The administrative law judge proceeding on Sinclair buying Tribune “must go forward” despite the deal’s dissolution, ex-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler blogged Tuesday. The hearing should continue to allow Sinclair to present evidence on its behalf and demonstrate FCC independence in the face of President Donald Trump’s tweet condemning the hearing designation order, Wheeler said. Tribune announced the collapse of the deal and a related lawsuit against Sinclair last week (see 1808090042). Trump's use of “such pejorative and judgmental terms” means the agency “has a responsibility to uphold the honor and integrity of its processes and not to allow a shadow to hang over its proceedings,” Wheeler said. “President Trump has hung a cloud over the FCC.” Attorneys for Sinclair wrote a letter to the general counsel of the Brookings Institution arguing the company didn’t deceive the FCC in response to a previous blog of Wheeler’s, he said (see 1807250057). Deciding whether to continue with the hearing is a “legacy defining decision,” for current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Wheeler said. Pai's choosing “a backroom consent decree deal” over a hearing would leave “serious unanswered questions,” Wheeler said. “How will the Commission treat Sinclair’s future transactions, its petitions to renew existing licenses when they expire, its future retransmission consent negotiations with cable operators that rely on good faith, or the new ATSC 3.0 television standard that it sponsors?” After taking “a victory lap for being tough on oversight,” Pai has to choose between giving “a pardon to the friend of the president” or continuing the hearing, Wheeler said. Sinclair didn’t comment.
The FCC should allow Educational Broadband Service licensees to apply for additional open spectrum, said America’s Public Television Stations and CPB in an ex parte filing in docket 18-120 Wednesday. “The current licensing scheme has enabled public television stations to provide distance learning services to millions of Americans, including those in remote areas of the country,” APTS said in a release. The FCC should “issue new EBS licenses to qualified educational entities, most assuredly including local public television stations,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler in the release. The "extraordinary technological achievement" of the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard "will allow public television stations with EBS licenses to offer extraordinary new educational possibilities,” he said.
Sinclair’s proposed deal with Tribune is expected to break up Thursday, but Sinclair executives didn’t comment on the transaction during an earnings call Wednesday, though Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said an update would be coming “soon.” Under Tribune’s agreement with Sinclair, passing Wednesday’s deadline allows Tribune to walk away from the deal without suffering a breakup fee, attorneys and analysts told us. Wednesday was also the deadline for parties to file notices of appearance in the administrative law judge proceeding, and those filings could provide a clue to whether Sinclair intends to battle the allegations against it, attorneys said. Tribune announced Wednesday it was set to hold an 8 a.m. conference call Thursday, before the opening of the stock market.
The likely unwinding of Sinclair’s buy of Tribune and the related FCC hearing designation order are unlikely to derail rollout of ATSC 3.0 but might cause it to take longer, said supporters and critics of the new broadcast standard (see 1807270002). Sinclair/Tribune would have given the standard backing of a broadcaster reaching 60 percent of the U.S., but the entire industry is now heavily invested in ATSC 3.0, said broadcasters, industry officials and lawyers. Sinclair’s plans for the new standard predate its plan to buy Tribune, said Mark Aitken, Sinclair vice president-advanced technology. “NextGen TV will move forward regardless,” said New America Wireless Future Program Director Michael Calabrese, a frequent opponent of 3.0.
The FCC Media Bureau will complete changes to its licensing and management system to accept applications for ATSC 3.0 licenses, but not until early 2019, said a public notice Wednesday. Applications for ATSC 3.0 test markets and product development can be filed under the experimental license rules in the meantime, said the notice. An FCC notice earlier this week in the Federal Register said the commission got Office of Management and Budget approval for three years on information collection requirements for Form 2100 for the move to 3.0 (see 1807160014).
The FCC received Office of Management and Budget OK for three years on information collection requirements for Form 2100, what it calls a next-generation TV license application involving ATSC 3.0. The commission's changes are taking effect Tuesday, says that day's Federal Register. The Media Bureau will change the form and relevant schedules for TV stations "to implement the Next Gen TV licensing process and collect the required information," the FCC says: "The form will be revised to establish the streamlined 'one-step' licensing process for Next Gen TV applicants," with staff using the license application to determine compliance with rules and whether the public interest would be served by approval of such a license. The first 3.0 stations went on air with experimental licenses due to the lack of license application for next-gen TV, said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle at the NAB Show (see 1804080002). In November, commissioners approved 3-2 the 3.0 rules. Another two FCC information collections also are effective Tuesday (see 1807160052).
Two FCC information collections will take effect Tuesday after being approved by the Office of Management and Budget for three years, under rules to be published the same day in the Federal Register. The first stems from a 2016 Connect America Fund Alaska Plan order in docket 10-90 to provide $1.5 billion in broadband-oriented USF support cumulatively over 10 years to fixed and mobile providers in high-cost areas of the state served by rate-of-return telcos and their wireless affiliates (see 1608310067). The information collection had to be revised to reflect subsequent reporting orders. The second concerns information collection under a Feb. 22 payphone compensation order to roll back audit, reporting and other rules the agency called outdated (see Notebook at end of 1802220045). An order adopted June 7 (see Notebook at end of 1806070021) in docket 17-169 to take further actions against telephone slamming and cramming practices takes effect Aug. 16 under another rule for Tuesday's FR. Also in Tuesday’s FR, ATSC 3.0 information collection requirement clearance was announced (see 1807160014).
Smart home device ownership “continues to explode,” doubling to 20 percent of U.S. internet homes in April from November 2015, Stephen Baker, NPD vice president-industry analysis, told the ATSC 3.0 Midwest Next-Gen TV Summit in Columbus, Ohio. Voice-activated speakers are the “first intelligent product in many consumer homes,” said Baker, citing data from a Connected Intelligence survey, with ownership doubling to 20 percent of U.S. homes in Q2 from the same 2017 quarter. TVs are “dramatically more connected,” said Baker Thursday. NPD estimates 63 million U.S. homes owned 210 million smart TVs at the end of 2017, an increase of 21 million homes and 108 million devices in four years, he said. Sixty-three percent of U.S. homes owning at least one 4K TV have “enough bandwidth” to stream 4K video content, said Baker, due to “faster tier broadband plans.” NPD estimates 16.3 percent of internet homes in the U.S. were 4K streaming-capable in February, said Baker. Having passed from the early adopter to the early majority stage of new technology acceptance, 4K streaming-capable internet homes are poised to reach mainstream proportions, he said.
Time isn't a luxury broadcasters have on ATSC 3.0, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in remarks to broadcasters at the Midwest Next-Gen TV Summit in Ohio. “If you are a broadcaster sitting on the fence on whether to implement ATSC 3.0, you should be worried that the fence may no longer exist if you take too long to decide,” he said Wednesday, adding that tech companies also are competing for advertisers and consumers. O’Rielly made a similar point at ATSC’s conference last month (see 1805240056). He praised 3.0 capabilities such as targeted ad insertion and mobile television, and the work of broadcasters. “Saying this will only fuel my Internet and Twitter trolls, who suggest that I epitomize regulatory capture, but you have earned the right to be thanked,” he said. O’Rielly praised T-Mobile efforts to aid some broadcasters in the post-incentive auction repacking process. “They have been doing some heavy lifting that has taken problems off the commission’s plate,” O’Rielly said. “Hopefully, others will follow their lead.” O’Rielly said lack of tower crews and other repacking resources could create big problems for the repacking starting in phase three. O’Rielly also touted the draft kidvid NPRM, the result of an effort he's leading (see 1806260067). “As an attempt to bring a balanced, thoughtful reform approach forward, the commission recently made public an effort to breathe additional flexibility into our rules,” O’Rielly said. He understands a small portion of youth lack access to options other than broadcasting, he said. Broadcasters need to weigh in, he said. “My plea to you and to every interested party is to file substantive comments.”
Sinclair could restructure its Tribune buy to fit under the 50 percent national ownership cap being pushed by several TV station owners (see 1806050040) if that's what the FCC decides on, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley responded to us at a panel during an S&P investor conference Thursday in New York. Ripley declined to speculate what the agency would do.