Entertainment Media Trust trustee Dennis Watkins has until Feb. 10 to show why its licensing applications before the FCC shouldn't be dismissed for failure to prosecute, agency Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin said in a docket 19-156 order to show cause Friday.

Stations not owned by TV networks have a hard time getting "distribution, particularly via over-the-top platforms," CEO Emily Barr, General Counsel Heidi Schmid Whiting and another Graham Media executive told Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel. FCC efforts to reduce broadcaster "regulatory burdens," appreciated so far, "can have an outsize effect on smaller station groups," the executives told the commissioners and aides in meetings Wednesday. The representatives cited recent media modernization, recounted a filing posted Friday in docket 17-105. Expect more to come from that initiative, agency officials told us (see 1912060039). The Computer & Communications Industry Association and Internet Association didn't comment on OTT distribution.

The FCC's newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban accelerated the decline of newspapers and is why southwest Ohio papers picked up by Terrier Media in its purchase of Cox stations may have to reduce to three-day-a-week print editions so as not to be deemed daily publications, former Commissioner Robert McDowell, now with Cooley, wrote Friday in the Dayton Daily News. He said criticisms about the role of private equity in Terrier Media's buy of Cox (see 2001020034) are "disingenuous." The ownership ban is a hurdle blocking investment in newspapers and "needs to be eliminated as soon as possible," he said. Terrier Media was given a two-month extension as it tries to sell the newspapers (see 2001150071); Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, backed that extension. His letter Jan. 14 to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was posted Friday.

Supporters and critics of letting low-power TV channel 6 stations provide analog FM radio services beyond the 2021 DTV conversion deadline were at odds in FCC docket 03-185 filings posted through Thursday. That included disagreements about whether the audio service is an allowable ancillary or supplementary service. Two rules modifications would easily let the FCC extend the authorization of analog Channel 6 LPTV stations offering analog 87.7 FM audio service after the LPTV digital transition, the LPTV Spectrum Coalition said: Doing so would shorten the DTV moving time and keep alive the analog audio service. The group said concerns about interference from Channel 6 stations broadcasting a dual digital TV/analog audio signal "are both highly exaggerated [and] easily managed in the real world field engineering work." It said if the FCC wants to be "overly cautious," it could opt for contour overlap restrictions and bans on actual interference. The public interest benefit in keeping the service is "indisputable" given millions of regular listeners, said the Preserve Community Programming Coalition. It echoed the LPTV Spectrum Coalition's call for rules modifications. There have been few if any instances of Channel 6 FM audio causing interference, and interference rules could remedy any that occur, said Educational Media Foundation. LPTV operators back continuing the service (see 2001220063). In contrast, Common Frequency said there might be value in retaining the FM facilities, but doing so would be "an awkward move." It said the agency should either grandfather the current rules, allowing a certain amount of analog TV stations still existing on Channel 6 beyond 2021, or replace the service. It urged eliminating Channel 6 for TV use and 82-88 MHz for channels to migrate AM licensees. NPR said analog FM authorizations beyond 2021 "would be misguided" since each "Franken FM" station takes up 30 times the spectrum a traditional FM station uses, calling that a misuse of public airwaves. NPR said such analog audio service isn't an ancillary and supplementary service under the Communications Act and extending the authorizations would violate rules on TV stations operating independent visual and aural transmitters. The California State University Long Beach Research Foundation, which advocated for FM broadcast interference protections from LPTV stations operating on Channel 6, said the agency needs to consider the scope of that problem. The CSU foundation said there are different ways to address the issue, such as emission masks on LPTV stations.

Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle discussed broadcaster progress on ATSC 3.0 with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr in a Jan. 16 meeting, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 16-142 Wednesday. Broadcast engineers and analysts at a conference the same day discussed the need to communicate to advertisers and consumers about the new standard (see 2001160052).

The FCC Media Bureau Video Division dismissed a 2014 application for review from Free Press of the 2013 sale of stations from Local TV Holdings to Tribune sidecar Dreamcatcher as moot. So said a letter dated Dec. 9 and posted in docket 13-190 Wednesday: Since the stations were transferred to Tribune and then to Scripps as part of Nexstar buying Tribune and Dreamcatcher is no longer a licensee, the sharing agreements don't exist.

The full FCC dismissed an application for review appealing sale of two TV stations for a lack of standing, said an order posted Wednesday. Nalini, Rishi and Ravi Kapur opposed Media Bureau approval of KAXT-CD San Francisco-San Jose and KTLN-TV Palo Alto from OTA to TV-49. The Kapurs were minority owners of KAXT when OTA bought it in 2014, and opposed that and the renewal of KAXT’s license, the order said. “In several subsequent decisions, the Division and the full Commission have repeatedly rejected the Kapurs’ challenges.” The Kapurs argued the sale to OTA was illegal, and OTA lacks the character to be a licensee. “OTA argues in its AFR Opposition that the AFR is the Kapurs’ latest attempt to use the Commission’s processes to exact revenge on their former business partners for selling KAXT to OTA,” the order said. The Kapurs didn’t demonstrate injury from the sale, and the FCC and courts “repeatedly rejected standing assertions” advanced by minority interest holders, the agency said. Ravi Kapur said his family is considering its options.

Low-power TV stations using analog channel 6 to air content intended to be received by FM radios on channel 87.7 filed similarly formatted comments posted through Wednesday in docket 03-185 asking the FCC to allow such channels to continue operating. Kid’s Television, Prism Broadcasting, Delta Media, Omega Media Broadcasting, Almavision Hispanic Network and NY Metro Radio Korea used nearly identical language. They asked the FCC to grandfather the existence of such stations and allow analog broadcasts in that format after the LPTV digital transition is complete. “This would allow our service to greatly expand into multiple video streams in support of the local communities in the Jackson, MS market, and to keep our successful and well supported radio service,” said Kid’s Television. The stations oppose FCC proposals to designate 87.7 FM as an ancillary service.

Eighteen former Northwest Broadcasting stations in seven states are now blacked out on Dish Network's lineup. That's as new owner Apollo Global Management is seeking nearly double retransmission fees and rejected a Dish offer to extend the current contract through the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl while negotiations go on, Dish said Saturday. Apollo didn't comment Tuesday. A Cook County, Illinois, Circuit Court temporary restraining order last week stopped Apollo from blacking out former Cox stations it now owns.

Increasing the national TV audience reach ownership cap “would be one way the FCC could support local broadcasters” facing increased competition, Graham Media CEO Emily Barr said in meetings Tuesday with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, per a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-318. Graham Media discussed its efforts to prepare for the ATSC 3.0 transition.