FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urged broadcasters to work with MVPDs to avoid retransmission consent-related service disruptions during the next 60 days, said a news release Tuesday about a Monday conference call. Pai urged broadcasters to air public service announcements featuring celebrities plugging social distancing. “We need this vital message to be delivered by Americans who are familiar to different segments of our society, and broadcasters are ideally situated to the task,” Pai said now. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel made a similar point in a tweet Tuesday: “We would all benefit from new public service announcements to help keep us informed during these unprecedented times.” Pai praised an NAB-created “Coronavirus Response Toolkit” that helps broadcasters make such PSAs and Spanish-language broadcasters for spreading COVID-19 information. An industry official confirmed reports that broadcasters and NAB President Gordon Smith were on a conference call Monday with Vice President Mike Pence and White House Staff on an Ad Council coronavirus PSA campaign.
The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council shifted its proposal to take over the broadcast licenses expected to go dark (see 2003090067) after the dismissal of Entertainment Media Trust’s hearing proceeding, in response to objections from the FCC Enforcement Bureau and comments from Mark Kern, the petitioner who sparked the proceeding against EMT. MMTC’s letter was filed in docket 19-156 Monday, Kern’s on Friday. MMTC withdrew its request to be allowed to operate the EMT stations, and instead suggested it cooperate with an FCC-selected interim operator to turn the stations into an incubator test bed. Kern said new operators should be selected by auction, and the eventual owners should demonstrate that “none of the alleged wrongdoers” will benefit from any transactions involving the facilities. MMTC agreed: The FCC “should closely scrutinize any proposed transactions between interim or permanent operator and the wrongdoers.” MMTC disagreed with Kern that a new party should be limited on how many EMT’s stations it can bid on. MMTC said if the FCC is interested, the group will file a petition asking for comment on a proposal for a proceeding on using canceled licenses to create an incubator program.
The FCC should reconsider adjustments to rules for noncommercial educational station applications to review all mutually exclusive applications for possible secondary grants, said Discount Legal in a petition for reconsideration. The new rules were unanimously approved in December and take effect in April (see 1912110057). Discount Legal, which helps nonprofit groups apply for NCE licenses, disagreed with the agency’s contention such changes would unduly increase staff burdens. After all the work of comparing applications to determine which are mutually exclusive has been completed, and a winner selected, a comparison of secondary options for the leftover stations can be accomplished in “a glance,” Discount Legal said. “We seek reconsideration here in the hope that, at long last, the Commission will simply ask that the staff do its job and in so doing, expand needed service to the public.”
The FCC Media Bureau canceled a $2,000 forfeiture order for Carolina Radio Group that it says was issued in error, in an order released Thursday. The erroneous order said CRG had neither paid a forfeiture proposed in an earlier notice of apparent liability nor filed a written response, but CRG “had in fact paid the proposed forfeiture,” said the new order.
The U.S. solicitor general is still considering an FCC appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Prometheus IV decision, the SG said in a request for extension submitted to Justice Samuel Alito Monday (see 2002140048). The SG asked that the March 19 deadline be pushed back to April 18: “The further extension of time sought in this application is needed to permit further consultation with the Commission and with other components of the Department of Justice.” Broadcasters and NAB filed a similar extension request for their own cert application. The broadcasters said the additional time is needed to prepare their cert petition and so the court can consider the industry petition and the SG petition concurrently. Similar extension requests moving the deadline from February to March were granted earlier this year. A broadcast attorney familiar with the case said it isn’t unusual for the government to seek two such extensions.
Edge Networks wants to leverage ATSC 3.0 to deploy a wireless nationwide subscription-based video service, CEO Todd Achilles told us Tuesday. It sees competitive openings in “underserved” secondary and tertiary video markets, plus larger populations with poor or overpriced broadband, and markets with a monopolistic MVPD. Edge is on-air with 3.0 on low-power stations in Boise it’s leasing from Cocola Broadcasting, KBSE-LD Channel 33 and KCBB-LB Channel 34, said Achilles. Those will be the keystone of a hybrid over-the-air/IP 3.0 commercial service launch this summer to homes in the Boise designated market area, accessible through a set-top box Edge is developing, he said. The set-top will have built-in internet connectivity, two dual OTA ATSC 1.0/3.0 tuners, plus onboard storage, said Achilles. Edge wants to price its service offering at about half that of the $109 average monthly U.S. cable bill. With executive stints with HTC and T-Mobile, “I’ve been through a bunch of these transitions in the mobile space,” said Achilles. He regards 3.0 as “the most efficient wireless protocol,” he said. “What we’ve done is basically built a pay-TV model around a foundation of 3.0,” and is aiming its focus on second- and third-tier markets around the U.S. “that are just chronically underserved by the legacy providers,” he said. The startup doesn’t “aspire to do a 200-channel bundle” but rather an offering of 80-100 channels that’s somewhat “curated for what works” in individual markets, said Achilles. That’s “one of the things that differentiates us in our approach” compared with “the big national virtual MVPDs,” said Achilles. Hulu Live and YouTube TV offer “this overarching national bundle that applies to all markets,” he said. The wireless veteran doesn’t think there’s “a good market opportunity” in the U.S. for 3.0 reception in smartphones, he said.
The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council doubled down on its proposal to be allowed to operate Entertainment Media Trust’s likely canceled radio stations with a blitz of eighth-floor meetings and a proposal that the FCC adopt MMTC’s plan as a general policy for canceled licenses, said a Monday filing in docket 19-156. The Enforcement Bureau pushed back on MMTC’s plan in a filing last week (see 2003060045). In meetings and calls last week, MMTC discussed the plan with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and aides to all five commissioners. Responding to EB criticism, the group said it would operate the EMT stations on an interim basis only and that the unorthodox move was warranted to preserve broadcast service, test the concept of a broadcast incubator, and promote ownership diversity. MB staff asked MMTC if the organization was contemplating a policy of operating canceled and voluntarily surrendered licenses on an interim basis as an incubator program, the filing said. “This is an excellent idea, and we enthusiastically agree,” MMTC said. “We will refer to the relief we seek as a proposed ‘License Cancellation Policy.’”
The FCC should dismiss the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council request to be allowed to assume ownership of Entertainment Media Trust’s stations before those licenses are taken away (see 2003020063), said an Enforcement Bureau filing posted Friday in docket 19-156. MMTC doesn’t have standing in the case, and hasn’t outlined a legal framework that would allow the unusual request to occur, EB said: “Once the Presiding Judge's Order of Dismissal becomes effective, there will be nothing to transfer to MMTC Broadcasting or to any other entity.” Though MMTC cited similar cases, they were many years ago when the FCC did comparative hearings, the bureau said. Since those no longer happen, it’s not clear how those cases apply, the staff said: “The Media Bureau was aware at the time it released the [hearing designation order] that the loss of these licenses was a possible outcome of the hearing proceeding.” MMTC hasn’t justified why the FCC should disregard normal procedure “in favor of the efficiency of assigning licenses to the first entity who raises their hand,“ EB said.
An analysis of ATSC 3.0 transmission technology since the FCC approved its voluntary deployment in 2017 (see 1711160060) found the 3.0 “emission mask” may not adequately protect reserved-band FM noncommercial educational stations from interference, NPR told Media Bureau staff Monday. That’s because 3.0 transmissions “occupy additional bandwidth” beyond ATSC 1.0, and the interference risk “is particularly heightened at the perimeter of a DTV station’s coverage area,” it said in a notice posted Thursday in docket 19-193. NPR urged the commission to consider requiring DTV channel 6 stations to use “additional signal filtering” as it does for channels 14 and 17.
Nexstar and Charter Communications will jointly provide a local news feed from Nexstar's WWLP Springfield to Charter subscribers in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, the broadcaster said Tuesday. The feed will include live simulcast of WWLP-22 News, plus other local WWLP programming. Nexstar said the deal was struck with the assistance of the state's Democratic Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Richard Neal.