DOJ consent decrees with CBS, Cox, E.W. Scripps, Fox and Tegna over sharing “competitively sensitive” advertising rate information (see 1906180049) were published in the Federal Register Thursday. It kicks off a comment period on the consent decrees that ends Oct. 21, said a DOJ news release. The consent decrees are connected with the broadcasters sharing ad pacing data, which compares a station’s revenue for a certain time period with the same time the previous year. Sharing that information can allow broadcasters to better anticipate whether their competitors are likely to raise, maintain or lower spot advertising prices, Justice said.
Apollo Global Management made overtures to acquire Tegna early in 2019 and again in June, Tegna confirmed in a Wednesday news release. Tegna received a letter from Apollo in February “stating that Apollo was interested in acquiring TEGNA without specifying a price,” it said. This June, Apollo proposed “to combine TEGNA with broadcasting assets Apollo is in the process of buying, in a transaction that would not have constituted a change of control of TEGNA,” the broadcaster said. Apollo has pending deals to buy Cox’s TV and radio stations along with TV stations from Northwest Broadcasting (see 1906260083). Apollo didn’t comment.
The FCC shouldn't weaken or eliminate the local public notice requirement for broadcasters, said Common Cause and the Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation in an Aug. 12 meeting with Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Al Shuldiner and other Media Bureau staff, according to a Monday ex parte filing in docket 17-264. The agency should instead make public notices more effective by adding a requirement that they state if an applicant is seeking a waiver of the rules, the filing said. “Clear and transparent local public notice enables the public to exercise its rights to participate in license proceedings,” the filing said. “Waiver requests presume that an applicant seeks an action contrary to the public interest.”
Many new kidvid rules take effect Sept. 16, said Friday’s Federal Register. Some of the changes, such as the shift from quarterly to annual reporting (see 1907100067), are undergoing OMB Paperwork Reduction Act review, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford. The agency is expected to provide guidance on how broadcasters should complete the children’s TV quarterly report due Oct. 10, when the new reporting requirements won’t have taken effect, Oxenford said. A Further NPRM on proposals to create a framework for broadcasters to satisfy kidvid requirements by supporting content on noncommercial stations was also published in Friday's FR. Comments are due Sept. 16, replies Oct. 15.
An item on Nexstar listed by the FCC as being on circulation doesn’t directly relate to the company's buying Tribune, agency officials told us last week. Listed as “Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc., Application for Renewal of Licenses of Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. and Compliance with the Children's Television Act,” the item involves renewal of the broadcaster's licenses, the officials said. It isn’t uncommon for the agency to “clear the decks” of older, unresolved matters before approving a deal, the officials said. DOJ approved most of the Nexstar/Tribune divestitures earlier this month. The broadcaster is seen likely to divest a station in the lone market flagged by antitrust authorities (see 1908010035). It’s possible that an order approving the deal wouldn’t be circulated at all but approved at the bureau level on delegated authority, the officials said. Nexstar didn’t comment Friday.
OMB OK'd the FCC order on reimbursing low-power TV, translator and FM stations for costs incurred during the post-incentive auction repacking, said Wednesday's Federal Register. The order was effective then. Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo said last week (see 1908090050) the LPTV reimbursement process was awaiting OMB Paperwork Reduction Act approval, and a pair of public notices on the reimbursement procedures would be released “relatively soon.”
America’s Public Television Stations noted Motorola Solutions and Sonim demonstrated Monday at the annual conference of Association of Public Safety Communications Officers in Baltimore, receiving ATSC 3.0 signals with smartphones and tablets. “The next step is getting these Next Gen chips into the mobile devices themselves, and the sooner that happens, the safer and better informed the American people will be,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler in a news release. NAB CEO Gordon Smith and broadcasters have worried whether phone manufactures would include 3.0 chips (see 1905300063). The demo used chips built by Saankhya Labs.
An iHeartRadio petition for more flexibility (see 1907260068) to be foreign owned is “very consistent” with FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s views, he tweeted Monday. “Seeing many positives from recent @iHeartRadio petition re foreign ownership, as public companies have only so much insight into its stockholders.” The petition said iHeart needs more flexibility to compete with companies that don’t face restrictions on foreign ownership. “Very consistent with my views & Admin comments last week on foreign investment in US,” O’Rielly tweeted. “Team Telecom exists to consider any problems.”
Concerns about the ATSC 3.0 transition’s effect on MVPDs raised by Charter are “misplaced and premature,” said Sinclair's One Media in a letter to the FCC posted Friday in docket 16-142. MVPDs won’t need equipment to decode 3.0 signals “at this time and for the foreseeable future” because broadcasters are simulcasting 3.0 channels in the current standard, One Media said. Broadcasters have “a strong interest” in MVPD carriage of 3.0 and are negotiating carriage terms through retransmission consent agreements, One Media said. One Media also objected to Charter concerns that 3.0 doesn’t have consumer devices and that it duplicates features available through the internet. Those deployment considerations “have zero impact on MVPD access to broadcaster-provided programming” and reflect “a particularly jaundiced view of the Commission’s regulatory role,” One Media said.
Entercom CEO David Field “reiterated support” for the NAB proposal to relax AM/FM subcaps, in meeting with FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 18-349 (see 1905300018). The FCC’s recently approved low-power FM NPRM “could bring increased congestion to the FM dial leading to interference to full power stations,” the filing said (see 1907310044).