The Standard/Tegna record still has unanswered questions about transferee Standard General's qualifications to be an FCC licensee, so the agency shouldn't start discussing deal conditions until the threshold qualifications issue is resolved, the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians told an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Media Bureau Deputy Chief Sarah Whitesell, per a docket 22-162 filing Friday. The workers' groups urged the commission to suspend its deal review shot clock until the record is also supplemented on whether the purchase is in the public interest. Standard's plans for cutting station-level jobs or not post-transaction still need clarification and if the companies have misrepresented those plans, the applications must be designated for hearing, the groups said. Standard outside counsel didn't comment.

NAB’s recent filing attacking GeoBroadcast Solutions CEO Chris Devine and broadcast attorney Aaron Shainis “lobs out-of-context personal allegations that have no bearing on the merits of the proposal before the Commission in a blatant attempt to change the subject and derail this rulemaking,” said GBS in a letter filed in docket 20-401 Tuesday (see 2209230070). A dismissed lawsuit against Devine over an allegedly fraudulent broadcasting deal referenced by NAB was “baseless” and “grew out of a sad, intra-family dispute and was voluntarily withdrawn by the plaintiff with prejudice,” GBS said. “The legal irrelevance to an FCC rulemaking of the lawsuit’s unsubstantiated allegations regurgitated in the letter underscores the letter’s purpose -- to create a sideshow.” Shainis and Pelztman attorney Aaron Shainis repeated in an interview Tuesday that all of his clients on whose behalf he submitted endorsements of the GBS proposal had given their permission, either verbally or in writing. Shainis also told us he has an ownership stake in GBS, but said he informed all of his clients of that connection. Though Q Media President Andrew DeVall told us he hadn’t agreed to his company’s endorsement of zonecasting, Shainis said permission was given by another official at the company. “Some of them may not remember, this was years ago,” Shainis said. Many of the endorsements from Shainis’s clients were filed in 2021. The FCC should allow broadcasters the discretion to choose Zonecasting for themselves, GBS said in its filing. “That is a business decision for broadcasters in their market, and is not a regulatory decision that -- bizarrely and contrary to five decades of advocacy -- NAB now thinks the FCC should be making.”

The FCC should consider the challenges the designated market area system imposes on public television stations, said America’s Public Television Stations and PBS in joint reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 22-239. The proceeding concerns updates to the Nielsen publication the FCC and broadcasters rely on to determine station DMAs, but the public media groups raised larger concerns about cable headend consolidation and DBS orphan counties squeezing out public media coverage. “While the triennial carriage cycle and its associated updates to DMA assignments are inapplicable to the cable carriage of NCE stations, satellite carriage rights for NCE stations are based on DMA borders,” the filing said. That means public TV stations must subscribe to DMA data to keep their satellite carriage rights, the filing said. Cable headend consolidation can affect public TV stations when a headend is moved to a location “beyond a station’s contour and more than 50 miles from its community of license reference point” -- the boundary conditions that trigger “must-carry” rules. “This can result in cable subscribers losing access to their local public TV stations,” the filing said. The public media groups also renewed a call from 2015 for the FCC to “begin a dialogue with public television and DBS operators to explore creative and effective solutions to the unavailability of local public TV licensee statewide signals.” In their own reply comments, all four broadcast affiliate station groups seconded NAB’s proposal that the FCC “exercise prudence in relying solely on confidential Nielsen data when it comes to local television stations’ compliance with Commission rules.” The FCC should “consider potential sources of market assignment data other than Nielsen should such alternative assignment data become available in the future,” the groups said.

Standard General “has no intention, and has not had any intention, of reducing news or news staff” at Tegna stations after its proposed buy of the company, said Standard in a call with the FCC Media Bureau Thursday, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 22-162 responding to an earlier filing from the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians sectors (see: 2209220039). The union filing accused Standard of misrepresenting its intentions on staffing in filings submitted to the FCC, but Standard said the unions’ accusation “appeared to be based on a misunderstanding of the documents.” In mid-2021, Standard prepared estimates of Tegna’s future operating costs compared to the company’s current ones, and the future projections incorporated staff changes Tegna was then already planning to implement, Standard said. “Standard General understands that in the time since those meetings, TEGNA has implemented the staffing changes that were reflected in those projections, and Standard General does not intend to reduce station-level staffing following the Transaction,” the filing said. In a separate meeting with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, Standard General also said it has "no plans or interest in jointly negotiating retransmission consent with Apollo, which is merely one of seventeen (non-attributable) entities providing financing for Standard General’s acquisition of TEGNA," said another filing.

The FCC’s update of low-power TV rules will take effect Oct. 24, said a Federal Register notice for Friday. The order eliminates or updates references to analog Part 74 rules that became outdated with the LPTV digital transition (see 2207130041).

There's potential "material misrepresentation” by Standard General and Tegna in the proceeding over their proposed combination, said the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians sectors in a letter posted in docket 22-162 Thursday. “There is considerable information in the record indicating that if the applications are granted, Standard General intends to cut jobs at TEGNA,” the filing said. “These documents appear to directly contradict Applicants’ statements and explanations to the contrary made to the Commission.” The FCC's granting motions to require more information of the applicants could help determine if there was misrepresentation, the filing said. A recent White House executive order on national security and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States “underscores that we are living in unusual times when it comes to foreign investment issues,” the filing said. “The Commission should not assume that CFIUS alone is responsible for the implications of anonymous foreign investment.” "From the day the transaction was announced, Standard General and [CEO] Deb McDermott have made clear the importance of local news to the future of TEGNA," emailed a Standard spokesperson. "They have consistently confirmed that their plans for post-closing TEGNA do not involve station-level layoffs."

The FCC should ignore “dubious claims” that geotargeting would be uneconomical for FM broadcasters because those considerations are “far outside the FCC’s public interest analysis,” said National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks Friday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 20-401. The FCC can defer to the business judgment of its licensees, Winston said. “There is broad support for this proposal among small and minority-owned broadcasters,” said the filing, posted Wednesday.

The full FCC unanimously proposed a combined $3.37 million forfeiture to penalize 21 TV licensees for multiple instances of violating the kidvid rules in 2016 by airing a Hot Wheels commercial during episodes of a Hot Wheels-themed TV show, said a notice of apparent liability Wednesday. Sinclair Broadcast owned 83 of the 115 stations involved, with 10 more owned by Sinclair-affiliated companies Deerfield Media and Cunningham Broadcasting. The filing also lists seven Nexstar stations and numerous smaller broadcasters with individual station violations but pays special attention to Sinclair and proposes the stiffest penalties for the company. “In the last 17 years Sinclair has been fined or admonished 11 times for program-length commercial violations, establishing an extensive history of prior offenses,” the filing said. “Sinclair, as a broadcast television company with roots stretching back five decades, was or should have been long aware of its compliance responsibilities in this context.” The proposed forfeitures “are warranted as a result of Sinclair’s lengthy history of prior offenses for similar violations; the extent, gravity, and circumstances of the violations here; and Sinclair’s ability to pay,” said the notice. It proposes a $2.65 million penalty for Sinclair -- $36,000 per station -- while smaller broadcasters face penalties of $20,000 per station. Nexstar would pay $26,000 per station due to its scale and ability to pay. “Unlike Sinclair, Nexstar does not have a lengthy history of prior offenses of the children’s television commercial rules,” the notice said. The violations were largely reported to the FCC by the broadcasters themselves, the filing said. Congress enacted the Children’s Television Act to put limits on advertising to ensure broadcasting will “remain a special place for kids’ content,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement. “Those limits were ignored here, where broadcasters mixed toy commercials with content and violated our rules.” “If non-broadcast sources, including online outlets, are the ocean -- where there may or may not be harsh waves and danger -- then broadcast television is the trusted local pool,” said a statement from Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. The notice seems to indicate future kidvid violations might garner even stiffer penalties, assessed per violation, saying, “We use this opportunity to advise broadcast television licensees, satellite providers, and cable operators that the Commission may revise our approach to forfeiture calculations under the Children’s Television Act in future cases.” Assessing forfeitures per violation is supported by law and rule language and “would reflect the fact that the regulations are of long-standing and so should be well understood,” the filing said. The notice makes clear the FCC is still actively focused on enforcing kidvid rules, said University of Minnesota media law professor Christopher Terry. Concerns about whether the rules were still relevant with ubiquitous streaming were raised during kidvid proceedings under the previous administration. "Kid TV rules are still a thing, and broadcasters need to pay attention to the enforcement of them," Terry said. Nexstar and Sinclair didn’t comment.

Standard General “is not interested in cutting news or station staffing,” company executives including CEO Deborah McDermott told FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and staff in a Sept.15 meeting, according to an ex parte filing in docket 22-162. Standard protested Tegna’s furloughs in 2020 when it was engaged in proxy battles with Tegna leadership, said the filing, posted Tuesday. McDermott “rebuffed the notion that plans for improving TEGNA’s DC news bureau would result in any reduction in local news or news staffing,” the filing said.

The Standard/Tegna deal has “broad support” from former employees and women in tech leadership, representatives from Standard, Tegna and Apollo Global Management-owned Cox Media Group told an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a videoconference Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 22-162. The representatives also discussed the broadcast experience of Standard founder Soo Kim and CEO Deb McDermott, who would head up New Tegna, the filing said.