The FCC repacking plan could limit the amount of spectrum for translators and make it harder for rural viewers to receive broadcast TV, said NAB in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ldHGKA). Rural viewers should urge their congressional representatives to “carefully monitor the FCC’s actions” to make sure they don’t lose access to TV, NAB said. “If you're a rural resident concerned about losing TV service because of the FCC’s spectrum auction, speak up."

The FCC released a public notice announcing Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) audits Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1oYf7F0). Responses from the approximately 180 radio stations being audited are due July 25, the notice said. The FCC audits 5 percent of all stations and cable systems each year to monitor compliance with rules requiring them to widely publicize job opportunities, said the notice. Though the FCC reduced the amount of paperwork required to fulfill the audit last year, EEO audits still require “substantial work” for stations, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1s9aptJ).

The NFL reiterated at the FCC that the sports blackout rule maximizes the in-stadium experience and engages its fans through media outlets. The number of blackouts has dropped dramatically, and attendance and viewership have increased over the past few decades, said the league in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-3 (http://bit.ly/1kN9CcW). The NFL “sees the blackout rule as a contributing factor to that success,” it said, referring to the rule that prevents multichannel video programming distributors from carrying games blacked out by sports leagues on TV stations in markets where games haven’t sold out. Although gate receipts as a percentage of NFL revenue decreased since the rule was adopted, it counts for about 25 percent of revenue and “remains important to clubs and players alike,” it said. The NFL has “no privity of contract with local affiliates, so it has no ability to control whether an affiliate allows importation of its signal,” the NFL said. The league said it has agreements with MVPDs for carriage of NFL Network, but there is hardly any leverage. The filing recounts a meeting with FCC staff from the Media Bureau and the Office of Strategic Planning. The FCC launched a rulemaking to eliminate the rule last year (CD Dec 19 p8). The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) urged the FCC to maintain the rule. The NFL’s stadium policies and the FCC’s current broadcast rules work cooperatively “to serve the interests of states as well as the public by promoting economic activity, civic pride and the broadcast of professional football on free, over-the-air television,” NCSL said in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler (http://bit.ly/1kPbpya). The league policies not only result in sold-out games, “but also generate economic activity in and surrounding stadiums and beyond,” it said. Ending the rule puts the local broadcast model at risk and may cause sports leagues “to move sports programming from” over-the-air to pay-TV, it said.

The Minority and Media Telecommunications Council endorsed Nexstar’s proposed deal to sell three TV stations to minority-owned Marshall Broadcasting and operate them through sharing arrangements, said MMTC President David Honig on the group’s website Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1hPe9MM). National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters Executive Director Jim Winston has also said he was in favor of the deal (CD June 11 p9). This transaction could be a promising development for minority ownership in media, said Honig.

The FCC Media Bureau froze applications for digital replacement translator (DRT) stations and displacement applications, the bureau said in a public notice Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1kPoEik). The freeze is intended to “protect the opportunity for stations displaced by repacking of the television bands to obtain a new channel,” said the bureau. It will also facilitate the bureau’s plans to open a special window for applications for DRTs, low-power TVs and translators displaced by the repacking, it said. The bureau will continue processing current applications, but isn’t waiting for publication in the Federal Register to enact the freeze -- it’s effective immediately, said the bureau. During the freeze, the bureau will consider waiver requests by LPTV and TV translator stations that can show they are causing or receiving “interference to or from full power stations,” it said. Minor-change applications and applications for digital flash cut and digital companion channels filed by existing LPTV, translator and Class A stations will still be accepted, said the notice.

Legislative and regulatory proceedings on compulsory copyright, retransmission consent, and broadcast exclusivity are intended to hurt the broadcast TV industry, the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology told Commissioner Ajit Pai in a presentation last week, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1pgQvLp). The presentation (http://bit.ly/1n46ZBz) argued that TV doesn’t have overwhelming market power, and that retransmission consent prices are reasonable, according to the filing. Multichannel video programming distributors have the right to sign exclusive programming agreements on a nationwide basis, but want to “deny TV stations the right to enter into agreements for territorial exclusivity,” said the filing.

The FCC should extend deadlines for comments and replies to the FCC 2014 broadcast ownership quadrennial review rulemaking by roughly a month, said a filing from the Coalition of Smaller Market Television Stations posted online Tuesday (http://bit.ly/Sw8jnd). Comments are due July 7, replies Aug. 4, but the group of smaller-market broadcasters -- which includes LIN Television, Raycom and Schurz Communications -- wants to move those dates so comments are due Aug. 6, replies Sept. 8. The broadcasters want to move the deadline so they can gather more information to answer the questions in the ownership FNPRM, said the joint filing posted Tuesday in docket 09-182. The commission also has proceedings on retransmission consent and syndicated exclusivity with deadlines in the same months, the coalition said. It said more time will allow all interested parties to present more complete information and data.

The FCC should investigate whether an internal lack of diversity led it to not complete the 2010 Quadrennial Review of broadcast ownership rules, said the Washington Technology Project in comments filed in docket 14-50 Monday (http://bit.ly/1s0VwJW). “Neither the 2010 nor 2014 Quadrennial review will be able to move forward in a meaningful way unless the Commission considers the extent to which it is itself a discriminating entity,” said WTP in the filing. The federal Office of Personnel Management shows that 79.4 percent of commission hires in 2012 were white, while blacks were 6.3 percent, and Hispanics 3.2 percent, WTP said. The data also shows “significant, two-digit gaps favoring men over women” working at the commission, except among blacks, where it favors women, WTP said. The FCC should investigate whether those disparities affect its policies and “why it believes its own diversity and inclusion standards set an appropriate tone for the industries it regulates,” said WTP.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau warned Vision Latina Broadcasting that future violations of the public inspection file rule may result in substantial fines, regardless of its financial situation. As former licensee of KBPO(AM) Port Neches, Texas, Vision Latina failed to make available a complete public inspection file for the station, the bureau said in an order (http://bit.ly/1uMObvD). No forfeiture was imposed in light of the licensee’s “poor financial condition and the other factual circumstances of this case,” it said. Vision Latina received incorrect advice from an outside consultant and paid in full its prior forfeiture, the bureau said. The bureau concluded that “it acted in good faith and should be afforded mitigation of the forfeiture,” it said.

The FCC has “declared war” on broadcasters, especially low-power TV (LPTV) and translator stations, said the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance in a news release Thursday. The commission’s auction order “wrongly defined LPTV to a status below wireless,” said ATBA Executive Director Louis Libin, adding that the auction is “poisonous” to LPTV. The FCC had previously defined low-power TV as secondary to full-power stations, but the auction framework leaves LPTV secondary to wireless as well, said ATBA board member and LPTV station owner Randy Weiss in the release. “It is unconscionable that the FCC would now try to redefine secondary status with the singular intent of enabling the confiscation of spectrum licensed to small broadcasters,” said Weiss. The release called for a “grass roots movement” of low- and full-power broadcasters and citizens to oppose the auction framework.