LG is the first TV maker to complete “initial field tests” of the Verance Aspect audio watermark for ATSC 3.0, said Verance in a Wednesday announcement. The tests were conducted using the current 1.0 standard in collaboration with Fox and NBC in the Phoenix market, Verance said. That's where broadcast consortium Pearl TV announced plans mid-November for a 3.0 “model market” involving 10 TV stations to “help foster industry consensus and drive ecosystem development” (see 1711140053).

Sinclair may not meet character qualifications to be a licensee and its proposed buy of Tribune should be designated for a hearing before an administrative law judge, said Herndon-Reston Indivisible in a Dec.18 meeting with Office of General Counsel staff, according to a Dec. 27 ex parte filing in docket 17-179, noted in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The recent $13 million notice of apparent liability and a 2016 $9.5 million consent decree (see 1712210042) constitute “a pattern of lawlessness,” the filing said. Such a hearing is supported by prior FCC precedent, HRI said. Sinclair/Tribune is “unprecedented” and “inimical to the public interest,“ HRI said. Sinclair didn't comment.

The FCC should allow stations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that requested permission to transition early to their new post-incentive auction channels (see 1712010052) to do so, said antenna manufacturer Electronics Research Inc. (ERI) in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 16-306. Allowing the stations to transition in “phase zero” of the repacking rather than their assigned Phase 3 would be “a very reasonable course” that would “save the individual stations the considerable expense of reconstructing their pre-auction facilities, which would be used for only a very brief period,” and minimize re-scanning for consumers, ERI said. It's prepared for the increase in demand the early transition would cause, and it won’t affect the company’s ability to meet other repacking demands.

The full FCC should vacate approval of Entercom’s buy of CBS Radio and investigate CBS’ fitness to be an FCC licensee, said Edward Stolz in a reply to Entercom’s response to his appeal of the Entercom purchase, which the FCC Media Bureau approved in November (see 1711090067). CBS isn’t fit to be a licensee because it airs “fake news” said Stolz’s filing, citing studies about negative coverage of the administration of President Donald Trump and Trump’s own tweets about fake news. Stolz also faulted the FCC for allowing Entercom to turn in the license of KDND Sacramento to cut short a hearing on the station’s license renewal. KDND’s license was designated for hearing because of a 2007 contest that led to the death of a listener. Stolz has filed numerous petitions and appeals against the Entercom/CBS Radio deal. All previous ones have been rejected.

Newspapers are no longer the primary route for information in the digital age, and modifying the local public notice rule requirement that broadcasters publish certain information there for the purpose of providing notice to allow the public to participate in the licensing process "is not simply unproductive, but also an unnecessary waste of time and money," Nexstar said in a docket 17-264 filing posted Friday. It also said the FCC should limit the ancillary services filing requirement to broadcasters providing those services. NAB in a separate filing said it supports agency proposals to eliminate the ancillary service reporting requirement for digital TV stations that haven't received feeable revenue from ancillary and supplementary services during the relevant reporting period. It also said it backs eliminating the requirement broadcast licensees provide public notice of various license applications or axing "outdated" newspaper notice requirements in favor of online notices.

Comments on the ATSC 3.0 Further NPRM are due Feb. 20, the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice Thursday. Replies are due March 20. The FNPRM seeks comment on possible exceptions and waivers to the new standard’s simulcasting requirement, on broadcasters using vacant channels in the broadcast band during the transition, and tentatively concludes that simulcasting shouldn’t affect a station’s significantly viewed status. The actual ATSC 3.0 order hasn’t yet been published in the Federal Register, and the agency will issue a PN when it is, the bureau said.

“NAB is extremely disappointed" with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling (see 1712190052) for BMI and against DOJ to let performing rights organizations fractionally license some but not all of their music catalogs to broadcasters and other copyright users, the association said. "If sustained, this decision could disrupt the music licensing marketplace and impede the delivery of music."

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued seven warnings to alleged pirate radio operators last week, according to notices of unlicensed operation in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The accused pirates were in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Orleans, the notices said. The bureau issued a notice of violation to FM translator licensee Westface Ventures in Austin, for operating in an unauthorized location and at a higher than allowed power level.

SAG-AFTRA reached a $500,000 settlement with the Spanish Broadcasting System over workers terminated for union activity, SAG-AFTRA announced Tuesday. The National Labor Relations Board had issued a complaint against SBS after “finding merit to a myriad of serious unfair labor practice charges filed by the union against the media company for discharging employees in retaliation for their union activity and engaging in egregious bad faith surface bargaining during first contract negotiations,” the union said. All eight affected employees will receive full back pay, interest and expenses through Jan. 14, under the deal, and have the choice to be reinstated or receive “significant front pay,” the release said: It requires SBS to “engage in good faith bargaining with the goal of obtaining a collective bargaining agreement.” SBS didn't comment.

Nexstar may benefit from the political advertising and Olympics seasons and expected heightened mergers and acquisitions activity, Noble Capital Markets analyst Michael Kupinski emailed investors Wednesday. Nexstar “is expected to be a key consolidator,” Kupinski said. Its recent buy of digital media ad company Liquid will increase ability “to participate in the video advertising arena,” he said. TV broadcasters are more valuable in the “heightened M&A environment” expected due to relaxed ownership rules, Kupinski said.