The Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau updated price ranges in the FCC catalog of eligible repacking reimbursement expenses for full-power and Class A stations and MVPDs to reflect the annual update of the producer price index by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said a public notice Monday in docket 16-306. The PPI increased 2.8 percent over the previous figure. The new numbers were integrated into the licensing and management system, the PN said. The expense catalog was similarly updated last year (see 1806260039).

The Supreme Court's Manhattan Community Access decision last month (see 1906170014) means more independence in programming decisions for public access stations, but its anti-big-government expansion of the "state action" doctrine will make corporations happy, broadcast lawyer Kevin Goldberg of Fletcher Heald blogged Thursday. Social media platforms likely will cite the decision from a First Amendment stance as backing the argument they should be the sole arbiters of what's allowed on their sites, he said. One issue to be watched is whether other traditional government functions outsourced to private actors can operate more free of government intervention when restricting individual liberties, he said.

The draft kidvid order set for the FCC's July 10 meeting “largely dismisses” privacy concerns about YouTube and other online media platforms, said a letter posted Thursday in docket 18-202 from Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Common Sense Media, the Georgetown University Institute for Public Representation and the Center for Digital Democracy. An ongoing FTC investigation of YouTube for violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (see 1906190045) demonstrates that depending on online platforms for children's content raises privacy and safety concerns, the letter said. Other online sources of kidvid programming cited in the draft order -- such as Amazon -- recently announced they won't create more original children's programming, the letter said: "These developments demonstrate that the Commission should not relax the Children’s Television Rules, given the lack of suitable educational programming alternatives for children."

FCC Media Bureau approval of Nexstar's WNLO and WUTV Licensee's channel swap in Buffalo (see 1906120044) is effective Thursday, says that day's Federal Register.

Cox Enterprises, already selling TV stations, agreed to do the same for radio and also to Apollo Global Management affiliates. It will sell Cox Media Group’s radio portfolio of some 60 stations in 11 markets and CoxReps and Gamut national advertising businesses to a "new broadcasting company that is substantially owned by private equity funds managed by affiliates of Apollo," the media company said Wednesday evening. "The transaction will expand the new company, which announced in February its purchase of Cox Media Group’s broadcast television group and the company’s Radio, Newspaper and Television properties in Ohio." Cox Enterprises will keep a minority stake in the new company that will still go by Cox Media Group. To comply with FCC ownership limits, the buyer plans to divest an FM in Orlando and in Tampa. An expected closing date and terms weren't disclosed, and the buyer and seller didn't comment further right away.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau scheduled a webinar on the emergency alert system and the EAS test reporting system for low-power broadcasters at 1 p.m. EDT July 11, said a public notice Tuesday. A nationwide EAS test is planned for Aug. 7 (see 1906030050).

The FCC corrected when some new FM translator interference rules take effect (see 1906140057) to Aug. 13, says Tuesday's Federal Register.

An NPRM on equal employment opportunity enforcement offered by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to satisfy concerns raised by Democratic commissioners doesn't go far enough to solicit diversity data, said Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks in statements released with the approved item Friday. Though the NPRM in docket 19-177 was first proposed as a compromise offering to Starks and Rosenworcel (see 1902140053), both voted “concur” on the item. “I asked that we include language in this item to refresh the record on this languishing EEO data collection,” said Starks. “Unfortunately, my request was denied.” The item seeks comment on the FCC's track record on EEO enforcement and on whether it should be improved. ”What elements of the Commission’s EEO enforcement program are effective?” the NPRM asked. It seeks comment on modifying the EEO audit program to ensure that hiring decisions aren't made before jobs are widely posted. The NPRM is “unduly narrow,” said Rosenworcel. It “neglects to inquire about data that will help inform our work to modernize these policies,” she said. Starks unsuccessfully asked the item include a Further NPRM on collecting EEO data through Form 395-B. Pai said he has constitutional concerns about collecting such data. Looking into EEO enforcement was proposed in filings from a collection of 33 diversity groups, but the NPRM doesn't explicitly seek comment on some proposals from those filings. The diversity groups proposed the agency focus first on identifying companies using word-of-mouth recruitment and then require the Form 395-B data collection only from companies that had already been found to be violating EEO rules.

The FCC should exempt noncommercial educational TV stations from the simulcasting requirements of the ATSC 3.0 transition, PBS and America’s Public Television Stations told Media Bureau staff Tuesday, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 16-142. Only low-power TV stations currently are allowed to “flash-cut” to 3.0 -- full-power broadcasters must continue broadcasting substantially similar content in the current 1.0 standard along with a 3.0 broadcast stream. Commercial broadcasters are cooperating to host each others’ broadcasts to make the shift, but public TV officials argued NCE stations will have difficulty finding transition partners. “Without such an exemption, the simulcasting mandate will preclude many public television stations from pursuing a transition to ATSC 3.0,” the filing said. That will disproportionately affect noncommercial stations and rural communities, it said.

Comments are due July 22 on Mexico-based Multimedios's petition for a foreign ownership declaratory ruling to allow its subsidiary Leading Media Group to buy five radio stations in Texas, said a public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest (see 1905220072). Multimedios needs OK for the purchasing subsidiary to be 100 percent foreign owned for the deal to go through, the PN said. The stations involved in the prospective deal are KBDR(FM) Mirando City, its booster KBDR-FM1 Laredo, KNEX(FM) Laredo, KLNT Laredo and KURV Edinburg. Replies are due in docket 19-167 Aug. 6.