Ending the collection of biennial ownership data through Form 323 would eliminate virtually the only source of information about broadcast-ownership diversity, several civil rights and public interest groups told us. The FCC Media Bureau on Tuesday announced an 18-month pause on collecting Form 323 and seemed to indicate that the requirement to submit the data will be permanently deleted (see 2507300070). Halting Form 323 collection would be “yet another structural policy decision to brush civil rights under the rug, to obscure discrimination in the broadcast industry,” said Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez in an email. “It's a shameful and brazen dereliction of the FCC's duty to serve all Americans.”

ABC and NBC “should look to the Paramount precedent recently set by this Commission,” said Center for American Rights President Daniel Suhr in a letter Thursday praising the FCC’s probe into Comcast NBCUniversal’s relationship with affiliates. “At a time of New York-Hollywood-Silicon Valley dominance over the vast majority of news and entertainment content, what makes local broadcast stations special is precisely their localness,” Suhr said. “The networks should be encouraging that unique market advantage, not undermining it with programming diktats or must-carry contract provisions.” Because Carr warned ABC about its relationship to affiliate stations in December, it would be “doubly disappointing” if Comcast “ignored those concerns after they were on the record regarding another network,” Suhr said. "The Center for American Rights applauds your decision to direct the Media Bureau to open an inquiry into Comcast’s treatment of NBC’s local affiliates."

Comments are due Aug. 29 on a proposed swap of seven stations between Gray Television and E.W. Scripps, said a public notice Wednesday. The no-cash deal involves swapping Gray stations in Colorado and Idaho for Scripps stations in Michigan and Louisiana, creating top-four duopolies in multiple markets (see 2507070028). The companies initially anticipated receiving waivers of the top-four prohibition to allow the deal to proceed, but last week the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the rule (see 2507230063). After that ruling, which doesn’t take effect for 90 days, the broadcasters asked the FCC to either wait for the court’s mandate, grant the applications using the anticipated waiver process, or approve the deals without waiting for the court using a temporary waiver. Opposition filings are due Sept. 15, replies Sept. 25.

The FCC Media Bureau has waived the requirement that broadcasters file biennial ownership reports for 18 months, in apparent anticipation of that requirement being eliminated, said a public notice late Tuesday. Multiple commenters in the agency's "Delete" proceeding “urged the Commission to revisit the current biennial ownership filing requirement, which they maintain is a costly and burdensome requirement without a sufficient offsetting public benefit,” the notice said. “With the next filing window approaching, we find there is good cause to waive the biennial ownership report filing requirement.”

Concerns about ATSC 3.0 encryption of broadcast signals are “overstated," said NAB in an ex parte filing and presentation to FCC Media Bureau Chief Erin Boone, who is also an aide to Chairman Brendan Carr. In the presentation, NAB urged the FCC to act quickly to require a transition to 3.0. “Viewers can still watch/record programming for free. A3SA [the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority] has adopted encoding rules to ensure this remains the case,” said one slide in the presentation. Concerns about encrypting broadcast TV have been raised in docket 16-142, and recently ATSC 3.0 device maker SiliconDust accused the A3SA of seeking to block independent device manufacturers (see 2507220075). “To the extent that discrete implementation questions remain, those issues can be appropriately and effectively addressed through the rulemaking process and should not be treated as a barrier to initiating the process,” NAB said. “Further delay only deepens regulatory uncertainty, slows manufacturer investment, deprives consumers of the full benefits of ATSC 3.0 and undermines the broadcast industry’s ability to compete in a rapidly evolving video marketplace.” An order from the FCC “is needed now, before content owners make decisions on long-term rights contracts and in time for manufacturers to make decisions about their 2027 product lines,” the filing said.

The FCC Media Bureau and Office of Managing Director revoked Pedro Arce’s license for WCND(AM) Shelbyville, Kentucky, over $9,261.41 in unpaid regulatory fees, according to an order Friday. WCND had delinquent fees from FY 2013-16 and FY 2022-23. The order also dismissed pending renewal applications for the stations.

The FCC's 2022 quadrennial review will be "inspired" by the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals decision on the 2018 QR (see 2507230063), said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a news conference Thursday. Carr pointed to the court's analysis of statutory language as informing the FCC's review. The 8th Circuit ruled that the language requiring FCC quadrennial reviews allows the agency only to loosen rules that are no longer in the public interest, not expand existing rules. The decision's elimination of the top-four prohibition means the agency's QR inquiry can be narrower, he said. The agency "obviously has to move forward with the quad," Carr said.

The FCC should investigate broadcast network late-night shows “to ascertain whether late-night shows on broadcast channels are violating broadcasters’ public interest obligations by advancing private agendas,” said the Center for American Rights in a complaint letter Wednesday. A previous complaint from CAR led to the FCC’s news distortion proceeding against CBS. Wednesday’s letter references CBS’ announcement that it was canceling The Late Show with host Stephen Colbert because it was losing money, and argues that this is evidence of a political agenda among broadcast networks. Colbert and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel are both public supporters of former President Joe Biden, the letter said. Late night shows lean left, and “up until today, it could be justified as a profitable (mis)use of the airwaves, indicating some critical mass of consumers wanted it,” CAR said. “Now that myth is busted as well.” The CAR letter cited a 1975 proceeding against a station over slanted news broadcasts, the same precedent CAR cited in a previous complaint calling for the agency to take action against ABC over a reporter’s social media post (see 2506110053). Attorneys have told us that that proceeding doesn’t provide much of a precedent for punishing stations for slanted news, because the station owner in that case, Indiana broadcaster Star Stations, was accused of a host of other violations including witness intimidation, false financial reporting and lying to the commission. The FCC voted then not to renew Star’s licenses because of the licensee's broad misconduct, not its news reports. The FCC has “an appropriate role to ask how things got so bad at CBS -- and whether things are equally bad at ABC and NBC,” CAR said. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s Robert Corn-Revere, a former FCC chief of staff, said CAR’s complaint Wednesday “doesn’t rise to the level of frivolous” and amounts to a “fairness doctrine for late night talk shows.” However, “that doesn't mean this FCC under Chairman [Brendan] Carr won't entertain the idea,” Corn-Revere said.

Opponents of NAB’s petition for a mandatory transition to ATSC 3.0 pressed their case with aides to FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty in a meeting last week, according to an ex parte filing Monday. The Consumer Technology Association, Public Knowledge, cable trade groups and the LPTV Broadcasters Association said the FCC shouldn’t require a nationwide shift to ATSC 3.0. “If broadcasters are concerned about market demand for ATSC 3.0 tuners, they need to do their part in consumer education and promotion rather than seeking a technology mandate,” said the filing. “Stakeholders representing all aspects of the television ecosystem do not support NAB’s proposal. This Administration has prioritized regulatory reduction, and it would be counterproductive to adopt new mandates that decrease flexibility and increase costs.”

Pearl TV and the broadcast members of the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA) are using encryption standards to box out independent device makers, and those standards should be made public, said DVR gateway device maker SiliconDust in an FCC filing Tuesday. It responded to a Pearl TV submission last week that attacked SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun device as containing parts from a company affiliated with Chinese chipmaker Huawei (see 2507180047). The FCC rules against including Huawei technology don’t apply to devices like the HDHomeRun because it doesn’t originate voice, data, graphics or video telecommunications, SiliconDust said. The company “does not provide sensitive technology to Chinese companies. The insinuation by Pearl is shameful.”