The FCC Media Bureau wants more information from Sinclair and Tribune on how their proposed deal would be brought into compliance with ownership rules and specifics on the deal’s effects on news coverage at Tribune’s stations, Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey told the companies in a letter last week. The broadcasters need to describe what “specific steps” the companies will take to comply with the national ownership cap and duopoly rules, she said. As filed, the deal would be 6.5 percent over the cap, and would include overlaps in several markets that wouldn’t be in compliance with ownership rules. Opponents asked the FCC to require more information of Sinclair/Tribune when the transaction was first filed, but the agency denied those requests (see 1708040002). Since then, a perceived lack of specifics about divestitures and the public interest benefits of the deal have been targets of foes (see 1708080067). Many of the public interest benefits listed by Sinclair were based on expanded news coverage, and the information request seeks more precise information about the new company’s plans for local news. The bureau wants information on plans to add local programming and local newscasts to Tribune stations, increase coverage of local government, and to “increase or decrease” the number of journalists and investigative reporters at Tribune stations. Carey also asked for details on how the deal would increase the efficiency of implementing ATSC 3.0, and the impact of the new company’s greater audience reach. The Coalition to Save Local Media praised “scrutiny” of the deal, saying the FCC request would help answer “questions raised by interested parties as well as Members of Congress that have gone unanswered.” The group, which includes Public Knowledge, Dish Network, the Competitive Carriers Association and the Blaze, said that “the FCC and Department of Justice should closely scrutinize this merger and deny it.” Sinclair didn’t comment. After a speech Friday to the Center for Democracy & Technology (see 1709150062), Chairman Ajit Pai declined to comment on the letter, other than to say it "speaks for itself."

FCC online public files make it even more important for stations to have properly filed quarterly issues/program reports, Fletcher Heald attorneys Anne Goodwin Crump, Scott Johnson and Susan Marshall blogged. TV stations already have this requirement, but it will begin applying to radio as well March 1, said the lawyers, with clients including broadcasters. “Now, anyone with a little time on their hands can scrutinize both the content of documents in the file and the timeliness of their filing.” Issues/programs lists are the “primary means” a station uses to create a record of public service to support a license renewal application, the experts said: The next quarterly issues/programs list is for the quarter ending Sept. 30 and is due by Oct. 10.

HC2 LPTV Holdings will buy 38 Class A and low-power TV stations from Mako Communications and associated companies Mintz Broadcasting, Nave Broadcasting and Tuck Properties for $29 million, said an SEC filing Wednesday. The deal includes all of Mako’s LPTV assets.

Comcast and Dish Network losing subscribers is good for streaming services like CBS All Access, CBS CEO Les Moonves told investors Thursday. Cord-cutters end up migrating to streaming offerings like All Access, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors earlier in the day. MVPD consolidation hasn’t “impacted” retransmission consent fees, Moonves told a Goldman Sachs conference. He believes Sinclair's buy of Tribune will be approved, and CBS will look at expansion opportunities in American Football Conference markets such as Houston and Cleveland. Moonves believes CBS’ TV business is “strong,” a spokesperson confirmed. CBS will renew its NFL rights in 2022, and Moonves expects Amazon and Google to bid on the digital rights, Ryvicker wrote.

Sinclair buying Tribune would put local weather anchors “at risk," said deal opposition group Coalition to Save Local Media (see 1708150063), with members like the American Cable Association, Competitive Carriers Association, Dish Network, ITTA, NTCA and Public Knowledge. Sinclair has a “record of eliminating veteran weather anchors, reporters, and resources used by newsrooms to report live and on the ground during weather events,” the group said Thursday. Local weather reporters are “especially threatened” in markets where Sinclair will acquire new big-four stations, including Seattle, Denver, Cleveland and Sacramento, it said. “To suggest that Sinclair would ever put the well-being of our viewers at risk by cutting local weather coverage is absurd," said Senior Vice President-News Scott Livingston. "Broadcasting provides critical information during crises and we remain committed to providing this essential information to our local communities." Sinclair stations "devoted countless hours to round the clock coverage by local meteorologists," during the recent hurricanes, he said. Sinclair's WPEC West Palm Beach, Florida, offered continuous coverage for four days during Hurricane Irma, Livingston said.

NAB launched a consumer education website about TV channel changes connected with the post-incentive auction repacking process, said a news release Wednesday. “The website is part of a consumer education campaign to keep viewers apprised of channel changes during the repack’s 39-month timeline.” The site has sections explaining the repack, links to FCC explainers, lets users know when they will have to rescan their TV tuners, and lets them sign up for mobile alerts to do so. “NAB is devoted to working with Congress, the FCC, the wireless industry and third-party groups to keep the public informed throughout this enormously challenging undertaking,” said President Gordon Smith. NAB will release “tools" for local stations in coming weeks, including “talking points, sample scripts and crawls and even automated phone messaging,” the group said.

The FCC should do an economic study of the impacts of TV channel repacking on low-power TV and translators, said the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition in a meeting with Commissioner Brendan Carr Monday, according to an ex parte filing. Final costs of the repacking to LPTV “will surely exceed $300 million over the next four years,” the group said in docket 12-268. “The FCC has never studied this and needs to do it now!” Such a study should be used as the basis for funding the relocation of LPTV and translators, the LPTV advocate said. “We should be given a fixed amount based on an economic analysis that the FCC should conduct,” it said. “Chairman [Ajit] Pai has indicated that economic analyses should be done for all new FCC rulemakings.”

FCC Media Bureau extension of the first priority filing window for repacked TV stations to Friday was in Wednesday's Federal Register. The extension is intended to make up for technical issues that affected the Licensing and Management System and prevented some entities from submitting construction permit and reimbursement cost information.

The FCC Wireless Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology modified the table of frequency allocations and Part 27 rules to reflect results of the incentive auction, said an order released Wednesday. The order doesn’t employ a notice and comment procedure because it's implementing a prior rulemaking that was part of the orders that created the auction.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued warnings against five suspected pirate radio operators broadcasting from the same street in Boston neighborhoods in August, in notices of unlicensed operation. Michelle Joseph, Quenton Joseph, Richard Clouden and Tayla Lantz were cited for suspected unlicensed broadcasts on different frequencies Aug. 14 out of 616 or 614 Blue Hill Ave. in Dorchester, and Yvon Grandchamps was cited for doing so on the same day a few miles down the same road in Mattapan, and also for similar activity on June 14.