DOJ’s recent successful court battle to require Florida company RM Broadcasting register as a foreign agent for arranging broadcasts of Russian state-owned media “demonstrates renewed effort” by the agency to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act, DOJ said Monday. The case was the first FARA civil enforcement action since 1991, and was decided in Florida federal court last week (in Pacer). DOJ had argued that by arranging broadcasts of Russian radio service Sputnik on WZHF(AM) Capitol Heights, Maryland, RM Broadcasting has been acting as an agent of Russian government-controlled news agency Rossiya Segodnya. RM sued DOJ in October and DOJ brought a counterclaim. Though RM Broadcasting had argued that it merely brokers the sale of airtime and had no part in content decisions, the court ruled last week that RM’s contract with Rossiya Segodnya requires it to perform a variety of services for the news agency that amount to acting as its agent. “The language of the Services Agreement contradicts RM Broadcasting’s assertion that it only buys and resells radio airtime,” said the judgment. RM Broadcasting’s attorney Nicole Waid, of FisherBroyles, said in an interview the company is evaluating options for an appeal. DOJ’s ramping up of FARA enforcement against broadcasters is a response to a 2016 Office of Inspector General report that identified FARA as an underutilized rule. So far, the agency has gone only after smaller companies such as RM Broadcasting and Reston Translator (see 1712040054), but FARA’s broad language could allow the agency to bring the same sort of enforcement actions against larger Internet and cable companies, Waid said. “Our concern is, where does it stop?” Waid said. “The American people have a right to know if a foreign flag waves behind speech broadcast in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers in the release.

Apollo Global Management hasn’t adequately demonstrated public interest benefits of its proposed purchase of stations from Northwest Broadcasting and Cox, the American TV Alliance (ATVA) commented and anticonsolidation groups petitioned to deny, in filings posted in docket 19-98 Monday (see 1903060078). The FCC should force Apollo to provide public interest justifications for the top-four duopolies and “quadropolies” that would result from the deal even though most of those combinations involve low-power TV stations or multicast channels, said ATVA. MVPD groups pushed the FCC to regulate top-four combinations of LPTV stations in recent comments on the 2018 quadrennial review. “If faced with an application for a full-power triopoly or quadropoly, the FCC would dismiss it out of hand,” ATVA said. Apollo seeks to use after-acquired clauses to raise the retransmission consent rates of all the Cox stations to match the higher rates currently enjoyed by the Northwest stations, ATVA said. “These price increases appear to be the main purpose of the transaction and why Apollo asked the Commission to approve its Northwest acquisition before its Cox acquisition.” Since it's a private equity firm, Apollo and subsidiary Terrier Media Buyer could “implement aggressive cost cutting strategies” that could include newsroom layoffs and homogenized programming, said Common Cause, Common Cause Ohio and the United Church of Christ jointly. Apollo’s filings “outlining vague putative public interest benefits and “corporate status as a private equity firm” don’t “suggest any commitment to localism,” the groups said. Darryl Beauford -- a viewer of Cox's WSB-TV Atlanta -- said the deal should be rejected because he was denied access to the station’s public file when he tried to view it in 2015 after complaining about the station’s content. “The conduct of WSB-TV is unbecoming of a trustee of the Community based on the fact that purposely, with full intention, violated this Core Regulation.” Beauford said. Cox and Apollo didn’t comment.

No additional news organizations registered with the FCC as U.S.-based foreign media outlets by the April 12 deadline, according to the agency report to Congress and in Friday's Daily Digest. The semi-annual reports are required under the McCain National Defense Authorization Act (see 1809050009). The FCC said the two outlets in its inaugural report from November (see 1811130076) submitted filings to the agency after being contacted by staff. MHz News said its parent company is 100 percent owned by U.S. citizens and was submitting out of an abundance of transparency and caution and that Anadolu Agency said it's solely financed and owned by its Turkish news agency parent.

Comments are due May 22, replies June 3 on Nexstar and WUTV Licensee's proposal to swap channel 32 for 36 for the first company's WNLO Buffalo and 36 for 32 for WUTV Buffalo (see 1904230074), said an FCC Federal Register notice Tuesday on docket 19-118. The change "serves the public interest because it would allow for a more efficient allocation of UHF television channels and resolve significant over-the-air reception problems in WIVB's prior service area," the notice said.

Univision petitioned the FCC to increase its previous declaratory ruling on the percentage of the company that’s allowed to be foreign-owned to allow for internal restructuring, said a Media Bureau public notice Tuesday. In a 2017 declaratory ruling, the agency authorized Univision to be up to 49 percent foreign-owned. Under the terms of the planned restructuring, Mexico-based Univision subsidiary Notivision would acquire 21 percent of U.S.-based subsidiary Univision Radio, the PN said. Under the currently allowed level of foreign ownership, that transaction would subsequently limit available foreign investment in Univision to 28 percent. To create more room, Univision wants the FCC to increase its allowed amount of foreign ownership to 70 percent. “Univision does not seek specific approval for any previously unapproved foreign investors,” the PN said. It started docket 19-132 for the proceeding, saying ex parte procedures cover such a permit-but-disclose proceeding.

Byron Allen-owned content company Entertainment Studios will become a broadcaster through buying Bayou City Broadcasting’s four TV stations in Evansville, Indiana, and Lafayette, Louisiana, said a news release Tuesday. Allen recently partnered with Sinclair in a $10.6 billion deal for regional sports networks (see 1905030059) and is buying the stations through subsidiary Allen Media Broadcasting. Though the deal includes all of Bayou City’s stations, Bayou City CEO Dujuan McCoy will remain in broadcasting through the pending Nexstar/Tribune deal, which if approved will include the sale of divestitures in Indiana to his company Circle City Broadcasting (see 1904080046). Since Allen is a “new entrant” to broadcasting and the deal won’t involve any overlaps, it’s not likely to be held up by regulators, McCoy said in an interview. Since McCoy is staying in the industry, the deal also increases the amount of TV stations with a minority owner, he pointed out. Bayou City's stations are Evansville's WEVV-TV and WEEV and KLAF-LD and KADN-TV in Lafayette, the release said.

HC2 closed its buy of WJFB Lebanon, Tennessee, said broker Patrick Communications Monday. HC2, known for buying up low-power TV stations, bought the full-power station from Radiant Life Ministries for $5.75 million.

Tegna's buying multicast networks Justice and Quest from Cooper Media for $77 million, Tegna said Monday. Tegna already owned portions of the networks but will now acquire the remaining 85 percent, it said. The networks are valued at $91 million. The 24/7 networks reach 87 million U.S. homes and are advertising-supported, the release said. The purchase is intended to capitalize in growth in over-the-air TV audiences, said Tegna CEO Dave Lougee. “Consumer viewing habits are shifting toward over-the-air consumption supplemented by inexpensive over-the-top services.” The deal is expected to close in Q2.

U.S. station deal volume reached $5.1 billion in Q1, said S&P Global Market Intelligence: $236.8 million in radio and $4.86 billion in TV. “This is the largest quarterly deal volume since second quarter 2007." The largest TV deals included Nexstar’s planned $1.32 billion divestitures to E.W. Scripps and Tegna and equity fund Apollo Global Management buying stations from Cox and Northwest Broadcasting at $3.1 billion and $384 million respectively. Cumulus Media's $103 million sale of six radio stations to Educational Media Foundation accounted for much of the radio volume.

The FCC's draft order on FM translator interference could make it “extremely challenging” for large market stations to collect the required number of listener complaints to lodge a valid interference complaint, NAB said in meetings last week with aides to all five FCC commissioners and Media Bureau staff, per a filing posted Friday in docket 18-119. “Very few listeners are motivated to register a complaint about radio interference,” NAB said. Beasley, iHeartMedia and other broadcasters registered similar concerns last week (see 1905010162). The agency should return to the tentative conclusion proposed in the preceding NPRM that a minimum of six complaints would be sufficient, NAB said: If the FCC keeps the population-based complaint minimum, the number should be capped at 25 complaints. Radio executives Bayard Walters of the Cromwell Group and Ed Henson of Henson Media supported the population-based minimums in their own meetings with eighth-floor aides and Media Bureau staff last week, said a filing. “It made sense for the number of required complaints to be significantly different for Campbellsville, Kentucky, and New York City.” They also backed a 48 dBu contour instead of the proposed 45 dBu one, and eliminating the draft order's waiver for interference complaints outside the contour.