The FCC Media Bureau granted Hemisphere Media’s (HMTV) petition for declaratory ruling to allow it to be up to 100 percent foreign-owned, said a docket 19-194 order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The Miami cable network and broadcaster already operates under a declaratory ruling allowing Mexico-based investors to own up to 49.99 percent of the company, the order said. “HMTV does not seek approval of a change in control and does not seek specific approval of any new foreign investors,” the order said, meaning that under the order, any increased amount of foreign investment would need to come from one of the foreign companies that already owns portions of HMTV. “We find that it will serve the public interest to grant the Petition,” the order said.

The FCC should reject Terrier Media’s amendments to its proposed deals with Cox and Northwest Broadcasting, said Common Cause and the United Church of Christ, Office of Communication in a joint ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 19-98 (see 1910310072). Terrier’s amendment “violates the goals” of the media ownership rules restored by a recent 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, “using technicalities to circumvent compliance with those rules,” the filing said. The amendments, which would reduce the circulation of a newspaper involved in the deal and turn in the license of some TV stations, would take advantage of “the FCC’s own failure to update its rules,” the filing said. The newspaper broadcast cross-ownership rule’s singling out of daily newspaper circulation as an ownership benchmark and lack of mention of digital distribution show the rule’s definitions “no longer make sense in today’s media marketplace,” the filing said. The FCC’s “failure to meaningfully update the NBCO Rule does not mean it should permit the Applicants to exploit this loophole,” the filing said. “The Commission already turned a blind eye to the Court’s ruling when it granted a prior transaction even though it contained media ownership rule violations,” the filing said, referencing the approval of a Gray TV transaction in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. “This is part of a troubling pattern,” the filing said.

Deadlines for Entertainment Media Trust’s license hearing were extended by three months in anticipation of the dismissal of its Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding (see 1911060063), in an order from FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin posted Monday in docket 19-156. The hearing is now to commence in October, the order said. The bankruptcy is expected to be dismissed because bankruptcy trustee Dennis Sampson -- who currently controls EMT’s licenses -- filed in support of EMT’s request for dismissal, the order said. Once the bankruptcy is dismissed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Sampson will no longer be a party to the case, the order said.

The FCC shouldn’t have altered its political broadcasting rules without seeking public comment, said NAB, Hearst, Graham Media, Nexstar, Fox, E.W. Scripps and Tegna in a Friday-filed petition for reconsideration and clarification of two FCC orders on political advertising rules issued in October (see 1910170037). The orders concerned numerous political file complaints against stations owned by the petitioners. The FCC “erred in creating new disclosure and recordkeeping requirements without the benefit of input from the vast majority of the industry required to maintain political advertising files,” the broadcasters said. The political ad policies created by the orders are “in some cases unlawful” or “overbroad” and “counterproductive,” the petition said. Requirements to disclose federal candidates and issues are burdensome and could reduce speech, and stations' good-faith efforts to disclose the focus of political ads should be sufficient, the filing said. The petition also seeks a clarification that the rules apply only to noncandidate political ads, and for reconsideration of a rule barring broadcasters from identifying sponsoring entities using acronyms. The FCC should adopt a “more rational” approach that “requires broadcasters to make reasonable good faith efforts to disclose the topics that are the focus or the ‘gist’” of political ads, the petition said.

Broadcasters won’t be able to file new or modify existing quarterly children’s television reports after Dec. 17, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice on docket 17-105 Friday. The July kidvid order eliminated quarterly reports (see 1907100067) and replaced them with an annual requirement, and changes to the licensing management system to accommodate the new report mean the older sort can longer be filed or amended, the PN said. The bureau expects to be ready to accept revised children’s television reports starting Jan.1 “subject to OMB approval.”

New Jersey is in "urgent need" of an upgrade or replacement to its emergency alert system software, said a New Jersey Broadcasters Association newsletter Thursday. The current system needs replacement because of "advanced age and functional obsolescence," said NJBA, which raised the issue in August (see 1908220048). "An immediate threat to emergency communications remains a very distinct possibility after January 1st and the State needs to address this problem ASAP!" NJBA is "fervently requesting" a new system funded through grants authorized after Hurricane Sandy through New Jersey state agencies, the governor's office, the state emergency communications committee, and the FCC.

Los Angeles County supports a request from Channel 51 to remain silent until the ongoing proceeding (see 1905310045) over the low-power TV station's displacement application -- which the county opposes -- is resolved, said comments posted Wednesday. Requiring the station go on air while the agency decides if its signals will interfere with public safety communications -- as the county maintains -- “would unnecessarily endanger public safety,” LA said.

The FCC received two submissions from U.S.-based foreign media outlets for April 13-Oct. 11, said the third report on such outlets to Congress, released Tuesday. The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act requires the reports. The two outlets are the same that submitted previously: Anadolu Agency and MHz News. Turkish news agency Anadolu Ajansi owns Anadolu, while MHz is “100 percent owned by U.S. Citizens” and distributes content from France Medias Monde, Deutsche Welle and Al Jazeera. The services receive funding “through a government mechanism,” so MHz News filed “in the interest of transparency and out of an abundance of caution,” the report said. MHz missed the deadline but filed after being contacted.

Wi-Fi uses being considered for the 6 GHz band are “fundamentally incompatible with mobile broadcast operations used for electronic newsgathering,” NAB told FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff, per a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295. Proposed solutions for protecting electronic newsgathering and other mobile uses of the spectrum “will be entirely ineffective,” the group said. Restricting unlicensed operations to indoor use won’t provide protection because electronic newsgathering itself frequently takes place indoors, and “there is no reason to believe that WiFi signals from indoor access points and devices will in fact remain indoors,” the association said. The FCC shouldn’t allow unlicensed operation in portions of the 6 GHz band allocated for mobile, NAB said. Others are expressing concern about opening up the band (see 1911080033).

The FCC should eliminate loopholes in rules that permit broadcasters to create local “duopolies, triopolies, and even quadropolies” using low-power stations, said the American Television Alliance in a meeting Monday with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey, Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman and bureau staff, per a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-349. “It would not serve the public interest to allow Apollo to acquire a top-four quadropoly in Greenville, Mississippi.” That combination has allowed current owner Northwest to “command among the highest retransmission consent fees in the nation,” ATVA said (see 1910310072). The ATVA meeting included representatives from AT&T, Charter Communications, Dish Network and America's Communications Association.