The FCC’s long retention of local ownership rules “depended upon the agency closing its eyes and covering its ears” said NAB Senior Deputy General Counsel Jerianne Timmerman in a blog post Friday. “Broadcasters and newspaper owners must compete with myriad other outlets for viewers, listeners, readers and advertisers.” Relaxing the media ownership rules (see 1710260049) will increase broadcasters’ ability to remain in business in the face of mounting competition, she said. A broadcaster’s ability to function in the public interest is premised on broadcasting remaining an economically viable business, Timmerman said. “The reformed local TV rule will permit two local stations to combine and jointly bear the substantial costs of maintaining local news operations,” she said. The proposed rule changes show the FCC “not only recognizes the realities of the 21st century media marketplace, but also is willing to take the manufactured political heat that will undoubtedly accompany this update of the rules,” Timmerman said.

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed a petition for reconsideration from Texas Public Radio of a call sign assignment for being filed late and a repeat of a previously rejected appeal, said an order released Wednesday. TPR challenged the agency’s call sign assignment for KCTI(FM) Gonzales, Texas. TPR is the licensee of KCTI (AM) Gonzales. TPR argued no consent was provided by KCTI-FM’s former owners or TPR to use the KCTI call sign, but the bureau ruled consent was provided, that TPR’s argument was a repeat of an earlier rejected appeal, and the recon petition was filed too late to be valid.

FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn tweeted in support Tuesday of a commentary arguing that media ownership policies would make it harder to combat fake news. “The FCC’s recent actions can only lead to a massive consolidation of stations and homogenization of news,” wrote Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy in The Washington Post. “The cure for ‘fake news’ isn’t consolidation, it is more diverse and competitive news.” Rosenworcel called the column “Truth” in a tweet linking to it, and Clyburn tweeted, “I agree,” while sharing the same link. FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny tweeted her own agreement in a response to Rosenworcel. “The American people deserve a voice in the way Washington is dismantling local media,” Rosenworcel said in another tweet about the article. Ruddy cited FCC actions on the main studio rule, UHF discount and media ownership, and the expected approval of Sinclair buying Tribune as combining to consolidate media market power. Ruddy has been an opponent of Sinclair/Tribune. “Democrats have already raised suspicions about the commission’s decision to implement the UHF discount just three weeks before the Sinclair-Tribune merger was announced. Could those companies have known somehow that such a change was going to occur to make their merger legal?” Ruddy asked. Pai’s longtime criticism of the elimination of the UHF discount was widely seen as far back as January to indicate he would restore it (see 1701110067). “While President [Donald] Trump has been condemning 'fake news,' his very own FCC is pursuing policies that will lead to the greatest concentration of television media power in history,” Ruddy said. The FCC didn't comment.

There’s “nothing really stopping” broadcasters under the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards from transmitting “540p, high-dynamic-range, wide-color-gamut” pictures “if they wish,” LG Electronics consultant Madeleine Noland told the NAB Show New York (see 1710180023) Thursday during an Ultra HD primer workshop. Noland chairs ATSC’s S34 specialist group supervising the framing of 3.0 audio and video and the Ultra HD Forum’s guidelines working group. “Broadcasters are allowed to mix-and-match within the ATSC 3 system in order to make sure that they’re getting the best bang for their bit, and making the best business decisions they can for their customers,” said Noland. In implementing 3.0, U.S. broadcasters “may rely actually heavily on a 2K service at first, looking at 2K, plus HDR, wide color gamut, next-generation audio,” she said. “We did not get a whole nice big pile of spectrum to play with in order to make this transition.” The “bandwidth challenges” make 2K-based broadcast services “a very attractive offering at the outset,” she said. ATSC 3.0 "right now goes to 2160p," Noland told a questioner who asked whether the standard could accommodate 8K. "One of the most important things we built into ATSC 3.0 is extensability," she said. "So the expectation is that, over time, more things will be added," she said. Her S34 specialist group is "already looking at next pieces of some of the video, and ultimately 8K may be one of those things," she said. The Ultra HD Forum canvassed service operators worldwide to gauge their “two-to-five-year outlook” on commercializing Ultra HD “technologies” like 4K resolution, HDR and wide color gamut, said Noland. “We found strong support for 2K UHD formats, interestingly, but also strong support for 4K UHD formats.” HDR and wide color gamut are “high on everyone’s lists,” she said. “But people are a little bit concerned about all the complexities that go along with having multiple technologies available.” The survey found service operators aren't very worried about the pace of future Ultra HD consumer adoption, she said.

Since CTA’s June filing urging the FCC in ATSC 3.0 rules only to “encourage” adoption of ATSC’s A/322 document on physical-layer protocol, without requiring it (see 1706090026), member companies "indicated a need for more certainty regarding the transmission standard to ensure a uniform and smooth transition to NextGen TV,” said Brian Markwalter, senior vice president-research and standards. That was CTA’s rationale for writing to all five commissioners to incorporate A/322 into 3.0 rules, not just the A/321 document on system discovery and signaling (see 1710190048), said Markwalter Thursday. Keeping with the 3.0 transition's voluntary, market-driven nature, CTA previously told the FCC it wasn't seeking “a requirement to implement A/322.”

Sinclair/Tribune opponent Coalition to Save Local Media began a national advertising campaign to “highlight how the Sinclair Broadcasting-Tribune Media merger will stifle local and independent media voices and put greed ahead of local viewers,” said a news release Thursday. The video ad describes Sinclair as emphasizing its own content over local news operations. “Contact Congress to tell them to deny” Sinclair buying Tribune, the ad said. The FCC paused the deal’s 180-day shot clock Wednesday to allow for additional comments (see 1710180071). “Sinclair and Tribune have failed to provide adequate justification that this merger is in the public interest and have not answered questions raised by the FCC and other parties,” the opposition group said of the paused clock. “In this comment period, the FCC, as well as the Department of Justice and other parties, should pay close attention to the serious concerns that continue to be raised.” Sinclair didn't comment.

The FCC should act swiftly to balance rules on interference complaints between FM translators and full-power stations, said Urban One in a meeting with Chairman Ajit Pai Monday, relayed a filing in RM-11786. “While the FCC’s AM-exclusive FM translator initiative is a tremendous success, it has also created unintended consequences and raises serious policy issues that need to be resolved by the full Commission,” said the licensee of Radio One stations. “Current policy fails to consider the extent to which local listeners will be affected if the programming provided by the FM translator is removed.” The Media Bureau Audio Division has said the FCC would clarify and adjust its translator interference through an administrative law adjudication (see 1707280059) that would be adopted by the full commission, but Urban One said “any draft of such an adjudicatory decision having wide-ranging effects on broadcasters and radio listeners” should be shared with the public before adoption. Until the FCC acts, the agency should “be particularly judicious in giving full due process protections” to FM translators “particularly in situations where complaining radio listeners are located far outside of the existing station’s local radio audience,” the radio-station owner said.

The FCC Media Bureau will temporarily lift a freeze on modifications for full-power and Class A stations that weren’t reassigned after the incentive auction, to keep priority stations from re-displacing low powers and translators assigned new homes during the repacking, said a public notice in docket 16-306 Thursday. “This action will help ensure the utility of an upcoming application filing window for secondary stations displaced by the incentive auction repacking.” A PN announcing opening of the filing period for the temporary unfreezing will be issued after the Nov. 2 close of the second priority filing window, the PN said. Under the April 2013 freeze, the bureau stopped accepting modification applications for changes that would increase a full power’s noise-limited contour or a Class A’s protected contour in one or more directions, the PN said. The bureau is temporarily lifting the freeze now with the expectation of permanently lifting it later, the PN said. Temporarily lifting it permits the agency to include more complete data in the upcoming displacement PN for LPTV and translators, the PN said. “Displaced LPTV/translator stations will thereby be able to more accurately identify available channels.” Applications pending since the freeze took effect will be processed during the temporary lift, and new applications will processed on a first-come, first-served basis, the PN said.

Ion Media's electing for must-carry status doesn't preclude it from signing an affiliation deal with Fox that would see the network moving from some Sinclair and/or Tribune stations, Cowen's Paul Gallant emailed investors Wednesday. Ion still could collect license fees through retransmission payments if it carried Fox as a second digital stream within its 6 MHz broadcast signal, the analyst said. He said the FCC decided broadcasters electing for must-carry are entitled only to cable carriage of the primary digital signal, and any other digital signal a broadcaster wants carried on cable is to be negotiated via retrans consent. Even if Sinclair/Tribune asked the FCC to reconsider that requirement, the policy still wouldn't cover Ion's must-carry election of earlier this month (see 1710130031), he said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued 17 warnings for unlicensed operation Monday and Tuesday, in notices of violation. The warnings went to people and businesses in Texas, Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey, Virginia and New York. They included transmitters in residences broadcasting on unlicensed frequencies, radio equipment interfering with T-Mobile wireless signals and an emergency beacon activated on a submerged vessel and interfering with Coast Guard frequencies. The bureau lately stepped up enforcement against unlicensed operations (see 1708180057).