketplace that 1.0 service will end on a date certain,” emailed One Media Executive Vice President-Strategic and Legal Affairs Jerald Fritz. An FCC 3.0 task force could gather more information on the transition and where 3.0 and broadcast TV are going, said frequent 3.0 opponent Michael Calabrese, of New America’s Open Technology Institute.
FCC media ownership data shows little growth in diversity, but federal broadband infrastructure funds and advertiser and lender commitments to diversity make this a time of opportunity for minority- and women-owned media companies, said panelists Tuesday at the Communications Equity and Diversity Council’s Media Ownership Diversity Symposium. Meruelo Media CEO Otto Padron called the FCC’s biennial media ownership data “an extinction report,” but Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins said “this is the first time being a minority-owned company or black-owned company has netted us a positive economic opportunity.”
The FCC’s sixth biennial report on media ownership shows efforts to increase broadcast ownership diversity led to little improvement, and sweeping policy changes in that area aren’t expected soon, said diversity advocates in interviews. The report, released earlier this month, is based on broadcast ownership forms from 2021, while the previous report was based on data from 2019. Following release of both the new report and the previous one, diversity advocates made similar calls for the return of the minority tax certificate (see 2109070051).
Broadcasters are united in their opposition to proposed retooling of the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content rules, according to reply comments posted by Tuesday’s deadline in docket 20-299.