LG Electronics is “very pleased” with its NextGenTV launch, said John Taylor, senior vice president-communications and public affairs. “It was not what we anticipated a year ago at CES 2020, but kudos to the broadcasters for keeping the foot on the accelerator” to roll out 3.0 services to 20 markets in 2020, despite the pandemic, he told a Pearl TV NextGenTV media briefing virtually Thursday. LG plans a broad assortment of 3.0 TVs for 2021 in screen sizes from 55 to 88 inches, he said. “We expect more from the industry, too. We know we’re not going to build this market alone.” LG expects “many more models from more manufacturers as the stars align in 2021 with the majority of Americans being able to receive the NextGenTV.” BitRouter is entering the market with its ZapperBox set-top (see 2101070063).

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force increased the repack reimbursement fund allocation for low-power TV and translator stations from 85% of verified estimates to 92.5%, bringing them into line with full-power stations and other entities that receive repacking reimbursement, said a public notice. “This will result in a total allocation for LPTV/Translator stations of $91,782,921 and a total allocation from the Reimbursement Fund for all eligible entities of over $2.028 billion.” The reimbursement program has received over 93,000 invoices in more than 31,000 submissions, and all full-power TV stations have vacated their pre-auction channels, Thursday's PN said. As of Monday, over 95% of the repacked stations are operating on their final facilities, the PN said. The task force is “optimistic” the 41 stations remaining on interim facilities will meet their revised deadlines.

E.W. Scripps completed its $2.65 billion deal to buy Ion Media from Black Diamond Capital Management, divesting 23 stations to the newly formed Inyo Broadcasting, it announced Thursday. The FCC approved Dec. 15 but announced the OK only in the brief listing of broadcast actions three days later (see 2101070039). No petitions to deny were filed, and no conditions were required, a Scripps spokesperson said. Scripps is holding on to 48 of the stations and plans to combine Ion’s content with its Katz networks and Newsy for a “full-scale national television networks business,” the release said. “Bringing our networks together with ION will create a formidable national television business focused on connecting with audiences and advertisers in the rapidly evolving media landscape,” said Scripps CEO Adam Symson. Inyo is headed by interim CEO John Chachas and Chief Operating Officer Louis Zachary, the managing principals of Methuselah Advisors, a media broker that worked with Scripps in the past and on this deal (see 2011050024). The FCC didn’t comment.

ATSC scheduled live virtual workshops for Tuesday, coinciding with the all-digital CES 2021 but after the show's main activities are “done for the day,” emailed a spokesperson. ATSC President Madeleine Noland moderates the first panel, “ATSC 3.0 at the Consumer’s Fingertips,” at 7 p.m. EST. Panelists are Steve Koenig, CTA vice president-research; Mark Aitken, Sinclair senior vice president-advanced technology; Alfred Chan, MediaTek vice president-TV and smart home business unit; Nick Kelsey, SiliconDust chief technical officer; and John Taylor, LG Electronics senior vice president-public affairs and communications. An 8 p.m. EST webinar on remote learning is to be moderated by Jerry Whitaker, ATSC vice president-standards development. His panelists are Lonna Thompson, America's Public Television Stations general counsel; Todd Achilles, Evoca CEO; Fred Engel, UNC-TV Public Media North Carolina chief technology officer; and Aby Alexander, Thomson Broadcast president-Americas. Koenig plans to provide some details on NextGenTV sales forecasts, the spokesperson said.

Mission Broadcasting, a sidecar to Nexstar, wants a 90-day extension to file ownership reports on several station purchases, including its recent buy of WPIX New York from E.W. Scripps (see 2012300053). The letter to the FCC Media Bureau, posted Tuesday, said the delay would let the company provide a consolidated ownership report.

HC2 completed the $35 million sale of three full-power TV stations and one low-power TV translator to a company apparently associated with Weigel Broadcasting, according to an HC2 news release Monday and the FCC consolidated database system. HC2 said the deal was for translator KEJR-LD Phoenix and KAZD Dallas, KYAZ Houston and KMOH-TV Kingman, Arizona. The FCC database shows the buyer as TV-49, which shares the same Chicago address and president as Weigel. Proceeds will reduce HC2’s debt, the seller said. Weigel and HC2 didn’t comment.

The COVID-19 pandemic and lack of funding limited FCC implementation of the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement (Pirate) Act, said the Enforcement Bureau in the agency’s first report to Congress under the statute (see 2012170060). Pirate radio investigations require field agents to “engage in significant, in-person activities to gather evidence,” and the agency has limited such investigations, the report said. It lists four enforcement actions against pirates in 2020. Implementing the act would also cost $11 million, which wasn’t appropriated, and the law didn’t exist when the FCC’s 2021 budget was created, EB reported. The act requires the FCC to do “sweeps” of markets with the most pirate activity and create a public database of licensed stations, but neither was done, it said. The agency has begun studying which markets the sweeps should cover, but doing them and developing the database won’t happen until funds are appropriated, EB said.

The FCC Media Bureau approved Estrella Broadcasting’s request for a declaratory ruling allowing it to be over 25% foreign owned, said an order Thursday. Estrella, formerly Liberman, requested the ruling in 2019 as part of a bankruptcy reorganization and was given the nod by NTIA in 2020. Under the bankruptcy reorganization, several interrelated companies, some of which are based in the Cayman Islands, Ireland, France and Canada, would hold partial interest in Estrella. France-based company Axa “would hold indirectly an aggregate equity interest and voting interest of approximately 24.25% in Estrella," the order said. Estrella’s petition didn’t receive substantive objections and was found to be in the public interest, the order said.

Thursday is the last day to access content from November’s SMPTE 2020 virtual conference, emailed the society Wednesday. Participants who complete the conference evaluation survey can qualify to win a $100 Amazon gift card, it said. Though the virtual meeting rooms within the exhibit booths are disabled, there’s still time to visit exhibitors, watch their videos, download resources and leave a message in the chat, it said.

Eleven TV stations in Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will have their licenses expire Feb. 1 unless a renewal application is filed by midnight that day, said a public notice Wednesday. Among the affected stations are Nichols Broadcasting’s WEWA-LD Wewahitchka, Florida, and Caribbean Broadcasting's DWSJX-LP Aquadilla, Puerto Rico. The stations were required to file applications for license renewal Oct. 1, the PN said.