The FCC is required by legal precedent to provide notice of redefined terms in regulations, even if that new definition is only in the preamble of the final rule, said NAB in a supplemental filing Wednesday in its case challenging the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content ID rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. During oral argument Monday, D.C. Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas questioned whether the FCC’s broadening of the definition of a “lease” of TV station airtime in the rule's preamble was bound by notice-and-comment requirements (see 2504070019). NAB’s challenge to the order is in part based on arguments that the FCC didn’t sufficiently provide notice of plans to widen the definition to include political issue ads and public service announcements. Even if the court deemed the preamble definition of "lease" exempt from notice and comment, it would still be subject to legal challenges because it's “final agency action representing the consummation of agency decision-making and [has] pragmatic legal consequences for licensees,” NAB said.
In an interview last week, Sinclair Senior Vice President-Advanced Technology Mark Aitken said 5G broadcast is misleading marketing because the technology is based on 4G LTE (see 2504030053).
Comments are due May 7, replies June 6, on NAB's February petition seeking a nationwide timeline for the ATSC 3.0 transition (see 2502260051), the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice posted Monday in docket 16-142. In its petition, NAB suggested a February 2028 deadline for stations in the top 55 markets -- covering 70% of the U.S. population -- shifting to 3.0-only broadcasts. It also asked the FCC to require that all TV broadcast receivers include 3.0 tuners.
Nexstar is reportedly having its local stations run segments that urge viewers to contact the FCC and call for broadcast deregulation. The Desk reported Monday that the segments -- about agency Chairman Brendan Carr's "Delete Delete Delete" deregulatory agenda (see 2503120024) -- began running last week. They finish with a mention of a link to a Nexstar website that includes prewritten social media posts urging deregulation of broadcast-related rules. A Nexstar spokesperson emailed that the agency "has asked for interested parties and the public to assist it in identifying regulations that should be updated or eliminated to address what Chairman Carr has called a 'break-glass moment for America’s broadcasters.'" He said "that initiative is an important news story for local broadcasters, worthy of mention by the very newscasts and outlets that are under threat from the outdated regulations at issue."
The FAA has authorized Sinclair to fly drones over people and moving vehicles for newsgathering without requiring a waiver, said a Sinclair release Wednesday. Sinclair said it's the first broadcast media company to receive such an authorization from the FAA. Scott Livingston, Sinclair's senior vice president-news, said that by “incorporating expanded drone footage,” the company enhances its news coverage of breaking news, weather and other events. Sinclair’s unmanned aerial systems program launched in 2016, operates “across 50 newsrooms nationwide and has completed over 40,000 logged flights to date,” the release said. The program includes 148 FAA-certified pilots and 540 trained visual observers, it said. The company’s drone pilots train at Virginia Tech. “The FAA’s authorization allows Sinclair to operate specially modified drones while adhering to strict safety protocols and procedures that meet federal requirements.”
The FCC should amend rules so broadcasters can use software in place of the physical emergency alert system (EAS) equipment currently required, said NAB in a petition for rulemaking Monday. The FCC put NAB's petition out for public comment Wednesday, and comments are due May 2. Under the NAB proposal, using the software in lieu of physical EAS boxes would be voluntary, and the software would need to be able to operate if internet or cloud connectivity is interrupted. The petition stems from a proposal NAB made in 2022 (see 2306020064), which the Federal Emergency Management Agency endorsed in 2024 (see 2407050021). “Given that our proposal has been pending now for over two years, NAB respectfully requests expedited consideration of this Petition,” NAB said.
The FCC should allow low-power TV (LPTV) broadcasters to use the 5G Broadcast transmission standard on a voluntary basis, said broadcaster HC2 in a petition for rulemaking Friday. The technology “allows an LPTV station to transmit a single 5G signal to its entire service area, which can be received by any compatible mobile device,” the petition said. “5G Broadcast thus provides both the spectrum efficiency of the one-to-many structure of broadcast operations and access to compatible mobile devices on existing 5G networks.” Currently, stations can only broadcast in the standard using an experimental license granted by the FCC, and only a few such stations exist.
A bipartisan group of former FCC commissioners have condemned the agency’s news distortion proceeding against CBS in joint comments posted Thursday. “These comments are submitted to emphasize the unprecedented nature of this news distortion proceeding, and to express our strong concern” that the FCC “may be seeking to censor the news media in a manner antithetical to the First Amendment,” said the letter from former Chairmen Alfred Sikes and Tom Wheeler and former Commissioners Gloria Tristani, Rachelle Chong and Ervin Duggan. Sikes and Chong are Republicans, while Chong, Duggan and Tristani are Democrats. The signatories “served under both Republican and Democratic leadership, and from that experienced perspective, express deep concern about the breadth of the content regulation authority asserted by this proceeding.” If the FCC doesn’t act to close the proceeding, it would suggest “that the Commission has been transformed into a tool of White House-driven speech suppression.” In response to a request for comment, the FCC repeated a statement from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr declining to end the proceeding, which it previously issued after a similar request from conservative groups (see 2503210060).
The FCC Media Bureau will give more consideration in the future to waivers for stations that constructed permitted facilities on time but failed to meet license application deadlines, said a unanimous order from the full FCC Tuesday. The item had been listed on Thursday’s open meeting agenda as an adjudicatory matter, but the agency released a deletion notice Tuesday.
Comments are due April 23, replies May 8, in docket 24-626 on an FCC proposal for cleaning up outdated references and processes in broadcast regulations, said a public notice Monday. “Numerous rule sections still reference outdated terms from the Commission’s legacy paper-filing processing procedures and discontinued databases, and are therefore incompatible with current electronic filing procedures,” the December NPRM said. The item was unanimously approved under the previous administration (see 2412100057).