FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the incoming chair, suggested Friday the agency could open a proceeding on the definition of the broadcaster public interest requirement and that he's open to broadcast ownership deregulation. In an interview with CNBC Friday, Carr said broadcasters “have to operate in the public interest, and ... it's probably appropriate for the FCC to take a fresh look at what that requirement looks like.” He added, “There is something different about broadcasters and say, podcasters, where you have to operate in a public interest,” Carr said. “So right now, all I'm saying is maybe we should start a rulemaking to take a look at what that means.” Carr also said he wants a fresh look at “a whole set of ownership issues” and ensuring “we get investment in local news.” He reiterated that revocation of broadcaster licenses for not meeting the public interest is “on the table,” though he also said that the law prevents the FCC from engaging in censorship. “I don't want to be the speech police.”

The FCC under presumed next Chairman Brendan Carr will scrutinize the Skydance/Paramount deal but also remove restrictions on broadcast ownership and “rebalance the scales in favor of business,” former FCC aide Adonis Hoffman wrote in a blog post for The Media Institute Wednesday. Although the FCC would “normally” review only the transfer of broadcast licenses connected with Paramount/Skydance, Hoffman said Paramount has issues with audience measurement and minority shareholders questioning the deal and that could merit the FCC conducting a more thorough examination. A complaint filed against CBS about editing a 60 Minutes interview “is unlikely to pass legal muster” but is also likely to lead Carr to look more closely at the transaction, Hoffman said. Though Hoffman expects scrutiny of the Paramount deal, the agency also will be friendlier to other broadcast acquisitions. “The new FCC promises to be much less hostile to companies seeking to consolidate,” he wrote. “That alone should encourage the mergers and acquisitions deals that have been sitting on the sidelines awaiting a more favorable regulatory environment.” He said Carr is likely to “reconfigure the vast amount of power that FCC bureaus now have and to centralize that decision-making in the office of the chairman.” That will make it more difficult for bureaus to levy fines and derail deals, Hoffman said, adding Carr will also likely streamline or sideline the agency’s advisory committees. Carr’s FCC “can be expected to function more like an activist SEC,” with regulations always changing to reflect shifting market dynamics. “Having served at the FCC as a legal adviser, Commissioner and now Chairman Carr has the institutional credibility to be politically courageous in consolidating power and effecting change.”

Several large TV station groups stopped displaying weather radar maps because the FCC hasn’t granted an extension of the audible crawl waiver, NAB said in an ex parte filing posted Friday. The audible crawl rule requires that broadcasters provide an aural description of visual, non-textual emergency information like moving radar maps, but the FCC has repeatedly and continuously waived it since 2015 because broadcasters maintained compliance isn’t technologically possible. "The technology for automated audio description of a dynamic image simply does not yet exist to permit broadcasters to effectively and efficiently abide by the non-textual component of the Audible Crawl Rule,” NAB said in a previous filing requesting an extension of the waiver The FCC is seeking comment on granting another extension (see 2411250059) but didn’t temporarily extend the waiver that expired Tuesday to include the comment period as it has in similar circumstances. “Because compliance with the existing rule remains impossible, absent a waiver, many broadcasters will stop providing radar maps and other visual, non-textual emergency information, due to concerns about potential Commission enforcement,” NAB said. In Friday’s filing, NAB asked that the FCC grant an expedited, brief and retroactive extension of the waiver while the agency considers its request for a longer extension. The comment period for the longer extension closes Jan. 9. The American Council for the Blind backs the expedited extension request, NAB said. “There is no doubt that the Commission’s inaction regarding a waiver extension will harm the public,” NAB said. “It will lead to diminished useful information about emergencies for all Americans, including deaf and hard of hearing individuals who may rely on the visual emergency information conveyed by radar maps and similar images.” As part of the current extension request, NAB has also asked that the FCC change the rule to specify "that compliance is fulfilled if a station provides textual crawls that provide emergency information duplicative or equivalent to the information conveyed by the visual image.”

The FCC’s Office of General Counsel dismissed an appeal of FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin’s ruling that the same attorney can't represent multiple parties in the hearing proceeding on the TV and radio licenses of Antonio Guel and the Hispanic Christian Community Network (see 2409130064). Petitioners Maria Guel and Jennifer Juarez -- Antonio Guel’s daughter and niece, respectively -- wanted broadcast attorney Dan Alpert to represent them in the case, though he also represents Antonio Guel. The hearing proceeding is based in part on allegations that Antonio Guel pretended that he sold his stations to Juarez while actually retaining control of them, and filings in the case show Maria Guel and Antonio Guel as heading multiple companies involved in the matter. That makes Alpert’s representation of all three a conflict, Halprin ruled in September. Juarez and Maria Guel appealed that ruling to the OGC but did so without seeking authorization from Halprin, FCC Associate General Counsel Chin Yoo said in an order posted Nov. 27. “Since the Petitioners did not seek such leave, we dismiss the appeal on procedural grounds as unauthorized, without reaching the merits,” the order said.

Radio Communications Corporation wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to strike an FCC filing related to a disagreement between the agency and the broadcaster over oral argument conducted before the court last week (see 2411180040). After the Nov. 18 oral argument, RCC sent the court a letter disputing a statement FCC attorney Adam Sorensen made during the session about must-carry rights. Sorensen told the three-judge panel: “There’s really nothing in the statute that would indicate to the commission that Congress had even considered the issue, let alone taken the very significant step of extending must-carry rights to Class A stations.” RCC’s letter after oral argument disputed that statement, pointing to language in a 2004 amendment to the Satellite Home Viewer Act that defined Class A stations as low-power TV stations. The FCC responded Friday, saying the court should disregard RCC’s letter because it wasn’t pertinent, and the company didn’t raise the matter in its briefs. “The fact that Congress defined Class A stations as low-power television stations for purposes of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004 does not suggest that Class A stations are equivalent to full power stations in all other contexts,” the FCC said. In a motion filed the same day, RCC said the FCC’s response should be stricken from the record. The FCC’s response “unfairly denied RCC the opportunity to rebut the Commission’s procedural arguments because the Court’s ECF filing system does not allow RCC to file a further response to the Commission’s Letter,” said RCC. “Therefore, RCC is compelled, and unfairly so, to file the instant motion to strike.” RCC’s filings were “entirely appropriate and warranted under the circumstances and certainly not deserving of a rebuke from the party who misstated the law to the Court,” RCC said.

The FCC is seeking comment on an NAB petition for an additional extension of a waiver of a 2013 rule requiring that broadcasters provide audio description on a second audio stream of emergency information conveyed through graphics, said a public notice in docket 12-107 Monday. Compliance with the 2013 rule was originally required by 2015, but the agency granted an 18-month waiver and has repeatedly extended it, most recently by 18 months in 2023. The waiver is currently set to expire Tuesday. In addition to the requested extension of the waiver, NAB is seeking a rule change specifying "that compliance is fulfilled if a station provides textual crawls that provide emergency information duplicative or equivalent to the information conveyed by the visual image.” It “remains impossible for stations to continue to provide important emergency information to viewers while complying with the audible crawl rule as written,” NAB said. Comments are due in docket 12-107 on Dec. 26, replies Jan. 9.

Oral argument in the legal challenge against the FCC’s collection of workforce diversity data is “tentatively scheduled” for the week of Feb. 3, said a notice from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in docket No. 24-60219 Friday. The National Religious Broadcasters, the American Family Association and the Texas Association of Broadcasters have argued that the FCC’s February equal employment opportunity order is unconstitutional and outside the agency’s authority, while the agency has said collecting the data and making it publicly available will improve diversity in broadcasting (see2410210044).

The FCC should hold a hearing on Fox WTXF Philadelphia’s license to distinguish it from President-elect Donald Trump's recent attacks on broadcast licenses and establish a “bright-line test” on when such sessions are required, said the Media and Democracy Project in informal comments posted Tuesday in docket 23-293. The WTXF case, which stems from a court finding against Fox, is “easily distinguishable from routine complaints by politicians about the political slant of a particular channel or network's political slant or classic journalistic prerogatives,” said the MAD filing. Commissioner Brendan Carr's recent comments suggesting that as chair he will take up complaints against ABC and CBS over their content “illustrate the importance of this commission adopting a more clear bright line test that invokes the character provision of the Communications Act only after there has been a judicial finding,” MAD said. Although MAD acknowledged that lawmakers have asked Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to refrain from addressing controversial matters until the new administration is in office (see 2411080048), the group argued that holding a hearing wouldn’t violate that request. “For the FCC to hold a hearing regarding a broadcast license applicant recently found by a court of law to have knowingly and repeatedly presented false news is certainly not controversial,” MAD said. However, multiple lawmakers have asked that the FCC deny MAD’s petition (see 2402260064) and Commissioner Nathan Simington has characterized the hold on WTXF’s license as an “intentional and unwarranted political delay," MAD said (see 2409130062). “Failing to hold a hearing under these circumstances would be tantamount to declaring the character requirement of the Act no longer applicable.” Carr and Fox didn’t comment.

The FCC’s expedited review of Audacy’s bankruptcy restructuring and quick acceptance of applications for Skydance’s proposed buy of Paramount Global highlight “the disparate treatment” of Standard General in its failed purchase of Tegna, Standard said in a filing in U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit Friday. Standard’s filing argued that the court should deny motions to dismiss its lawsuit against the FCC, Allen Media CEO Byron Allen and several unions and public interest groups. Standard has argued those entities conspired to block its purchase of Tegna. The Media Bureau accepted applications from Skydance to buy Paramount Global in eight days, while it took 48 to accept Standard’s initial filings to buy Tegna, the motion said. The Paramount transaction involves private equity, similar to Standard’s deal, and is widely expected to prompt job cuts, the filing said. “The straw objectors from the Standard General-TEGNA proceedings have not objected to the Paramount deal,” the filing said. The FCC didn’t require Audacy to show that its transaction wouldn’t lead to job cuts, while it highlighted possible newsroom cuts in Standard/Tegna, the filing said. “The FCC’s recent approval of the license transfers in the Audacy matter confirms to me that the FCC is applying its rules arbitrarily and unlawfully, leaving me with even less confidence that I will be treated fairly and lawfully when I next appear before the FCC,” said Standard founder Soohyung Kim in a declaration filed with the court. “Seeing the different treatment between that matter and the Standard General-TEGNA transaction review has left me to believe that FCC review turns more on who the owner is than on the nature of the transaction.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose connection with President-elect Donald Trump may result in him leading a government efficiency effort (see 2411080033), said Tuesday the federal government should consider ending funding for NPR. Top GOP lawmakers raised concerns earlier this year about continued federal NPR funding in response to claims of pro-Democratic bias at the broadcast network (see 2405070044). Musk’s defunding call cited a 2021 video clip of now-NPR CEO Katherine Maher saying “our reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting important things done.” Maher didn’t become NPR CEO until March this year. Musk asked “should your tax dollars really be paying for an organization run by people who think the truth is a ‘distraction’?”