ViacomCBS and Meredith signed a multiyear renewal of their affiliation agreement covering Meredith's seven CBS affiliates, the network said Thursday. It said the agreement will keep the affiliates on the CBS All Access and on vMVPD and traditional MVPD platforms. Earlier this week, an affiliation agreement was disclosed that covers most Nexstar CBS affiliates (see 2003240002).

The FCC should examine whether broadcasters are airing false and misleading information about COVID-19 and require broadcasters to “prominently disclose” when the information they air is “false or scientifically suspect,” including in news briefings by President Donald Trump, said Free Press in an emergency petition for inquiry Thursday. “When the president tells dangerous lies about a public health emergency, broadcasters have a choice: don’t air them, or put those lies in context with disclaimers noting that they may be untrue and are unverified.” The agency should require TV stations air disclosures “in writing in the lower third and orally” and radio outlets to “correct misinformation about COVID-19 in oral reporting after press conferences and immediately following other instances when false information airs,” the petition said. “This is a life or death issue.” The White House and FCC didn’t comment.

ViacomCBS and Nexstar signed nine affiliation agreements for Nexstar stations, extending affiliations that were to expire later this year, the network said Tuesday. The new agreements follow an August affiliation agreement covering 19 Nexstar stations, and now substantially all ViacomCBS affiliation agreements covering 49 Nexstar stations have been extended, it said.

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.”