E.W. Scripps Co. bought Katz's four broadcast networks for $292 million, the buyer said in a news release Tuesday. “Bounce, Grit, Escape and Laff" all reach more than 80 percent of all U.S. households, it said. “A growing number of viewers are consuming content from new over-the-air networks as a complement to over-the-top services,” said Scripps CEO Rich Boehne. Scripps was a 5 percent owner of the business before the deal, which is expected to close in October, the release said. Katz founder Jonathan Katz “will continue to lead the Katz networks business” and the 130-employee company will remain in the Atlanta area, Scripps said. The Scripps move is confusing "when investors have growing concerns on the overall network TV industry" and "further M&A opportunities are likely to come up in broadcast with deregulation on the horizon," Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors. Monday, Scripps Networks Interactive, which also has been partly controlled by the Scripps family, agreed to be bought by Discovery Communications (see 1707310062).

Stations represented by the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) got a discount of more than 60 percent of the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC) radio station license rate card, RMLC said in a news release. The fee reduction applies for the license period Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2018, Monday's release said. The discount is the result of arbitration stemming from RMLC’s antitrust case against SESAC, it said. “Arbitrators’ decision is a significant favorable step in the right direction for the radio industry, bringing SESAC’s license fees and rate structure more into line with the rate formulas used by ASCAP [American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers] and BMI,” RMLC said. “While we believe that the value of our music substantially exceeds the amount of the award and the nature of the arbitration process made it inevitable that we would see a reduction in our fees for terrestrial radio, the panel’s decision is a resounding affirmation of the fact that ASCAP rates in radio do not reflect fair market value,” said SESAC CEO John Josephson in a news release. ASCAP didn’t comment Tuesday.

Comments on proposed waivers of the channel substitution freeze and contour extension freeze for Gray Television’s KYES-TV Anchorage are due in docket 17-187 Aug. 15, replies Aug. 25, said Monday’s Federal Register. Gray acquired KYES under a failing station waiver and seeks to move it to another site to be broadcast from an existing antenna shared with three other stations (see 1707170058).

The FCC should require broadcasters using ATSC 3.0 to offer a free stream of the new standard at the same format and quality as their DTV signal, said the MVPD-backed American Television Alliance in a Friday letter in docket 16-142. “It is not too much to ask that broadcasters be required to serve all viewers within their local markets before remaining portions of their spectrum may be repurposed for any potential ancillary or supplementary service offerings,” they said. Broadcasters had opposed proposals in the 3.0 proceeding to mandate specific formats and signal quality for their transmissions (see 1705100072). Under the ATVA proposal, broadcasters would be free to transmit additional streams in other formats or use their remaining spectrum for other purposes, the letter said: It “should go without saying that the benefits of any technological advancements in broadcasting should flow towards ‘the public’ first.”

A “perceived lack of urgency” is associated with the law enforcement warning (LEW) code used on emergency alert systems systems for incidents involving danger to the police, said DOJ's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in comments on the FCC Blue Alert NPRM in docket 15-94. COPS supports blue alerts, and Chairman Ajit Pai announced the proceeding at a joint news conference with DOJ officials (see 1705190048). “Despite its serious sounding name, the LEW event code is often used for routine informational purposes such as hazardous road conditions and road closures,” DOJ said. The NPRM included the possibility of using the existing LEW code instead of creating a new EAS code. The FCC should recommend a best practice for configuring EAS systems to search for a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) alert when a legacy broadcast EAS alert arrives first, Sage Alerting Systems commented. A stakeholder technical committee could also generate such a procedure, Sage said. “Legacy EAS messages do not have access to all of the rich media from the CAP message.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology released an updated version of the TVStudy repacking software Friday, a public notice said. Version 2.2.3 “improves the performance of TV Interference Check mode,” and enables “appropriate consideration” of channel sharing applications, the PN said. It also includes “a widely-requested ability to evaluate more than one User record within a given TV Interference Check study,” the PN said.

Pirate radio fines should be increased, said FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in a tweet Thursday responding to the release of forfeiture orders that slapped two long-term unlicensed operators with $15,000 fines each (see 1707260048). "Only $15k fine each for multi-YEAR pirate radio violations in Florida? More proof why @FCC pirate radio penalties need to be increased!" the tweet said. O'Rielly has focused on increasing FCC action on radio policy, and repeatedly said the Enforcement Bureau should be given authority to target landlords and businesses that harbor or support pirates (see 1704250053).

The full FCC denied 42 applications for review of the commission chief financial officer's March 2013 decision denying requests for refunds of application fees paid by winning bidders in FM Radio service auctions between 2004 and 2011, said an order issued Friday in docket 13-163. The item was circulated to the eighth floor July 21 (see 1707240063). “We find that collection of the fees was required by law, and that Petitioners based their refund requests on a misreading of our rules,” the order said. The matter is rooted in language in the 1998 broadcast auction order that requires winning bidders in broadcast service auctions to submit application fees, and language in procedural rules adopted in 1994 that says high bidders won’t have to pay such fees, the PN said. Winning bidders “paid the long-form application fees without question until 2009,” the PN said, when a high bidder asked for a refund based on the earlier language stating there would be no such fee. The FCC began a rulemaking in 2011 to clarify the matter, and while it was pending FCC staff granted four refunds and then stopped. “As broadcast auction winners became aware that some refunds had been granted, the number of parties filing refund requests grew,” the PN said. In 2011, the FCC revised the earlier rule to require fees and end the conflict, and in 2013 the CFO denied all the pending refunds, the PN said. “We find that the fees at issue in the pending applications for review cannot be refunded because the fees were required” by the FCC’s rules, said the PN upholding the denials.

Microsoft’s vacant channel proposal would make it harder for the public to get updates during emergencies, said former Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate in an opinion piece in The Hill Wednesday. The proposal also would make it difficult for broadcasters to roll out ATSC 3.0 (see 1707170053), which is expected to greatly enhance the dissemination of information during emergencies, Fugate said. Susan Crawford, former special assistant to then-President Barack Obama for science, technology and innovation policy, wrote in Wired to criticize the proposal. NAB distributed both of the criticisms to reporters. Microsoft didn't comment.

Dolby CEO Kevin Yeaman said the company is in a “good position” with ATSC 3.0 and Digital Video Broadcasting specifications, on the company's AC-4 compression. He sees AC-4 being “broadly adopted” across a broad range of devices, with a "gradual rollout." AC-4 won’t be a “major factor in the foreseeable future,” Yeaman said, but he noted early adoption among TV makers and broadcast trials. Ultimately, the industry will migrate to AC-4 from AC-3 because of “higher efficiency” and other value propositions, he said. Meantime, Dolby Vision Blu-ray titles from Lionsgate, Universal and Sony have begun shipping, and Disney made its first Vision-Atmos title Guardians of the Galaxy 2 available for streaming, the CEO said on a fiscal Q3 webcast after regular U.S. markets closed Tuesday.