FCC

The current round of station consolidation has produced six more Big Four affiliate duopolies and one Big Four triopoly (Syracuse, N.Y.) that give broadcasters undue leverage in retrans negotiations with cable operators and ultimately drive up cable subscriber fees, says the American Cable Association.

The FCC prohibits the airing of Emergency Alert System codes and tones unless there is an actual emergency or EAS test. Last Thursday, however, life became more complicated for broadcasters when stations began receiving a PSA from the Federal Emergency Management Agency seeking to educate the public about the Emergency Alert System using the EAS tone to get that message across. Station operators were understandably confused and began to decline to run the spots. The FCC moved quickly (and quietly) to break from its prior approach, and on Friday released a decision granting an unprecedented one-year waiver of Section 11.45, permitting FEMA spots to use the EAS tone.

Mignon Clyburn, the FCC’s acting chairwoman, named her top aides on Thursday. P. Michele Ellison, currently the chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, will serve as Clyburn’s chief of staff. Dave Grimaldi, who was Clyburn’s chief of staff when she was a commissioner, will be her chief counsel and legal adviser.

A survey conducted by BIA/Kelsey and commissioned by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council finds broadcasters are generally unconcerned that they may be at a disadvantage from in-market rivals with cross-media holdings.

In separate public notices, the FCC has asked for comment on white space database tests recently conducted by Google Inc. and Key Bridge Global LLC. Their respective test reports are here and here. Mark your scorecards: once approved, these will be database managers numbers 3 and 4.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in DC just shot down the FCC’s ruling last year that would have required Comcast to take Tennis Channel off of an extra-fee sports tier so it could compete more equally with the cable giant’s Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network.

If the FCC ultimately chooses to set the prices in the reverse auction for broadcasters’ spectrum, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai says, they need to be high enough to get broadcasters to offer up their spectrum. “My preference is for prices to be determined by the market, rather than set by fiat,”

Democrat Mignon Clyburn makes history today as the first woman to head the FCC. That history, however, will be short-lived. Clyburn is only keeping the seat warm until the Senate approves President Obama’s nominee of Tom Wheeler as chairman. Clyburn’s first meeting as acting chairwoman will be June 27.

Senate Republicans continue to search for their preferred GOP nominee to the FCC — and lawmakers may be looking seriously at Michelle Connolly, a top professor at Duke University. Sources confirm she’s considered a strong candidate to win Republicans’ blessings for the empty seat once held by Robert McDowell, who left the agency on Friday.

As he packed up his office, outgoing FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell reflected: “It’s a little sad. I love these issues. I love the way the FCC is independent,” he said. “I’ll never have another job like this. It really empowers you to do what you think is best.”

Democratic senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand expressed concern to the Secretary of State that the FCC may have to reduce coverage areas of stations along the New York-Canadian border as a result of spectrum repacking, “thereby depriving American citizens of access to the signals of their favorite stations.” The senators want the State Department to assign responsibility for conducting the coordination with Canada and “get the process under way without delay.”

Because the FCC’s planned spectrum incentive auction requires the cooperation of at least some large-market broadcasters, and it’s unclear whether enough will agree, there are market-based alternatives to the auction being talked about quietly in Washington that may be more lucrative for broadcasters. There is also risk that the government could take spectrum without giving broadcasters any compensation.

In his call for a GAO study, the Senate Commerce Committee Chairman says joint sales and shared services agreements that allow a broadcast group to operate multiple stations in markets where the FCC rules say it may own just one might “artificially serve to inflate retransmission consent rates … and drive up subscription fees for pay television consumers.”

Legislation being drafted by Sen. John McCain is in response to broadcaster threats of shifting network shows to cable if the courts affirm the right of Barry Diller’s Aereo and similar services to retransmit broadcast programming online without paying broadcasters.

The watchdog group’s president, Tim Winter: “We are focusing on #NoIndecencyFCC to let the FCC know that we consider its proposal to limit broadcast indecency complaints extremely troublesome,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “Only pursuing so-called ‘egregious’ complaints from the public about indecent TV or radio content will lead to broadcasters pushing the decency limits even further — including the airing of nudity or harsh profanity when millions of children are in the audience,” he said.

First, there will be little or no change in the incentive auction policy. Look for Wheeler to push the auction with all the zeal of the outgoing Genachowski. What’s near impossible to divine is where Wheeler will go on two issues that should be of more immediate concern to broadcasters: ownership and retransmission consent.

The just-nominated FCC chairman has a cable and wireless track record that may make broadcasters nervous. A look at his Mobile Musings blog shows why — as well as offering tips about the sorts of potential business opportunities that he might be amenable to helping broadcasters pursue.

FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake is the keynote speaker at this year’s ATSC Annual Meeting, held next week in Washington.

Two weeks ago, comments were filed in the FCC’s proceeding examining whether to adopt a more relaxed view of the foreign ownership provisions of the Communications Act. In what is perhaps a telling indication of where the FCC is going, the statements of three FCC commissioners, in connection with a recent FCC decision to further streamline the approval process for alien ownership in excess of the 25% limitations in FCC-regulated areas other than broadcasting, suggested that the relaxation of the limits should also be extended to broadcasting.

President Barack Obama is expected to soon nominate Tom Wheeler, a former top lobbyist for the cable and wireless industries, to lead the FCC, two people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal today. Obama is expected to make the announcement as soon as Wednesday, an industry official and a person familiar with Wheeler’s situation said. WSJ subscribers may read the full story here.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and the Association of Public Television Stations are jointly opposing a proposal by the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology to use a new software program to analyze television coverage and interference data. The proposal was floated by the commission in February and intended to update the analytical tools the commission will use in preparing for the 2014 broadcast spectrum auctions.

1. The auction is voluntary — really. The FCC wants to clear up to 120 MHz of TV spectrum — or 20 TV channels in the upper UHF band— so […]

When the Boston Red Sox returned to Fenway Park Saturday for its first game since the bombing of the city’s marathon, designated hitter David Ortiz gave a brief but rousing speech punctuated by “This is our f—ing city, and nobody’s going to dictate our freedom!” But Ortiz’s F-bomb isn’t going to land him in hot water with the FCC, with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski tweeting his blessing from the government agency’s official Twitter account.

Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso wants a commitment from whoever gets the nod for FCC chairman to act to curb the rising programming fees that cable and satellite pay broadcasters and cable networks.

Communications attorney John Hane: “Unless it can find a way to make all of the other players in the television industry smaller, the FCC should throw off archaic broadcast ownership regulations that skew the market against the only television service that is free to Americans who don’t want to pay.”

An NAB Show panel tackles the myriad of issues facing broadcasters, ranging from compliance and indecency complaints to quieting down commercials.

Oregon Republican Greg Walden tells an NAB Show audience that “We want the auctions to proceed but we do not want to wipe out small-power broadcasters,” adding, “voluntary means voluntary.”

This morning, the FCC released a Public Notice announcing that, beginning immediately and until further notice, it will no longer accept modification applications (or amendments to modification applications) from full-power and Class A television stations if the modification would increase the station’s coverage in any direction beyond its current authorization.

With the NAB Show slotting an “interview” of outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski by NAB Joint Board Chairman Paul Karpowicz next Wednesday, once again I’d like to volunteer some questions guaranteed to liven up the proceedings.

When the FCC gets around to repacking the TV spectrum, the results could differ from what broadcasters expect going in. It’s important for them to be aware of ongoing developments and not to assume they won’t be affected. Here’s an overview of some possible scenarios.

The winner of TVNewsCheck’s first Technology Women to Watch Award, Media Bureau Chief Engineer Alison Neplokh joined the commission in 2002. Now, she’s responsible for, among other things, keeping agency staff up to speed on the technical aspects of the TV spectrum incentive auction.

In a letter to the FCC, Michigan’s 14 members of the House of Representatives and two Senators said coordinating the auction with Canada and Mexico will “preserve opportunities for broadcasting,” as well as maximize the amount of nationwide spectrum to meet the nation’s demand for licensed mobile wireless broadband.

It’s time for our annual April Fools’ Day warning — be careful with on air pranks prepared especially for the day. Where harm is caused, lawsuits may follow, and stations could become a target if someone is hurt as a result of a station’s broadcasts. But not only do stations need to worry about potential civil liability in a case like this, the FCC itself has a rule against on-air hoaxes — and, of any day in the year, April 1 is the day that the broadcaster is most at risk.

Does FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel want to be the next head of the FCC? It’s hard not to connect the political dots, based on a letter a majority of Senate Democrats sent President Obama recommending he select her for the job. The first signature on the letter signed by 37 Democrats is none other than Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Rosenworcel’s mentor and unabashed champion.

At the end of every quarter, TV stations across the land must electronically file with the FCC a Form 398 — The Children’s Television Programming Report. However, stations attempting to do that filing for the first quarter of 2013 are discovering that the FCC’s online filing system for those forms ends with the fourth quarter of 2012. As a result, it is preventing many TV stations from preparing their electronic report for the first quarter of 2013, rejecting all efforts to select “First Quarter 2013” as the report to be filed.

Dennis Egan, a member of the Alaska Senate, has asked the FCC to take a deeper look at General Communication’s intent to purchase low-power KATH Juneau and KSCT Sitka. “I want to make it very clear that I have nothing against GCI. It is a great corporate citizen.” Egan said. “I’m just really worried about free over-the-air television. I just don’t know how it is going to work.”

The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition says “the commission’s proposal to manage the prices paid to broadcasters by ‘scoring’ stations is driving broadcasters away from the auction. And, the … plan is inconsistent with the Spectrum Act, which provides for the prices to be received by broadcasters to be determined by the market forces of the auction….”

This past week, both FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell announced that they are leaving the FCC in the near future. The FCC can continue to do business with three commissioners should the replacements not be confirmed before the departures, but what will this change in the FCC mean for broadcasters? In short, the answer is that it is probably anyone’s guess.