The FCC’s grant to Gray Television of a top-four duopoly that allowed it to buy KDLT-TV Sioux Falls, South Dakota -- an OK that came immediately after the agency’s Prometheus IV loss at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- led to more news for local viewers and lower advertising rates, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly blogged Thursday. Groups opposed to media consolidation and some legislators accused the FCC then of flouting the 3rd Circuit’s ruling (see 1910220044). “Daring to save local television stations and trying to ensure competition in small markets through this approach doesn’t come without criticism,” O’Rielly said. Smaller markets need the same flexibility as larger markets, he said. The FCC “has shown that thinking outside the traditional media ownership box yields pro-consumer and pro-competition results,” O’Rielly said.

The FCC sought comment on a petition from a group of broadcasters asking the agency to authorize program origination for FM translators and FM boosters. The petition seeks “a uniform FCC rule change for both FM boosters and FM translators to allow each to originate programming content provided that the primary station is retransmitted for no fewer than 40 hours in any calendar week,” emailed Womble Bond's John Garziglia, who represents the Broadcasters for Limited Program Origination. Comments are due in RM-11858 July 23, per Wednesday's Daily Digest.

Five Nashville stations began broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 Tuesday, Sinclair announced. Sinclair owns WZTV, WUXP-TV and WNAB, E.W. Scripps owns WTVF and Nexstar, WKRN-TV. WZTV, WUXP and WKRN will be “charter participants” in the launch of spectrum consortium BitPath’s data broadcasting network, said BitPath CEO John Hane. Stations have also gone live with 3.0 in Pittsburgh and Las Vegas (see 2006170061).

America’s Public Television Stations is relocating within Arlington, Virginia, July 1 to 1225 South Clark St., emailed CEO Patrick Butler. The new location has “less square footage, more efficiency, a more modern office design, and a lower rental cost for the new 12-year lease,” he said. It's the same building as PBS’ new headquarters. “Staff continues to work remotely while official restrictions and our own health safeguards are in force,” Butler said. Amazon moving to the area its second HQ meant "considerable dislocation," the APTS CEO wrote.

NAB and the American Council of the Blind point to COVID-19 to justify their opposing arguments about an FCC proposal to extend video description requirements to the top 100 designated market areas, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 11-43 (see 2004220065). NAB supports the FCC extending the requirements and tentative conclusions that the requirement is cost effective. It wants a nine-month extension on implementation to better align with broadcaster budget cycles and to give stations time to recover from pandemic financial woes. The requirement would take effect in January; NAB wants that pushed to October 2021. “Any perceived downside” of such an extension is “far outweighed” by the benefits of giving broadcasters “a longer runway,” NAB said. COVID-19 is precisely why the FCC shouldn’t delay implementation, said ACB. The pandemic “created a situation where access to news and entertainment is uniquely important,” said the group. The FCC shouldn’t look at only the pandemic when considering the costs of the proposal, but also the benefits, ACB said. NAB and ACB endorsed an FCC proposal to replace the term “video description” with “audio description,” which ACB said lines up with other federal and international uses.

The FCC should reject Univision’s petition to be allowed to be up to 100% foreign owned and prevent investment firms ForgeLight and Searchlight Capital Partners from buying a majority of the company, Free Press and Mijente wrote in a letter posted in docket 20-123 Thursday. Free Press and Mijente didn’t file a petition to deny the deal by the June 4 deadline -- nor did other entities -- and Friday was the deadline for oppositions to such petitions and for replies on the declaratory ruling. Free Press and Mijente also hadn’t filed in the declaratory ruling docket 20-122 before last week. MANA and the League of United Latin American Citizens asked the FCC to delay the proceeding and allow more time for comments, after DOJ's request that it be put on hold pending Team Telecom review. “The need for more local and diverse Spanish-language and Latinx-centered content is far too important for the Commission to simply rubber-stamp these transactions,” said Free Press and Mijente. Relaxed foreign broadcast ownership rules have “opened the door to more corporate consolidation and the global redistribution of U.S. broadcast assets,” said the joint letter. “This transaction would foreclose opportunities for diverse and local ownership of broadcast stations,” the two said. As "this nation grapples with the legacy and institutionalization of white supremacy and anti-blackness, we must ensure that communities can take greater control and ownership of their media,” Free Press and Mijente said. The Univision deal isn’t expected to hit regulatory snags because the investment firms don’t own any media properties that overlap with the broadcaster (see 2003030059).

Most provisions of FCC broadcast notice rule changes won’t take effect until the item receives OMB Paperwork Reduction Act approval (see 2006170062).

The FCC unanimously voted to extend the repack deadline for a Jacksonville TV station to Sept. 8, said an order released Thursday. The repacking is scheduled to be complete July 3, and the agency said the extension doesn’t apply to any other station. “Circumstances beyond the station’s control require additional time for the station to resolve interference concerns with land mobile operations on its new channel," said a release. “Absent the extension, WFOX-TV would have to go off the air.” The question of whether broadcasters that couldn’t meet the repacking deadline would be allowed to continue operating was raised repeatedly by broadcasters in the lead-up to the incentive auction. “We anticipate that the vast majority of remaining television stations will meet their July 3 deadline,” said Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo. “Of the 987 TV stations that were assigned to new channels, only 92 stations have yet to transition, and the Commission does not anticipate the need for more than a few other short extensions,” the release said.

Portions of FCC rule changes allowing broadcasters to satisfy application notice requirements with online listings instead of newspaper ads take effect July 20, says Thursday's Federal Register (see 2005130063). The rest of the rules will need to go through OMB Paperwork Reduction Act approval.

A Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, pirate radio operator agreed to surrender his broadcasting equipment and pay a $1,500 penalty in $50 monthly installments, said a consent decree and order Wednesday. FCC Enforcement Bureau agents found Anthony Edwards operating World Hype Radio from his residence in 2017, after which he promised via letter that he would cease broadcasting, the bureau said. Last June, agents traced an unauthorized signal to an antenna on his home. Now, Edwards must turn his equipment in to EB, and if caught broadcasting within the next 20 years, owes $23,500.