Univision became the third member of the spectrum aggregation consortium established by Nexstar and Sinclair earlier this year, the two founders announced. The consortium is intended to allow the broadcasters to better pool resources such as wireless spectrum stemming from ATSC 3.0 and advertising capacity to better compete, broadcast executives connected to the arrangement said. The consortium promotes the new TV standard and “monetization opportunities” in “spectrum utilization, virtual MVPD platforms, multicast channels, automotive applications, single frequency networks and wireless data applications,” the release said. "Our collaborative efforts to advance the promotion of spectrum utilization, innovation and monetization,” said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook. This "brings Spanish language broadcasters into the mix which will be able to benefit from the many 3.0 products and services that are on the horizon,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley.

Hero Licensco withdrew its application to sell KBEH Oxnard, California (see 1705090067) to Meruelo Television, said a letter posted Wednesday. The deal was seen as a possible precedent setter on how the FCC would treat transactions between stations that committed to channel sharing agreements pre-auction. The deal was put out for comment by the Media Bureau, and comments are due Friday. An Incentive Auction Task Force spokesman told us the docket for comments remains open and the comments will remain part of the record. Neither station would comment on the end of the transaction. A group of broadcasters asked the FCC Wednesday to quickly approve the KBEH deal and not hold up channel sharing transactions (see 1705310047). The FCC may look more favorably on transactions that occur after the companies involved have finalized their sharing agreements, an attorney said.

The FCC order relaxing siting rules for FM translators didn’t give proper notice of the change that eliminated the 40-mile limit and didn’t properly consider the consequences for low-power FM, Prometheus Radio Project responded Wednesday to NAB’s opposition (see 1705220064) to its petition for reconsideration in docket 13-249. NAB didn’t offer any “convincing support” for its contention that removing the 40-mile limit was a natural outgrowth of the notice and comment proceeding that led to the rule change, Prometheus said. Though NAB noted only one translator application has been filed that takes advantage of the relaxed standards, that application has exactly the consequences for LPFM that Prometheus expressed concern about, the LPFM group said. “Several LPFM stations would have severely reduced relocation capacity as a result of this translator application,” Prometheus said. “NAB does not challenge this practical reality that LPFM stations, even more frequently than full-power stations, must relocate their transmitters, and that the vastly larger area afforded for AM stations to erect FM translators under the Order will greatly impinge on the ability of LPFM licensees to relocate.” The FCC should reconsider eliminating distance requirements on translators and issue a new Further NPRM to “address adequately protecting LPFM stations from being boxed in by FM translators,” Prometheus said.

The FCC should deny a petition arguing that Stephen Colbert’s use of the word “cockholster” on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert constituted indecency, was “fake news,” and was thus a reason to deny Entercom’s proposed buy of CBS Radio, said CBS and CBS Radio in an opposition filing Wednesday. The petition was filed by Edward Stolz, who previously opposed the renewal of an Entercom license in Sacramento (see 1705180048). The FCC recently announced the broadcast wasn’t actionable, and The Late Show is not “fake news” but “comedic commentary on pop culture and current events,” CBS said. “The broadcast in question was not indecent, let alone obscene.”

The FCC reached a $55,000 settlement with Tegna over false broadcast of emergency alert system tones by WTLV Jacksonville, Florida, said a consent decree released Tuesday. The company will admit to misusing the EAS tones and implement a compliance plan. The matter was kicked off by an August complaint about WTLV airing an advertisement for the Jacksonville Jaguars that used an EAS tone “accompanied by the sounds of howling winds and thunder claps” and a voice saying, “This is an emergency broadcast transmission. This is not a test. Please remain calm. Seek shelter,” an FCC news release said. The ad was broadcast four times before a WTLV staff member informed station management of the rule violation.

The FCC Media Bureau approved an unopposed petition to modify the market of WSBS-TV Key West, Florida, to include 41 cable communities in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale designated market area, said an order Thursday. Petitioners WSBS and parent Spanish Broadcasting System said “a series of market modification decisions between 1996 and 1999 deleted the Communities from the Station’s market,” the order said. Since then, SBS bought WSBS and changed its programming to “provide specialized Spanish-language local service to the Hispanic population in the Communities,” the order said. “Facts support the grant of the Petitioner’s request to modify the market of the Station by reinstating the Communities that were previously deleted.”

There was “nothing actionable” under FCC indecency rules about Late Show host Stephen Colbert’s use of the phrase “cock holster” to describe President Donald Trump during a May 1 CBS broadcast (see 1705080032), an FCC spokesman emailed. “The FCC received thousands of complaints about the May 1 broadcast of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the spokesman said. “Consistent with standard operating procedure, the FCC's Enforcement Bureau has reviewed the complaints and the material that was the subject of these complaints.” Colbert’s remarks were “tasteless” but didn’t violate rules, blogged Free State Foundation President Randy May. “Given that the Commission under Ajit Pai's leadership is looking, justifiably, to reduce unnecessary regulation in other areas, it would not have made sense to let the complaints sit at the agency as some sort of sword of Damocles that might have the effect of chilling free speech,” May said. “It was crude. It was indecent. But it was protected speech,” said Parents Television Council President Tim Winter, praising the FCC decision.” The audio of the profane broadcast was muted and Colbert’s mouth was pixilated. And even more importantly, the broadcast aired after 10:00 pm in all time zones, which is outside the reach of the FCC’s longstanding broadcast indecency enforcement oversight.”

AFX is starting a compliance plan and will pay a $90,000 penalty to settle an FCC investigation into whether the company marketed RF devices that interfered with AM and FM reception, said an Enforcement Bureau order Tuesday. The company's NLL Series under-cabinet LED light fixtures reportedly caused interference to radio transmissions and hadn't been tested and authorized under equipment authorization rules, the bureau said. Now, The company will name a compliance officer, start a compliance plan, have training procedures and have a compliance manual for employees. CEO William Solomon didn't comment. A spokesman for NAB declined to comment.

The “biggest thing” about ATSC 3.0 from Sony Electronics' “perspective” is that it’s “designed to last, to evolve and endure,” Paul Hearty, vice president-technology standards, told last week’s ATSC conference in Washington. “When we did ATSC 1.0, I think it took us nine very painful years,” said Hearty. ATSC 3.0 “has taken us six and a bit,” he said. “But 3.1, maybe it will be only a year or six months or eight months." The HTML5 “ship” at ATSC 3.0's IP core "sailed into our products, and we’re all supporting it,” Hearty said of the prevalence of smart TVs in the consumer tech market. “One of the challenges we’re going to have to face is that we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to accommodate the runtime platform” in ATSC 3.0 “with the platforms that we already have in our devices,” he said.

The ATSC 3.0 receiver chipsets that Saankhya Labs is developing on the “fast track” with Sinclair’s One Media (see 1703280044) should be available in time to be deployed in smartphones and other consumer products for the 2018 holiday selling season, Saankhya CEO Parag Naik told us Friday. “We’re discussing the scale,” and will know the timetable “in about a month’s time,” said Naik. Saankhya’s software-defined radio platform will allow for chips that can accommodate other global broadcast standards, he said. “Depending on the application, depending on the customer, we could have a different product mix” based on variations of the same chipset design, he said. “For example, the same chip could be used for fixed receivers,” like large-screen TVs, and “also gateways,” in addition to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, he said. Naik sees the U.S. as hosting the first worldwide commercial deployment of the Saankhya chipsets for ATSC 3.0. In South Korea, which is scheduled to formally launch ATSC 3.0 services in a matter of days, “we are talking to OEMs there as well,” he said. Sinclair’s offer at last week’s ATSC conference to give out the receiver chips for free (see 1705170033) is part of an effort “to seed the market,” said Naik. Component costs are “a function of the volume,” he said. “Once the market gets seeded and critical mass is achieved, your costs will drop and it becomes ubiquitous, and almost everyone then will probably start to put it in his phones or TVs.”