The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed penalties of $5,200 against Texas FM owners Gow Media and $6,000 for Townsquare Media for failing to award promised prizes to winners of radio contests, said notices of apparent liability Wednesday. Both enforcement actions were triggered by complaints from snubbed 2016 contest winners. Townsquare’s KSII El Paso offered free Elton John tickets to the ninth caller, and GOW’s KFNC Mont Belvieu offered a vacation to a resort in Mexico to the winner of a fantasy football contest. Townsquare blamed the failure to provide the tickets on “human error” and gave its complainant free tickets to an Elton John concert in Las Vegas after receiving the letter of inquiry. Gow said the resort reneged on its commitment to provide the prize, and paid out $3,600 cash to its complainant after getting the LOI. EB said the stations' actions to address the situation after the fact don’t negate liability for breaking rules.

The FCC shouldn’t delay proposed compliance deadlines for expanding video description requirements to the top 100 designated market areas, said the American Council of the Blind in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 11-43. NAB pushed for a delay, in part because of COVID-19 (see 2006230056). The FCC’s initial tentative conclusion that the cost of implementing audio description regulations for DMAs 61-100 was justified was unchallenged during initial comments on the NPRM, ACB said. “Compliance with these requirements should not be technically difficult or economically burdensome.” The FCC has mechanisms for broadcasters to ask for exemptions due to economic burdens, and those should be used instead of a blanket delay, ACB said. “There are so many small details that get left out when audio description isn’t available, often leaving blind viewers with a different perception of the show or film than their sighted peers,” said Access to Independence. “Making audio description more widely available is an excellent step toward creating a universally designed media experience.”

ViacomCBS and Dish Network renewed their carriage agreement bringing ViacomCBS content to Dish and Sling TV subscribers, they said Monday.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $15,000 penalty for low-power FM licensee Plymouth Gathering for airing in 2018 over 1,600 paid advertisements on KELS-LP Greeley, Colorado, said a notice of apparent liability Thursday. “The Commission has received multiple complaints since 2015 alleging that the Licensee is airing advertisements on the Station, essentially operating the noncommercial Station as a commercial station.” Plymouth admitted broadcasting ads for steakhouses, restaurants, jewelry stores and others, the NAL said.

Boston-area pirate radio operators agreed to destroy equipment and follow 20-year compliance plans in settlements to resolve unlicensed broadcasting violations, said an FCC news release and consent decrees Wednesday. Acerome Jean Charles faced a proposed $151,005 forfeiture, and Gerlens Cesar faced $453,015 -- the largest ever floated by the FCC against an unlicensed radio operation (see 1912120063). Jean Charles agreed to pay $4,000, with a further penalty of $75,000 if he violates rules again. Cesar agreed to pay $5,000, with $225,000 more for future violations. Both “ceased their own pirate radio broadcasting and have agreed not to materially assist anyone else committing such acts,” the release said. “Each has agreed to destroy any broadcast equipment remaining.”

Borrowing a model-year approach from the automotive world, Vizio announced a 2021 lineup Tuesday, which “shipped a little bit late,” a spokesperson told us. The sets don’t support ATSC 3.0; the company is "always evaluating new technologies like ATSC 3.0 that might bring value to our customers,” he said, and has no immediate announcements on support. There's much other tech, however, in the products. Vizio is launching its first OLED TVs this fall, it said, along with a matched sound bar with adaptive height speakers that automatically rotate up when Atmos or DTS:X content is detected, said Chief Technology Officer Bill Baxter. It has Bluetooth and a voice assistant input. The company is pushing advanced features for gamers to coincide with releases of the latest PlayStation and Xbox game systems. Vizio’s ProGaming engine has a variable refresh rate and syncs a game's changing frame rate and the TV's refresh rate, said Philip Kim, associate product marketing manager on a call last week. The engine's faster response time and lower input lag let users respond more precisely, he said. Carlos Angulo, director-product marketing, called its HDR10+ strategy part of ensuring consumers don’t have to “degrade their viewing experience because they don’t have a particular format,” just like the company does with voice assistants. Faster processor performance improves the new lineup’s SmartCast streaming platform experience, said Amanda Cross, senior manager-product marketing. Users can navigate more quickly between apps and scroll faster to discover new content, she said. A recent software performance boost is backward compatible and available for all SmartCast TVs back to 2016. SmartCast users can control their TVs with a smartphone app and by voice using Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, said Cross. Apple AirPlay 2 and Chromecast built-in users can stream entertainment from a phone, tablet or laptop to the TV.

Petitions for reconsideration of the FCC’s May Sinclair consent decree should be denied for lack of standing, and because the settlement was faithful to precedent, said the TV station owner in an opposition filing posted in docket 17-179 Monday (see 2005220056). The petitions were filed on behalf of Ihor Gawdiak and Paul Lucci, viewers of its stations who unsuccessfully filed in opposition to the Media Bureau’s negotiations with Sinclair leading up to the consent decree. Both are represented by Smithwick & Belendiuk, and told Sinclair they also will file applications to deny Sinclair’s license renewals. Neither Lucci nor Gawdiak was a party to the investigations, and thus neither has standing to file for reconsideration, said the company. The two didn’t demonstrate they were harmed by the consent decree, Sinclair said: They don’t identify material omissions or errors that would justify reconsideration. An agency’s decision to settle an enforcement action “is a decision generally committed to an agency’s absolute discretion,” the broadcaster said. The petitioners didn’t comment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Chinese-language radio broadcaster Foundation for a Beautiful Life’s emergency request for a stay order to allow its Saratoga, California, low-power FM station to continue broadcasting. The broadcaster didn’t meet the court's requirements for such motions, said a brief order Friday. Foundation for a Beautiful Life constructed its station in a location different from that listed on its construction permit and continued to broadcast after having its application for a license dismissed, the FCC said (see 2006020056).

The Communications Act gives the FCC authority to let low-power TV stations continue providing analog audio signals after they transition to digital, channel 6 LPTV stations wrote in a letter posted docket 03-185 Friday. The Preserve Community Programming Coalition responded to NPR (see 2006100036) arguing the agency can’t grandfather “Franken FMs.” It's “astonishing” that NPR “in its quest to exert full control over the bottom of the FM dial” would “seek to eliminate important local programming directed to immigrants, persons of color, and other underserved communities,” PCPC said: “Put an end to the uncertainty” whether channel 6 stations can keep airing analog audio.

Entities seeking FCC approval for rule changes on FM translators and boosters disagree whether their proposals are related, in dueling emailed statements from GeoBroadcast Solutions and Broadcasters for Limited Program Origination. The broadcast group’s petition (see 2006240061) to originate programming on FM translators is “fundamentally different” from GBS’ petition (see 2006040024) that would allow stations to localize programming with synchronized boosters and isn’t “driven by technology innovation,” the company said. The broadcaster group disagrees the requests are so different, and said GBS is overselling the complexity of its tech. GBS’ comparison of its tech to ATSC 3.0 “displays a troublesome chutzpa,” said the broadcaster group. The broadcasters said the FCC should act on their proposal at the same time as the GBS one, while GBS sought to distance itself from the translator origination proposal. “Each offering must stand on its own for its merit and market potential, and not create the misrepresentation that they should be connected in some way,” said GeoBroadcast. “If FM booster stations are allowed a regulatory easing on content choice for limited portions of the broadcast day, then so also should FM translator stations be equally allowed to choose whatever programming their licensees best think would serve their listening audience,” said the broadcasters. “Proposals to use non-fill-in translators to transmit a week's worth of key programming would skew this proceeding in an entirely different direction,” said GBS.