The FCC should relax its ancillary services reporting requirements and eliminate, “or at least reform” application notice rules, NAB replied in docket 17-264 (see 1801020044). “The notice requirements are grossly outdated and inconsistent with how listeners and viewers obtain information today,” NAB said. “They also impose unnecessary and disparate regulatory burdens, particularly on small and noncommercial broadcast licensees.” All broadcasters supported changes to the notice requirements, NAB said. Publisher objectors LNP and PNRC “have a vested business interest in maintaining rules mandating newspaper publications that have nothing to do with the public interest,” NAB said. The United Church of Christ Communication Office objected to the proposed changes to notice rules but didn’t establish that on-air and online notices are needed to inform consumers of broadcast applications, NAB said: “The FCC should continue its strong momentum to update its long list of media-specific rules and regulations.”

New FCC rules creating a Blue Alert emergency alert system code take effect Thursday, with the order’s publication in the Federal Register. The order (see 1712140045) requires delivery of Blue Alerts over the EAS to be implemented by Jan. 18, 2019, and over wireless emergency alerts by July 18, 2019, the FR said.

The FCC Media and Wireless bureaus will hold an auction in June to resolve mutually exclusive FM translator applications stalled since 2003, the bureaus said in a public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The applications in the auction are only those remaining after the FCC opened a settlement window and imposed limits on how many applications a single entity could file, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford. “These contentious issues, involving a determination of the priorities to be accorded [low-power] FM stations and FM translators, took the FCC many years to resolve, postponing this auction for so long.” Translator applications for the upcoming window for AM stations are unlikely to take so long to resolve, he said. “We would expect that this delayed auction is a very unusual circumstance.” The June auction isn’t open; it's limited to specific entities based on the 2003 proceeding. A future public notice will specify procedures and announce a filing window for updating auction 83 applicants’ short-form auction applications, the PN said. This PN seeks comment on the procedures and format for the June auction, such as whether there will be a specific minimum opening bid amount for each construction permit, the PN said. Comments are due Feb. 6, replies Feb. 13.

The FTC confirmed it won't challenge Meredith Corp.'s planned buy of Time Inc., after the broadcaster said Friday (see 1801120053) that U.S. antitrust overseers wouldn't try to block the deal. The commission's acknowledgement came in an early termination notice dated Friday and posted Tuesday. The acquirer plans Q1 completion of the $2.8 billion transaction (see 1711270014).

The FCC should exempt noncommercial educational TV stations from ATSC 3.0 simulcasting requirements, said PBS in a meeting Thursday with Commissioner Brendan Carr, recounted a filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. “Public television stations will ensure the continuity of viewer access throughout the transition regardless of whether the Commission imposes a regulatory mandate.” Letting stations make their own choices about how to continue providing service during the transition would be preferable, PBS said. “The simulcast mandate unnecessarily constrains the ability of public television stations to best serve local community needs, and the mandate would in fact preclude many public stations from bringing the educational benefits of the new standard.” The public TV network said the FCC should acknowledge the amount of the repacking shortfall and issue a follow-up allocation of reimbursement money from the $1.75 billion repacking reimbursement fund.

The FCC Media Bureau is partially lifting the freeze on full-power community of license petitions, said a public notice Friday. Such petitions that don’t require a change in service area will now be accepted, eliminating the need for freeze waiver requests with such petitions, the PN said. The freeze has been in place since 2004 and the DTV transition, and is being lifted now that the incentive auction is over, the PN said. “Normal processing of such petitions will have no impact on the post-incentive auction transition schedule.” The freeze on petitions requiring a change in service area remains, along with freezes on allotment of DTV channels for new stations and changes to licensed stations’ channels.

The FTC gave the nod to Tegna’s proposed $325 million buy of a radio station, TV station and a digital subchannel from Midwest Television (see 1712180075), according to an early termination notice. Tegna had said it expects the deal to be completed Q1 and didn’t comment Friday.

The FCC should adjust its order eliminating the main studio rule to give more time to licensees with expiring construction permits to take advantage of the rule change, said De La Hunt Broadcasting in a petition for partial reconsideration posted Thursday. The costs required by the main studio rule made constructing a broadcast facility untenable for De La Hunt despite its construction permit, the petition said. The elimination of the rule now makes construction viable, but De La Hunt’s construction permit will expire before it can build the new facility, the petition said. The situation is exacerbated by the main studio rule having taken effect Monday (see 1801040052) in the midst of winter, which makes construction even more difficult, the filing said. To allow broadcasters like De La Hunt to take advantage of the rule change, the FCC should allow broadcasters with construction permits for new facilities with less than six months left in the construction period to be given another six months to build, the petition said. “Adoption of this across-the-board extension will affect relatively few outstanding permits, but will undeniably be in the public interest,” De La Hunt said.

The FCC Media Bureau is pausing the 180-day “shot clock” for the Sinclair/Tribune deal so Sinclair can amend its application and file divestiture applications and staff can review them, the bureau said in a letter to Sinclair Wednesday. The pause, which the letter describes as being “as of January 4, 2018,” is a reaction to Sinclair’s informing the Media Bureau in a Jan. 4 meeting (see 1801100032) that it was evaluating divestitures and Top-4 showings and that DOJ review may “impact” divestiture choices, the letter said. “It is appropriate to stop the informal 180-day clock until after the referenced amendments and divestiture applications have been filed and staff has had an opportunity to fully review them,” the letter said. The shot clock on the FCC’s website was paused at day 167 Thursday. Sinclair didn’t comment.

Twenty TV stations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands can begin early transitioning to the new channels they were assigned in the post-incentive auction repacking, said the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau in a public notice issued Thursday. The stations, all affected by storm damage from 2017’s powerful storms, requested (see 1712010052) the early transition to avoid having to rebuild twice -- once to broadcast on their current channel, and then again to transmit on their new channel assignment by their repacking phase deadline. Now the stations --12 of which are currently dark -- will transition before phase one, allowing them to take advantage of repacking reimbursement funds in their rebuilding effort. “The bottom line is that residents of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will be able to access emergency communications and other valuable broadcast content sooner as a result of this decision,” said Chairman Ajit Pai in a statement. Under the waiver, the stations are permitted to begin testing on their post-auction channels July 1, and must be off their pre-auction channels by Aug. 1. The timing is intended to keep their repacking efforts from draining resources needed for phase one of the repacking, the PN said. Phase one stations can begin using their new channel in September, most of the stations that requested the waiver were in phase three, and couldn’t have moved to their new channel until 2019.