The FCC Media Bureau will put out a public notice announcing the date of the displacement filing window for low-power TV and translator stations displaced by the incentive auction “seven to eight months” after the closing and channel reassignment (CCR) notice, it said Friday in a PN on LPTV and translator procedures. The CCR was released April 13, putting the date of the displacement PN that will announce the window in November or December. The displacement PN will provide channel availability data to help LPTV stations and translators find new homes during the displacement window, the PN said. Only operating LPTV and translators that were displaced by the incentive auction will be eligible for the window, the PN said. Applications for digital replacement translators will have priority over applications by LPTV and translator stations, the PN said. LPTV and translators will have until July 13, 2021, to be operating on their new facilities, although extensions will be available to some stations, the PN said. The Media Bureau will also announce the lifting of the freeze on displacement and digital companion channel applications in a future PN, Friday’s notice said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should vacate the FCC’s restoration of the UHF discount, said a petition for review filed Friday by Free Press, the United Church of Christ Communications Office, Common Cause, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Prometheus Radio Project and the Media Mobilizing Project. Many of the same petitioners separately asked the FCC to stay the effective date of the order restoring the discount (see 1705110042). In restoring the discount, the FCC didn’t take issue with the findings that led to the discount being extinguished, but instead said the FCC should have looked at changes to the national ownership cap along with changes to the discount. The FCC “lacks statutory authority” to alter the cap, the petition said, and that makes restoring the discount “arbitrary and capricious,” the petition said. “The decision to reinstate a concededly unsupportable policy provision because future membership of the FCC may decide to take action in a hypothetical future proceeding was arbitrary and capricious,” the petition said. The FCC didn’t comment.

Sinclair’s One Media appeared in comments in the FCC ATSC 3.0 rulemaking to dip a toe in the water of backing tuner mandates, though it stopped well short of asking the commission to impose them. “The capabilities enabled by ATSC 3.0 are such that the marketplace will demand inclusion of those capabilities in receive devices,” One Media commented Tuesday in docket 16-142. “Commission support for inclusion of ATSC 3.0 tuners in the devices consumers use to watch television today would greatly facilitate and expedite the introduction and use of innovative new services.” Though migration to ATSC 3.0 “is a voluntary, optional deployment and it may be premature for the Commission to consider changes to the television tuner mandate adopted pursuant to the All Channel Receiver Act, to the extent that there is a marketplace failure or critical need to facilitate emergency warnings/information, the Commission can revisit the need to require 3.0 reception capacity in all receive devices,” said a footnote. Then-CEO David Smith pooh-poohed the tuner mandate when asked about it at November’s NAB Show New York (see 1611100032). “We live in a market-driven world,” said Smith, now executive chairman. “We’re sophisticated enough as marketers and delivery guys to figure out how to get the consumer to want our product,” without the need for a government-mandated ATSC 3.0 tuner requirement, he said then. Sinclair hasn't asked "in the course of this part of the proceeding for a tuner mandate," Mark Aitken, vice president-advanced technology, told us Thursday. "The light touch of government is the course that's being asked for," Aitken said. "This is a voluntary migration, a voluntary implementation, and so we see no reason for a mandate. But look, there are a lot of areas that are not addressed or are lightly addressed because one does not know how the market is going to proceed." The issue of tuner mandates "is only obliquely touched upon" in the comments "because of the nature of what's being asked for on the whole," said Aitken. ATSC 3.0 petitioners CTA, NAB, America’s Public TV Stations and the AWARN Alliance used their joint comments in the FCC rulemaking to argue against tuner mandates as "counterproductive and unnecessary.” (see 1705090056)

Saga Communications will sell two TV stations and buy 12 radio stations, it said in a news release Wednesday. “We made a very difficult decision that with all the changes taking place in the television industry that it was time for us to return to our roots in radio," said CEO Edward Christian. Saga will sell KOAM Joplin, Missouri, and KAVU Victoria, Texas, to Morgan Murphy Media for $66.6 million. The broadcaster announced plans to “purchase the assets” from Apex Media for $23 million of South Carolina stations including WCKN(FM), WMXZ(FM), WXST(FM), WAVF(FM) and WSPO(AM), all serving Charleston, and of WVSC(FM), WLHH(FM) and WALI(FM), serving Hilton Head and Beaufort. Both deals are expected to close in September, Saga said. The company “intends to continue building its business in radio by continuing to identify and acquire middle market stations."

An order on reconsideration allowing leadership of noncommercial education stations to use special use FCC Registration Numbers (see 1704200048) was published in the Federal Register Wednesday, May 10, which is also the order’s effective date.

CBS and its affiliated stations signed an agreement that opens the door for stations to have their local signals as part of the CBS All Access subscription service and carried by over-the-top platforms like YouTube TV and Hulu, the company said in a news release Tuesday. CBS said the distribution agreement includes additional revenue opportunities for the affiliates and has affiliated stations joining the networks in distributing premium content to skinny bundle offerings.

The FCC directed the Media Bureau to renew the license of WHIG-CD Rocky Mount, North Carolina, pursuant to owner Action Community TV Broadcasting Network making a settlement payment of $14,750, said an order posted Monday. It adopts a consent decree between the agency and Action TV after a license renewal application led to the agency's discovery that the broadcaster had violated multiple record-keeping and filing requirements, including not filing children's TV programming reports for 22 quarters. Along with the fine, Action TV agreed to a compliance plan, said the order.

Speculation about an FCC proceeding against Stephen Colbert's show is "much ado about nothing," a broadcast lawyer blogged Monday, as a union slammed Chairman Ajit Pai for reportedly saying the agency may investigate. Colbert said “the only thing" President Donald Trump's "mouth is good for is being [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s cock holster,” with the CBS show host's mouth blurred and the term bleeped. With The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airing during the indecency safe-harbor that begins at 10 p.m., indecent programming isn't prohibited, wrote Wilkinson Barker's David Oxenford. "Theoretically, a program that runs during the safe harbor could still be illegal if it is obscene. But for a program to be obscene, it needs to be really bad. ... The extremely rigorous obscenity test simply would not be met." Writers Guild of America, East and West wrote they're appalled that Pai said the agency may investigate the joking comments and act if it is found to be obscene: "What is obscene is not what Colbert said but any attempt by the government to stifle dissent and creativity." The FCC reviews "all consumer complaints as a matter of standard practice and [relies] on the law to determine whether action is warranted," emailed a spokesman. "That a complaint is reviewed doesn't speak one way or another as to whether it has any merit.” We couldn't reach a CBS representative for a comment.

Some FCC noncommercial educational station on-air fundraising rules will be effective July 5, the agency said in Friday's Federal Register. It said other portions with information-collection requirements needing Office of Management and Budget approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act will become effective later via a Federal Register notice. Last month, commissioners voted unanimously to approve such rules (see 1704200048).

FCC re-establishment of the UHF discount on national broadcast-TV ownership caps takes effect June 5, the agency said in Friday's Federal Register. "With the reinstatement of the discount, the Commission will commence a proceeding later this year to consider whether the national television audience reach cap, including the UHF discount, remains in the public interest." Commissioners last month approved on a party-line vote the UHF move, which lets owners of those stations reach a higher percentage of nationwide TV households than those owning only VHF stations (see 1704200048).