S&P Global says there's a "negative outlook" for Tegna due to projected reductions in advertising spending related to COVID-19. "While our expectations for retransmission and political advertising revenue remain unchanged, we expect advertising revenue will decline materially over the next year due to the spread of the virus," the debt ratings firm emailed Tuesday. "We could revise the outlook to stable if the pandemic has a limited effect on TEGNA's business." The already below investment grade issuer credit rating was lowered a notch to "BB-". S&P says the pandemic could affect Sinclair (see 2003190048).

Broadcasters should be contacting state and local officials about ensuring access to studios and transmitter sites and exempting news coverage from COVID-19 travel restrictions, blogged Wilkinson Barker's David Oxenford Monday. The U.S. code has statutory language against limiting broadcast access in an emergency, but not every state and locality does, he said. “Even if state laws have similar provisions, those provisions are only helpful if someone in a position of authority has the time and inclination to look at the legal niceties.” Stations should plan for worst-case scenarios where many staffers are infected, the industry lawyer recommended.

The Public Safety Bureau has granted a request from Hudson County, New Jersey for special temporary authority to operate its traveler’s information station at ten times it’s allowed power rate “during the national- and state-level emergencies associated with the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic,” said an order Friday. In 2014, the bureau denied the county’s request to permanently operate the 10-watt station at 100 watts, but said then it could allow it temporarily during an emergency. The county TIS station “is its only means of communicating with all of its residents and transients during this national emergency, and the station has only limited reach within the County at its licensed power,” the order said. The order requires the TIS to cease operating at increased power either after 90 days or when the national emergency ends, whichever is sooner. The station also has to filter audio bandwidths above 3 kHz, notify a nearby broadcaster when it increases power, and reduce power if it receives an interference complaint.

FCC application forms for broadcasters looking to shift to ATSC 3.0 don’t adequately tackle broadcasters hosting each other’s multicast ATSC 1.0 streams, said NAB in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 16-142 Friday. The agency should have broadcasters file exhibits with additional host channels with their applications, or include a request for special temporary authority with their application, NAB said. Broadcast licenses could be updated to include a notation reflecting the additional channels, NAB said. “Including such a notation on the broadcast license would resolve any questions regarding responsibility for the program in the event of any enforcement or regulatory requirement,” the letter said.

The FCC shouldn’t sunset protections for Channel 6 TV stations, said Gray Television and Sinclair Broadcast in letters posted Thursday in docket 19-193. Sunsetting the protections is among the agency’s proposals for improving low-power FM (see 1910220063). Instead, “act to alleviate the obstacles facing low VHF stations by lifting the freeze on channel substitutions and adopting a more realistic approach to low VHF propagation,” said Gray. Channel 6 “presents challenges not faced by other UHF or VHF stations,” said Sinclair. “Those challenges include over-the-air audience loss due to the limitations of digital broadcasting on VHF stations, poor building penetration and adjacent use/interference by stations in the FM radio band.”

The FCC Media Bureau will require the frequencies of the four stations formerly licensed to Entertainment Media Trust to be protected and it instituted a freeze on filings that would conflict with the frequencies of the canceled licenses, said a public notice posted in docket 19-156 Friday (see 2003160053). The order from Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin dismissing EMT’s applications to renew the licenses is now final, the PN said. The stations involved are KZQZ St. Louis and Illinois stations KFTK East St. Louis, WQQW Highland, and KQQZ Fairview Heights. Protecting the frequencies is “in anticipation of a future decision potentially allowing for the acceptance of mutually exclusive applications for the frequencies previously licensed to the Four Stations.” “Today’s ruling makes it possible for the Commission to take a deep breath then decide whether to run a nearly immediate auction seeking permanent licensees, or to instead invite applicants for interim authority,” said Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council Senior Adviser David Honig. MMTC asked the agency to prevent the four stations from going dark and argued they should be used as a broadcast incubator program. The PN is a positive sign for the public interest, Honig said.

An FCC denial of a petition for reconsideration Wednesday illustrates why the agency should consider the rural radio rule as part of its media modernization effort, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Thursday. The full commission dismissed Chehalis Valley Educational Foundation’s recon petition seeking reversal of the FCC’s rejection of its application to change the community of license for noncommercial station KACS(FM) Chehalis, Washington. The FCC said the Chehalis appeal was repetitious and a rulemaking is the proper venue to challenge the FCC’s rural radio rule, which restricts radio stations seeking to relocate to more urban areas by changing their community of license. The policy makes it harder for new entrants to move rural stations to compete in urbanized markets, Oxenford said. “Yesterday’s decision might just create more supporters for the demise of this policy among noncommercial licensees.”

S&P Global is revising its outlook on Sinclair Broadcast from positive to negative due to COVID-19 causing cancellation of live events, reduced consumer spending, and an expected decline in advertising, said a Thursday email to investors. “The negative outlook on Sinclair reflects the uncertainty around the extent of coronavirus' impact on the company's performance,” and could worsen if advertising revenue is reduced, S&P Global said. Previous, rosier forecasts for Sinclair assumed growth in carriage of the company’s regional sports networks. “Further delays to sporting events could prolong the timeline for the regional sports networks to gain carriage,” the email said. In Sinclair’s last investor call, CEO Chris Ripley touted the company’s investments in regional sports networks and looked ahead to legal sports gambling as an important opportunity for the company (see 2002260056).

Temporary shared newsgathering agreements for coverage of COVID-19 don’t need to be drawn up in writing and posted to station public files, said the FCC Media Bureau in a guidance public notice Thursday. “As a result of the fluid and challenging nature of covering the outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we understand that broadcast stations may be engaging in the sharing of news and news gathering resources in order to cover the emergency news event,” said the PN. Those sorts of arrangements don’t demonstrate a sharing arrangement that would need to be disclosed under the agency’s rules for shared-service agreements, the PN said. “We note, however, that ordinary sharing agreements not arising from the emergency would continue to be subject to the filing requirement.” Agreements that persist after the COVID-19 emergency would need to be documented and filed, the PN said.

President Donald Trump’s administration is partnering with the Ad Council, broadcasters and digital platforms to air public service announcements to urge social distancing and personal hygiene practices in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has urged broadcasters to air PSAs featuring celebrities plugging social distancing (see 2003170068). Pai has also urged broadcasters to work with MVPDs to avoid retransmission consent-related service disruptions during the next 60 days, something that has support from some broadcasters and MVPDs (see 2003180036). Surgeon General Jerome Adams, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Debbie Birx and first lady Melania Trump will appear in the PSAs, the White House said Wednesday. ABC, iHeartMedia, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS will be running PSAs coordinated with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Health and Human Services, the White House said.