Gray Television welcomes the FCC's “imminent approval” of ATSC 3.0 deployments (see 1710270063), said CEO Hilton Howell on a Monday earnings call. “By granting broadcasters the freedom to evolve technically, the FCC enables us to embrace a new standard that should open new opportunities for broadcasters, as well as new and better ways to serve our viewers.” This month also will “finally bring regulatory relief from the FCC,” Howell said of plans at commissioners' Nov. 16 meeting to vote in favor of local ownership deregulation. “It’s simply incredible that the FCC imposed the one-to-a-market rule that still governs mid-sized and small television markets before the bombing of Pearl Harbor” in 1941, he said. “No one can sincerely dispute that the world has changed considerably in the past few years, let alone in the last 76 years. We are grateful that the FCC finally will begin to take some long-overdue steps that permit local stations to take the steps necessary to be competitive.” Gray has “benefits of really strong duopoly operations” in its existing markets, said Howell, when asked in Q&A if local ownership deregulation will open up the company to new merger and acquisition opportunities. That’s not to say there won’t be “a great deal more opportunities that we will have in our existing markets,” he said. Gray will “continue to look at other transactions to grow a broader scale throughout the United States,” he said. “Things have been relatively slow on the M&A front,” but the company expects “things to pick up fairly rapidly after the FCC comes to a final conclusion,” he said. “It is our intention to take advantage of that whenever we have an appropriate, and financially appropriate, opportunity to do so.”

NAB ridiculed pay-TV's “ludicrous advocacy” that over-the-air viewers would lose programming in the ATSC 3.0 transition, in meetings Thursday with staff of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the Media Bureau, said an ex parte posted Monday in docket 16-142. MVPDs’ “assertion” they “care deeply about the welfare of over-the-air viewers is laughable,” because they include “some of the least popular companies in America due to their unique commitment to providing dismal customer service,” NAB said: The companies “seek to pad their profit margins not only by dragging retransmission consent issues kicking and screaming into any proceeding that even tangentially affects television service, but now apparently by claiming to care whether viewers receive over-the-air signals.” NCTA CEO Michael Powell in Oct. 30 meetings with Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 1711030059) emphasized “the need for the Commission to ensure that the broadcasters’ voluntary roll-out of ATSC 3.0 does not disrupt consumers or impose costs and burdens on cable operators and their customers, said a Nov. 1 filing. “Back down here on planet Earth,” NAB recommends the FCC “adopt a standard for expedited processing of applications that mirrors the coverage area standard” the commission used during the DTV transition. The “flexibility” given broadcasters during that transition “applies with equal force” to 3.0, it said. NAB’s analysis suggests that, under the draft 3.0 order’s standard, 22 percent of TV stations “would have no available simulcasting partners that could qualify for expedited processing, and an additional 12 percent of stations would have only a single potential partner,” it said. NAB wants the agency to “clarify” language in the 3.0 order on encryption to say that while free next-generation signals may be encrypted, “they do not require special equipment programmed by a service provider.”

S&P downgraded Cumulus Media after the radio broadcast group announced it didn't make a $23.6 million interest payment on its 7.75 percent senior notes due 2019. The move on the payment -- due Nov. 1 -- was likely strategic, with the aim of preserving cash or pressuring bondholders into a subpar debt exchange, S&P said. It also said a debt restructuring is probably imminent. It said it lowered its corporate credit rating on Cumulus from CCC to D and its issue-level rating on the senior notes from CC to D. Cumulus said the nonpayment and downgrade don't "mitigate that the company is performing well and ... will have no impact on its operating constituents."

Entravision Communications closed on its buys of NBC affiliate KMIR-TV and MyNetworkTV affiliate KPSE-LD, both of Palm Springs, California, from OTA Broadcasting, it said Thursday. Entravision said the stations make Palm Springs one of the company's largest media clusters. It also owns Univision- and UniMas-affiliated TV stations and two FM radio stations there.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued eight warnings Wednesday and Thursday for unlicensed transmitter operation, said notices of violation. They went to operators and property owners in New Jersey (Ludwig Freiberg, William Batiste and Milka Placencia), New York (Vladimir Rosario), Florida (Eglon Garvey, Rocheney Charles and Judith Oreste) and Pennsylvania ( Richard Hairston and Jonathan Alcantara).

FCC relaxation of rules for AM directional arrays takes effect Dec. 4 (see 1709250049), with notification expected in Friday's Federal Register.

The case for a Viacom/CBS combination "is increasingly hard ... to ignore" for controlling shareholder National Amusements Inc. since it would boost Viacom's negotiating leverage with distributors, give big savings via synergies, provide more content for CBS All Access, and give Viacom time and capital for investing in its core networks, Credit Suisse analyst Omar Sheikh wrote investors Wednesday. He said NAI might be more open now to a CBS sale of Paramount than a year ago when previous deal talks ended (see 1612120060). NAI didn't comment.

The window for filing FM translator construction permit applications for stations granted non-mutually exclusive license applications in the last translator application window is Dec. 1-21, said a Media Bureau public notice Wednesday. Eligible stations are listed in an attachment.

The 2017 filing window for biennial broadcast ownership reports will stretch from Dec. 1 to March 2, and the FCC Media Bureau plans a public information session on the new electronic version of Forms 323 and 323-E Nov. 28 from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., said a public notice Monday. “Those wishing to attend in person are asked to register by sending an e-mail to form323@fcc.gov no later than November 22.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau imposed a penalty of $3,800 against Irvington, New Jersey, pirate radio operator Jean Yves Tullias, said a forfeiture order adopted Wednesday. A notice of apparent liability proposing a $15,000 penalty was issued against Tullias in 2015 for unlicensed operation, the order said. Tullias told the FCC his ability to pay a substantial fine is limited, so the bureau reduced the amount. “We have previously rejected inability to pay claims in cases of repeated intentional and malicious acts or otherwise egregious violations,” the order said. “We therefore warn Mr. Tullias that we may impose significantly higher penalties regardless of his financial circumstances if the forfeiture imposed here does not serve as a sufficient deterrent.”