CBS increased Joe Ianniello's base salary to $3 million when it extended him as president-acting CEO for six months through Dec. 31, said an 8-K Friday evening at the SEC. Ianniello this year also will get a bonus "not less than" his newly raised $15 million "target," plus a $5 million "lump sum" cash payout for agreeing to the extension, it said. He got a $2.5 million salary and $12.5 million bonus in 2018 when he spent most of the year as chief operating officer, said an April 12 proxy for the CBS annual shareholders meeting May 29 in New York. He was elevated Sept. 9 to his current posts after Les Moonves resigned as chairman-president-CEO amid sexual misconduct allegations (see 1809100026). Moonves got a $3.5 million salary and $20 million bonus in 2017, his last full year as top CBS executive, said an April 2018 proxy. The company "has agreed to renegotiate" Ianniello’s contract “in good faith” if it decides to make him permanent CEO on or before Dec. 31, said the 8-K. Though CBS said last week its board suspended the CEO search "as a testament" to Ianniello's "accomplishments" during his seven months in his new role, the 8-K suggested he's no sure lock for the job. If the board picks “another individual” for CEO or Ianniello loses his current positions stemming from a “corporate event” as defined in his July 2017 COO contract, he would become a CBS “consultant” for 90 days, if the board so requests, at his regular salary and bonus, it said. CBS would try to recoup a portion of any lump-sum money from Ianniello if he quits before the 90-day consultancy is up to reflect his "cessation of employment prior to the end of the employment term," it said. CBS reports Q1 results Thursday.

The FCC should reconsider leaving a fast-track option out of the reimbursement order for low-power TV, said the National Translator Association in a petition for reconsideration posted Friday in docket 18-214. The reimbursement order was unanimously approved at the agency's March meeting (see 1903150073). The fast-track proposal would have allowed smaller broadcasters to agree to a $31,000 cap on expenses and go through a less burdensome process to receive reimbursement funds. "Reimbursement designed to complicate full repayment of forced expenses, in a repack that reduced the available channels to these communities, may exceed the capabilities of a local staff of one or two or three people,” NTA said. The FCC said the agency needed accurate reimbursement estimates from all parties to prevent over-allocating the funds and so it could accurately predict how much money would be needed. NTA said its proposal wouldn’t have prevented accurate FCC assessment. “Supplanting cost estimates by an agreed cap and an actual statement of expenditures is a more accurate estimating and allocating tool than mere estimates,” NTA said. It objected to the order carving out exceptions to rules against third-party funding for government-owned stations only. State and local governments should be able to be reimbursed for any funding help provided to displaced stations, not just those licensed to their governments, NTA said. “The actual holder of the license should not be dispositive,” NTA said, arguing local governments have financed displacement of stations licensed to service organizations and clubs affiliated with colleges.

Initial comments on the FCC 2018 quadrennial review order were due Monday in docket 18-349. Those filed early show broadcasters and interest groups largely holding to their positions. The Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council said "failure to remedy the lingering effects of its past history” kept minorities almost entirely out of broadcasting for 50 years. Connoisseur Media called again for the FCC to eliminate rules on broadcasters in embedded markets (see 1710100057). Crawford Broadcasting argued that FCC proposals to relax AM/FM subcaps could “have an unanticipated detrimental effect on the industry and on the values of AM stations in particular.” Crawford owns 15 AM stations and 9 FM stations. MMTC defended its proposal to apply cable procurement diversity rules to broadcasting (see 1811200048), calling the Office of Economics and Analytics the “ideal” entity to create an innovative way to measure diversity. “The rudimentary methodology the Commission uses to measure competition and diversity is little more than ‘station counting," MMTC said.

The FCC is combining processing of applications for Nexstar buying Tribune with planned divestitures (see 1903200058) to Circle City Broadcasting, Scripps and Tegna. "Because this proceeding involves multiple transactions in multiple markets, and requires coordinated timing to effectuate divestitures of certain stations that are necessary for approval of the overall transaction, we find that consolidated processing of the Divestiture Applications, and their incorporation into this docket, will result in administrative efficiency and ensure a comprehensive record," said a Media Bureau public notice Friday on docket 19-30. The commission accepted the original deal applications for filing Jan. 28, and now does so for the divestitures, the PN said. Applicants contend Nexstar will have “an attributable interest in television stations reaching 38.2965% of the national audience," it noted. The national viewership cap is 39 percent. Without the divestitures, the Nexstar/Tribune deal would have exceeded it by 8.1 percent. Petitions to deny are due May 27, oppositions to those petitions June 11, and replies June 18, per the PN. "Petitioners and commenters should raise all issues in their initial filings. Replies may only address matters raised in oppositions. A party or interested person seeking to raise a new issue after the pleading cycle has closed must show good cause why it was not possible for it to have raised the issue previously." The divestitures are worth more than $1 billion and the overall deal some several billion. Nexstar didn't comment Friday evening.

The FCC should clarify how the proposed 45 dBu interference contour in the draft FM translator order interacts with grandfathered “super-maximum” Class B FM stations, which have far more range than comparable stations, said low-power FM group REC Networks in a letter to Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Al Shuldiner posted Thursday in docket 18-119 (see 1904180063). “While these super-powered Class B stations comprise of less than two percent of licensed FM stations, they are much more prevalent in California.” Their “super-powered" 45 dBu contour can cover tens of thousands more square miles than other stations in their class, REC said. Clarify whether the draft order would limit FM translator interference complaints at such stations’ class maximum 45 dBu contour or the “super-powered” contour, REC asked. KBIG(FM) Los Angeles’ class maximum contour covers more than 99 percent of Los Angeles, but its super-powered 45 dBu contour “extends to cover the entire Ventura/Oxnard and San Bernardino-Riverside markets as well as portions of the Bakersfield, Victor Valley and San Diego metro markets,” REC said. “REC supports the class maximum 45 dBu contour as the outer limit in this case as it would be consistent with other policies on super-powered stations.”

The FCC Media Bureau approved transfer applications connected with iHeartMedia’s bankruptcy reorganization, said an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The transfers move iHeart’s stations to the reorganized company owned by its new shareholders. “Upon iHeart’s emergence from bankruptcy, all of the existing capital stock of iHeart will be cancelled, and all of the new stock will be distributed to holders of debt and other creditors of iHeart and/or their designees,” the order said. “Following the consummation of the transactions involved here, no single person or entity, or group of commonly-controlled persons or entities, will hold a controlling interest in Reorganized iHeart.” Due to grandfathered ownership combinations, iHeart exceeded ownership limits in two markets in Georgia and Minnesota, and the transfer order requires a radio station in each of those markets to be divested. KSNR Fisher, Minnesota, and WHFX Darien, Georgia, will be transferred to a divestiture trust and are required to be sold to an unaffiliated buyer within two years. The transfer of control means iHeart’s pending FM translator applications will be dismissed. “The Commission has received no petitions to deny or informal objections to the Applications,” the order said of the reorganization. The broadcaster didn’t comment.

Formerly confidential incentive auction broadcaster bidding information released by the FCC Monday (see 1904220054) reveals the “highs and lows” some stations experienced during the auction, Wiley Rein broadcast attorney Ari Meltzer blogged. The final station in the auction, Mid-State Television’s WMFD-TV Mansfield, Ohio, was initially frozen in first round of the reverse auction at $71 million, only to have its offered price drop to $17 million in Round 43 of Stage 4, Meltzer said Monday in a post emailed the following day. WMFD's price later dropped to $7 million and then nothing, which Mid State declined. Of the 175 stations with winning bids in the auction, the overwhelming majority -- 160 -- didn't have their final price frozen in the auction until the final stage, Meltzer said.

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on a joint petition for rulemaking to swap channels in Buffalo, said an NPRM in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. Nexstar and WUTV Licensee want to swap the slots of Nexstar’s WNLO, now on channel 32, and WUTV, on channel 36. WUTV Licensee owns WUTV. The broadcasters want waiver of the bureau’s freeze on filing and processing of petitions for digital channel substitutions, the NPRM said. “Petitioners claim that the channel substitution serves the public interest because it would allow for a more efficient allocation of UHF television channels and resolve significant over-the air reception problem.”

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should deny a motion from anti-media consolidation petitioners in the 2014 quadrennial review case against the FCC's seeking permission to enter supplemental evidence on standing, filed (in Pacer) industry intervenors including NAB, Fox and Sinclair, calling it an "eleventh-hour motion.” Petitioners, which include Prometheus Radio Project and Free Press, “provide no reason (aside from a cursory and erroneous assertion that their standing is self-evident) why they could not have included these facts with their opening briefs, filed almost four months ago,” broadcasters said Monday. A challenge to restoring the UHF discount in the D.C. Circuit brought by many of the same petitioner groups was dismissed for lack of standing after the groups sought late to supplement their standing, broadcasters noted. Though petitioners argued the D.C. Circuit has a local rule allowing supplemental appendices, the QR case is in the 3rd Circuit, and the D.C. rule refers to supplements filed with the opening brief, broadcasters said. Anti-consolidation filers argued they have standing by being the petitioners in previous challenges to QR orders in the 3rd Circuit. “This Court’s prior decisions do not address Petitioners’ standing,” the broadcasters said. “Petitioners could not reasonably have believed that their standing was self-evident, for the simple reason that they are not regulated by the media ownership rules.”

The FCC Media Bureau order authorizing Connecticut Public Broadcasting’s move of WEDW Bridgeport to Stamford (see 1904080017) took effect Friday, said that day's Federal Register.