The FCC released late on Friday a Third Report and Order and Fourth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking resolving many regulatory issues related to the ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV conversion. Among the issues addressed, was an extension through July 17, 2027, of the rule that required that the lighthouse signal be “substantially similar” to the primary video stream of the ATSC 3.0 signal. That rule had been set to expire this year, but the FCC believed that viewers needed more time to be guaranteed that they can watch the same programming they watch today whether or not they have a TV that can receive the new ATSC 3.0 signal.
He says media regulations are outdated and are hindering Sinclair’s ability to compete.
Bipartisanship is at least partially due to political deadlock. Pictured: Members of the FCC testify during a House oversight hearing.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel sent a clear signal to Congress she is not looking to apply multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) regulations to streaming video services, and that she does not think the regulator has the authority to expand into that area in any event. Her remarks came in testimony to the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s FCC oversight hearing in its communications subcommittee.
FCC member Nathan Simington is telling Congress that he and his fellow commissioners need to serve as a check on the power of the chair. According to testimony for the House Energy & Commerce Committee FCC oversight hearing today, Simington, a Republican, said that if the agency does not adopt rules allowing for full commission oversight of decisions made by staffers under authority delegated by the chair, Congress should step in to mandate it.
The American Television Alliance says the purchase would give operational control of the Detroit MyNetworkTV affiliate to Nexstar, in violation of federal ownership rules.
Exclusives
President Joe Biden voiced support for regulations that would require cable and satellite TV providers to give consumers an all-in price for video service rather than laying on hidden “junk” fees. The proposal from the FCC is part of the Biden administration’s effort to crack down on companies’ hiding true costs from families, the president said Tuesday in a statement.
It looks like the FCC is going to launch an inquiry into data caps and usage-based pricing, which have long been in the ISP broadband offering arsenal and which have drawn criticism from Democrats and streamers like Netflix that root for as much consumer bandwidth as possible. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, usually no fan of data caps, said Thursday that she was asking her fellow commissioners to approve a notice of inquiry into how broadband providers use data caps.
Former Fox Exec: Is It Time For The FCC To Take A Close Look At Rupert Murdoch’s Licenses?
Preston Padden: “False news has consequences. Despite all the factual information available to the contrary, millions of Americans, including Fox viewers, believe that the 2020 election was stolen. The rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were chanting ‘Stop the Steal.’ To the best of my knowledge, the FCC never before has been confronted with a judicial holding that a broadcast licensee knowingly and repeatedly presented false news. It is hard to imagine an issue that more directly impacts a broadcast licensee’s character qualifications.”
Republican leaders of the House Energy & Commerce Committee have scheduled an FCC oversight hearing for next week (June 21) and said Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and the other three commissioners are expected to testify. The panel has primary oversight of the commission, with the House Judiciary Committee weighing in on merger and antitrust issues.
The Boston low-power stations says the experimental license it’s requesting could become a “game changer” for TV stations and consumers.
Gigi Sohn has weighed in on the political forces that prevented her from taking a seat on the FCC after her nomination by President Joe Biden and her decades of experience in communications, primarily as a public advocate and briefly as a top FCC adviser. Those forces included dark money groups, she said, with an assist from some inaccurate reporting in the media that she was unable to correct.
A deal for Forum Communications Company to acquire Fox affiliates KVRR Fargo, N.D., and KQDS Duluth, Minn., has come undone. The deal failed to materialize as both Forum Communications and Red River Broadcasting awaited what is called a “Big Four waiver request” from the FCC. The waiver would have allowed Forum to acquire a second “Big Four” network affiliate in the Fargo market.
In Killing Kim’s Deal For Tegna, The FCC Showed Its Prejudice
Thwarted in his bid to buy Tegna by an overlong and deal-breaking FCC review process, Soo Kim (and his right hand Deb McDermott) is indeed a victim of prejudice and discrimination. Only it’s probably not the sort you may think.
The FCC has largely granted the NAB’s request and will again extend for 18 months to November 26, 2024, the effective date of the FCC’s rule governing accessibility of emergency communications. This rule requires broadcasters to provide, during non-newscast programming, an aural representation of any visual, non-textual emergency information, such as radar maps or other graphics, on a secondary audio stream.
Gray Television is suing the FCC over its decision to fine the broadcaster over half a million dollars for an affiliation move in Alaska the regulator said violates its duopoly restriction. That is according to an appeal filed late Wednesday (May 24) in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Atlanta, where Gray is based.
A who’s who of former FCC leaders sent a letter to the chairs of the Energy & Commerce and Commerce, Science & Transportation committees urging Congress to restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority as soon as practical. Signatories of the letter include Ajit Pai, Tom Wheeler, Mignon Clyburn, Julius Genachowski, Meredith Atwell Baker, Robert McDowell, Deborah Taylor Tate, Jonathan Adelstein, Michael Copps, William Kennard, Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Gloria Tristani, Rachelle Chong, Susan Ness, Reed Hundt and Dick Wiley.
In addition, Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr are re-nominated to serve additional five-year terms as FCC commissioners.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel this week to provide moral support for the regulator’s decision to designate the Standard General-Tegna station group merger for hearing before an administrative law judge. Warren has been a critic of the deal as anticompetitive consolidation and a fan of the hearing designation.
Why Standard General’s Proposed Tegna Merger Hurts Our Democracy
Common Cause VP Kathay Feng says that hedge funds’ bottom-line mindset leads to less-robust local news operations. “The rapid decrease in local news should alarm everyone, especially heading into yet another consequential election year. With fewer resources to combat disinformation and hold power accountable, we have to do what we can to protect our local newsrooms.”
President Joe Biden intends to select veteran government lawyer Anna Gomez to serve on the Federal Communications Commission and give the agency its first Democratic majority of his presidency, a person briefed on the matter said. Gomez’s arrival would allow the FCC, after more than two years of partisan deadlock, to act on matters including loosening rules on broadcast consolidation. Gomez’s selection may be announced soon, said the person briefed on the matter, who declined to be identified because the matter hasn’t been made public.
Standard General said the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has “suggested” the company “attempt to resolve remaining concerns to allow the transaction“ — its purchase of Tegna’s TV stations — “to move forward,” which it said it is definitely trying to do. Standard General’s invocation of the Enforcement Bureau suggestion was a reference to a meeting with FCC officials last week.
The Republican leadership of the House and Senate committees overseeing the FCC has asked the regulator’s acting Inspector General, Sharon Diskin, to look into FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s handling of the review of the Standard General-Tegna merger.
Heavy hitters from both sides of the Standard General/Tegna merger debate, including former Democratic FCC and FTC chairs, met with the FCC’s Republican commissioners last week as the companies attempted to get the FCC to give them a thumbs up or thumbs down on the deal ASAP.
What Happens Next For Tegna?
With Standard General’s deal to buy Tegna hanging by a thread, the broadcaster may continue on its pre-deal trajectory or be sold in pieces, analysts say. But the FCC’s glacial review process, which may have been triggered by private equity’s role in the deal, has had a chilling impact on other potential large transactions in the industry. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.
Broadcasters — including their primary lobby group in Washington and affiliate associations — have told the FCC that if it does not extend its waiver of the requirement to provide oral descriptions of weather radar and other visual emergency information, they may have to cut back on those graphics for everyone.
Broadcasters have told the FCC that if it does not extend its waiver of the requirement to provide oral descriptions of weather radar and other visual emergency information, they may have to cut back on those graphics for everyone.
The FCC is facing an 11th-hour pressure campaign from civil rights leaders to vote on whether a New York hedge fund’s proposed purchase of a local TV broadcaster should be approved. Standard General, a hedge fund co-founded by Korean-American Soo Kim, wants regulatory approval of its planned $5.4 billion purchase of Tegna, a TV broadcaster with 64 local stations. President Biden’s FCC is caught between two competing agendas within the Democratic Party: Increasing minority ownership of media companies, and preventing consolidated ownership of local TV stations — in this case, at the hands of a hedge fund.
Though Minow remained in the FCC post just two years, he left a permanent stamp on the broadcasting industry through government steps to foster satellite communications, the passage of a law mandating UHF reception on TV sets and his outspoken advocacy for quality in television. He was 97.
Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley and COO Rob Weisbordon on Wednesday said a task force currently being developed by federal regulators and key industry stakeholders will chart a course for the eventual shutdown of broadcast signals using the ATSC 1.0 standard.
There will now definitely not be any action from the FCC, or its administrative law judge, on Standard General’s acquisition of station group Tegna deal before the plug is expected to be pulled on its financing. That’s because that ALJ Jane Hinckley Halprin has suspended her review “until further notice” after holding a status conference.
The FCC has released its most recent list of broadcast stations that will be audited regarding their compliance with the FCC’s Equal Employment Opportunity rules. Licensees of the audited stations will have to upload their audit responses to their online public inspection files by June 8.
Earlier this week, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (N.J.) took to the Senate floor to express his concerns over the Federal Communications Commission’s review of the proposed Standard General-Tegna transaction. His is the latest in a chorus of alarm bells sounding over a flawed merger review process that risks undermining both investment in local television stations’ free service to the public and media diversity.
The leadership of the FCC is facing a possible reshuffling as a powerful Democratic senator threatened to hold up a key confirmation if the agency didn’t vote on a stalled cable deal, sources told the New York Post. New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez railed on the Senate floor about the FCC jeopardizing the offer by Soo Kim’s Standard General to buy Tegna, the owner of 64 television stations, “through, in essence, inaction.”
Broadcasters are trying to get the FCC to complete its long-delayed 2018 quadrennial review of broadcast regulations. The National Association of Broadcasters has filed a writ of mandamus with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit, which is a request for it to compel the FCC to wrap up the review. “The commission cannot continue to ignore its clear duty under the law,” said NAB President Curtis LeGeyt following the filing.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied Standard General’s petition asking the court to force the FCC to vote on its proposed acquisition of Tegna before its financing expires on May 22. The ruling appears likely to kill $8.6 billion acquisition.
The commission is also preparing a rulemaking on ATSC 3.0 rules, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Monday at NAB Show in Las Vegas.
Standard General and Tegna filed their reply brief asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to force the FCC to rule in their proposed merger before financing expires on May 22, effectively killing the deal. The FCC and its Media Bureau have been examining the deal since last February, an unprecedentedly lengthy review and twice as long as the FCC’s guidelines.
She’s slotted to speak on Monday, April 17. NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said: “With the FCC sitting at the forefront of so many critical issues facing our members today, this will provide a unique opportunity for broadcasters across the country to hear directly from the chairwoman on her thoughts on the state of the industry and her vision for the future.”
The commission’s International Bureau is reorganizing into a Space Bureau and Office of International Affairs. The Space Bureau will focus on “policy and licensing matters related to satellite and space-based communications and activities,” and the Office of International Affairs, which will coordinate FCC work with foreign and international regulatory authorities.
