Emmis Communications, which developed NextRadio (see 1408050056), sees 2016 as a “breakthrough year” for the FM-reception smartphone app, said CEO Jeff Smulyan on an earnings call. Having scored big NextRadio wins in 2015 with wireless carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular, “discussions with others both on the handset business and carriers are ongoing and very encouraging,” Smulyan said. Emmis also is having NextRadio talks in Australia, Canada, “all over” Latin America and Germany, and thinks NextRadio is an idea whose “time has come,” he said. Emmis thinks about 100 million smartphones globally will have “the ability to get NextRadio” by mid-2017, Smulyan said Thursday. “Remember with NextRadio, we have to do this one phone at a time,” he said. “We have to reach an agreement with the carrier,” then with the handset maker, to activate the FM chip that’s built into virtually all new smartphones, he said. “So it’s not as simple as just saying, OK, it is there, and 300 million phones get it.” But the “incredible support” NextRadio is getting “gives us hope against the background of an industry that’s frankly been challenged for the last number of years with flat to down growth,” he said of the radio business. At CES, NextRadio had “a pretty significant presence,” including staging an event with Blu, the largest supplier of unlocked phones for sale, through Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart, he said. Emmis also demonstrated at CES a NextRadio automotive app with Ford, developed at the automaker’s “request,” and “we are really very excited about that,” he said. Verizon on the carrier side and Apple on the handset side remain the hardest nuts for NextRadio to crack (see 1504120004), he said, but “we are very encouraged by the conversations we are having.”

CES was the start of "an important new phase” for ATSC 3.0, as manufacturers and broadcasters began demonstrating products and services based on the “core” ATSC 3.0 candidate standards adopted last year, said ATSC President Mark Richer in a Friday statement. Those demonstrations will be repeated and enhanced at April's NAB Show, ATSC has said (see 1601040057). “The lion’s share of the standard has been completed and remaining items, like audio and interactivity, will be done in the months ahead.” ATSC is “on target to finalize the entire suite of ATSC 3.0 standards” this year, he said. CES featured the first live demonstrations of Ultra HD over-the-air broadcasts with high dynamic range using the ATSC 3.0's physical transmission layer adopted as a candidate standard in late September (see 1509290029).

The FCC will consider a report and order on expanding online public file requirements to cable, satellite and radio at its Jan. 28 meeting, said a tentative agenda released Thursday. Industry officials have told us the item is expected to apply only to top markets and include a phase-in period for smaller entities. The commission will also consider an NPRM on improving the Emergency Alert System by promoting state and local participation, supporting more testing of the system, and improving the security of the system, the tentative agenda said.

Nexstar finished negotiating terms to buy Media General, but “there can be no assurance that any transaction with Media General will result” because the Meredith/Media General agreement hasn't been terminated, said Nexstar and Media General in news releases Thursday. Under the original agreement with Meredith, Media General can't sign a deal with Nexstar until the Meredith pact is terminated, Media General said. Media General has made several proposals to Meredith to terminate the Meredith agreement, and “to date, Meredith has been unwilling to accept these offers,” Media General said: If Meredith doesn't agree to terminate the deal, Media General will hold a shareholder meeting on the Meredith transaction “as soon as possible.” If Media General shareholders reject the deal, the agreement with Meredith allows Media General to terminate the Meredith deal, Media General said. Under the Nexstar proposal, Nexstar would acquire Media General for $10.55 per share in cash, shares of Nexstar stock and a “contingent value right” for cash proceeds from the sale of Media General spectrum in the incentive auction. Nexstar said it intends to divest the TV stations necessary to obtain FCC regulatory approval. Meredith put forth a new proposal for a “merger of equals” between Meredith and Media General, which would allow that deal to “continue along the current regulatory approval timeline,” Meredith said in a news release. Nexstar and Media General won't be able to file their deal with the FCC before the Jan. 12 reverse auction quiet period, Meredith said. “Thus, a Nexstar-Media General combination could not be completed for at least a year, if not longer, significantly delaying any financial benefit to Media General shareholders, and exposing the transaction to potential market and industry risks.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau signed a $540,000 consent decree with Cumulus Media for the latter's failure to properly identify the sponsor of a radio ad, the commission said in a news release Thursday. WOZQ Dover, New Hampshire, broadcast 178 ads in 2011 supporting a $1 billion hydroelectric energy project without identifying the sponsor, which was Northern Pass Transmission, a company with a financial interest in the project, the FCC said. “This is the largest payment in FCC history for a single-station violation of the Commission’s sponsorship identification laws,” the release said. “While failure to disclose these identities generally misleads the public, it is particularly concerning when consumers are duped into supporting controversial environmental projects,” said Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc in the release. Under the settlement terms, Cumulus Media Inc. subsidiaries Cumulus Radio Corporation and Radio License Holding CBC will pay the penalty and enter into “a robust compliance plan governing 195 stations across the country,” the release said. The plan includes a compliance officer, enhanced operating procedures, employee training on sponsorship identification, and a hotline for reporting violations, the release said.

All Tegna TV stations will begin using CrowdTangle’s social analytics platform to monitor social media, the broadcaster said in a news release Wednesday. “Stations will be able to use CrowdTangle to help track local and national breaking news and major events as well as help journalists tell stories and impact viewers,” it said. Tegna Media has been using CrowdTangle in some markets since August, Tegna said.

LG is demonstrating reception on the CES floor of live, over-the-air 4K Ultra HD broadcasts in high dynamic range using the new ATSC 3.0 candidate standard, the company said Wednesday. The “landmark broadcast” over channel 18 is emanating from the transmitter of KHMP Las Vegas on Nevada’s Black Mountain, LG said. KHMP is owned and operated by DNV Spectrum Holdings, LG said.

DTS will demo HD Radio at its CES booth, the first major demo of the technology since DTS acquired iBiquity (see 1510070014) last year. KUNV(FM) Las Vegas will broadcast special content via HD Radio on its HD2 channel during CES, said DTS, which will have several Acura RDX vehicles tuned to the broadcast. New car models -- the Cadillac CT6, Honda Civic, Kia Rio, Lexus RX, Nissan Leaf, Toyota Land Cruiser and Toyota Prius -- will have HD Radio receivers, said DTS in a Monday news release.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected TV station licensee Lawrence Behr's appeal of an FCC order denying his request for a hearing over the agency's denial of his application for a waiver of rules. Behr asked the FCC in 2003 for a multiyear waiver of its requirement that he build a base station within 12 months, said the court's judgment. When the FCC denied his waiver, Behr argued that because the waiver request was physically attached to an application to modify his license, FCC rules required that he be granted a hearing, but the commission said the two were separate documents. The D.C. Circuit decided the appeal doesn't require a published opinion, the judgment said.

NAB Labs invested in Baltimore-based data startup Yet Analytics, NAB said in a news release Monday. “Yet Analytics provides cutting-edge platforms for the multi-source collection and analysis of human and machine performance data within Fortune 500 companies and other large organizations.” The company uses open source tech that was originally developed by the Department of Defense, said NAB. “The data collection and analysis tools that Yet Analytics has developed offer a range of applications that could provide solutions for broadcasters," said NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny.