Anti-consolidation and diversity groups, broadcasters and the FCC proposed a briefing schedule (in Pacer) for consolidated legal challenges of the agency's incubator program and media ownership order on reconsideration. Groups opposing the FCC position such as the Prometheus Radio Project and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters would collectively file three briefs by Dec. 21. The FCC would file a respondent’s brief by Feb. 14, and broadcast industry intervenors such as Connoisseur Media, NAB and Nexstar would file intervenor briefs due that day. Petitioners' reply briefs would be due March 8, final briefs March 29.

Low-power TV and translator stations that filed mutually exclusive displacement window applications have until Jan. 10 to reach settlements or resolutions (see 1805040057), said a Wireless and Media bureaus FCC public notice in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. “Thereafter, the Wireless Telecommunications and Media Bureaus will announce an auction date and propose auction procedures for the remaining mutually exclusive applications.”

The FCC should include broadcasting and ATSC 3.0 in consideration of actions to accelerate deployment of 5G-related services, said One Media President Mark Aitken and Executive Vice President-Legal Affairs Jerald Fritz in a meeting Thursday with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. “The ATSC 3.0 standard was designed to be part of the 5G ecosystem,” said A filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. ATSC 3.0 “will permit broadcasters to provide efficient services needed as part of a robust 5G distribution chain,” said the Sinclair affiliates.

NAB and low-power broadcast group HC2 endorsed the National Translator Association’s “fast track” proposal, in replies on repacking reimbursement posted Monday in docket 18-214. NTA’s fast-track option would cap reimbursable repacking expenses for users at $31,000 and eliminate the requirement for upfront estimates, which could help reduce costs, HC2 said. This proposal could “help streamline filing requirements for small entities that lack dedicated staff ... [and] contain costs by encouraging parties to file for fast track reimbursement capped at a reasonable level,” NAB said. The plan is intended to ease the reimbursement process for translators and LPTV stations with fewer resources and staff, NTA said. NAB also sparred with T-Mobile over whether stations that accepted repacking aid from T-Mobile should be eligible for reimbursement funds. Not reimbursing the stations “would simply punish third parties like T-Mobile for their efforts to accelerate the relocation of LPTV stations and strongly discourage any other third parties from coming forward in the future,” T-Mobile said. NAB characterized reimbursing the stations as indirectly reimbursing T-Mobile, and said “Congress appropriated additional funding to protect broadcasters, viewers and listeners -- not to provide ancillary benefits to other entities.” NTA opposed a proposal from Microsoft to reimburse LPTV stations for full-mask filters to preserve white spaces. “There is no justification for a station adopting a particular filter beyond its own needs, and receiving government reimbursement,” NTA said. “If Microsoft wants this to be done, it should establish its own reimbursement fund.”

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed without prejudice a 2008 NAB petition for reconsideration of rules on DTV carriage, said an order released Thursday. “Due to the passage of time, NAB has agreed to withdraw its petition.”

The full FCC rejected two petitions for reconsideration on Entercom buying CBS Radio from Edward Stolz, said orders in Thursday's Daily Digest (here and here). The petitions were the latest in a series of filings against the transaction by Stolz, who has made multiple attempts to have the deal dissolved over character issues. The Media Bureau and FCC rejected all of Stolz's previous filings and his appeals. The most recent petitions concerned arguments that because the FCC designated Sinclair/Tribune for hearing, it must treat Entercom/CBS Radio -- already approved -- the same. “Other than the fact that both cases involve broadcast stations, we do not find any similarity,” the FCC said. The agency rejected Stolz's filings for lack of standing, saying arguments the deal should be unwound because of allegations against CBS TV news have no bearing on CBS radio stations.

The content industry needs tone-mapping tools not yet developed for broadcasting live sports in HDR to the home, such as for managing the bright sunlight on a football field without obscuring detail in the shadows, Pierre Routhier, CEO of consulting firm Digital Troublemaker, told SMPTE. Industry needs those tools “at the broadcast control, not in the TV,” he said Tuesday in Los Angeles. “Every single TV manages light differently. We’re trying to establish a baseline.” Not all types of content will benefit from HDR, and when executed poorly, HDR can “hinder the experience,” said Routhier, saying he analyzed “tons” of content. “Latitude,” the ratio between the brightest highlight and the darkest “visible element” on the screen, is the attribute that most people associate with HDR, he said. “Conventional TV shows” likely will fare poorly when rendered in HDR because they are shot with “low-latitude” cameras, he said.

Arguments the FCC lacks authority to relax children’s TV rules are “specious,” NAB replied, posted Wednesday in docket 18-202. Falling audiences for broadcast children’s content obligate modernizing rules, NAB said. ”Children do not rely on commercial stations’ E/I [educational and informative] content, even in OTA [over-the-air] homes.” The association responded to comments from a collection of children’s media groups, including Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Center for Digital Democracy and Common Sense Kids Action. The record doesn’t show that nonbroadcast platforms provide “significant educational programming for children,” those groups replied. “Despite changes in viewing habits, large numbers of children still watch broadcast television.” The National Hispanic Media Coalition said the FCC should “pause” the proceeding to gather more information or risk not complying with the Administrative Procedure Act: “Neither the NPRM nor the comments filed in the record meaningfully evaluate the potential unintended effects of deregulation.” Others also urged the FCC to reset the proceeding and gather more information. “A doctor should not prescribe a litany of prescriptions before carefully examining a patient and diagnosing an illness; and neither should the FCC prescribe a litany of prescriptive remedies without a more thorough examination of what ails the Kid Vid issue,” said the Parents Television Council. Continue requiring broadcaster kids' TV reports, the children’s media groups said: “Neither broadcasters nor MVPDs should be allowed to simply certify compliance with the [Children’s Television Act] when there is no viable way to verify their compliance.” Current filing rules are a burden on small cable companies and broadcasters, said the American Cable Association and every broadcast commenter. Some content companies, such as Litton Entertainment, argued allowing broadcasters to satisfy requirements with children’s shows aired only on multicast channels will discourage production of new kid content. Lower ad revenue on multicast channels would destroy the market for new educational children’s shows, Litton said. “Allowing broadcasters to move all E/I programming to lesser-watched multicast streams would mean lower-quality (i.e., standard definition, not closed-captioned or video-described) programming and significantly fewer viewers,” said Hearst. Ion and broadcast network affiliate associations praised the FCC’s efforts, saying the media landscape “more than justifies the rule changes proposed by the Commission, and supported by most of the comments, because they will serve the public interest.”

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force is seeking comments due Nov. 21, replies Dec. 6 on a catalog of reimbursable expenses for low-power TV, translators and FM stations affected by the post-incentive auction repacking, said a public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest. The catalog largely “mirrors” the one used for full-power stations but is geared toward equipment more appropriate for these broadcasters, the PN said. The list “is not exhaustive,” the PN said, and broadcasters can submit expenses not in the catalog for reimbursement, “together with cost justification documentation,” the catalog says. “Hard” expenses like antennas and “soft” costs such as legal services are included, the PN said. The catalog doesn’t contain costs for interim facilities for LPTV and translator stations, because a low-power reimbursement NPRM tentatively concluded those expenses aren’t reimbursable, the PN said.

Equal time rules for broadcast political advertisements could one day be tested by candidates campaigning on social media, said Media Bureau Assistant Division Chief Robert Baker on the FCC podcast. Traditionally, candidates running write-in campaigns have been considered eligible for equal time on stations if they can demonstrate they are campaigning, Baker said: “They're giving speeches, they've got campaign materials, they have campaign headquarters and the kinds of things that are indicative of being a candidate.” The rise of digital and social media campaigning is complicating that determination, he said. “We just had a presidential election campaign where the successful person running for president used social media in ways that will indicate, I think, for a lot of people are a much different way of campaigning." Policy remains unchanged, but “one of these days it's going to be tested,” he said. Baker’s role at the FCC is “not to be a cop and not to punish people if at all possible to avoid,” he said. In his 25 years heading the bureau’s political ad efforts, his office has gone from 15 lawyers to two and now issues far fewer complaints than his predecessor. Baker is “there to help” and lawyers and broadcasters trust they can ask questions without getting in trouble, he said. “They know I don't write things down,” Baker said. “We've eliminated a couple thousand potential disputes and those disputes are inefficient for many reasons,” he said. “Certainly, they waste the resources of the FCC.”