The FCC needs to study whether the improvements brought by ATSC 3.0 are worth rendering many existing TVs obsolete and disproportionately affecting low-income and minority households, blogged Rosa Mendoza, executive director of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership on Thursday. “Without sufficient answers, low-income and minority families could be adversely affected and we could see the digital divide widen.” The FCC should require that broadcasters simulcast in both 1.0 and 3.0 during the transition, and give consumers enough time to switch to the new technology, HTTP said.

Raycom Media temporarily extended its carriage agreement with DirecTV through Tuesday to ensure uninterrupted service for 54 stations amid recovery from Tropical Storm Harvey (see 1708310049), the broadcaster announced Thursday.

Sinclair reached a multiyear affiliation deal with Fox Broadcasting for five Sinclair Fox affiliates that were at the end of their terms, said a Sinclair news release Wednesday: WACH Columbia, South Carolina; KFOX-TV El Paso; KRXI-TV Reno; WFXL Albany, Georgia; and WSBT-TV South Bend, Indiana. It "includes the ability to participate in vMVPD deals,” said Sinclair Executive Vice President-Distribution and Network Relations Barry Faber.

Evine Live will sell WWDP Norwell, Massachusetts, for “an aggregate of $13.5 million in a series of two transactions,” Evine said in a news release Wednesday. “The transaction includes two agreements with unrelated parties.” The deal will allow the company to retire $6.2 million in high-interest debt, the release said. The deal is expected to close in Q4 or in Q1.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued 10 warning letters to alleged pirate radio operators in New York, Pennsylvania, Alaska and New Jersey, according to notices of unlicensed operation released Tuesday. FCC and broadcast officials said a recent uptick in the number of such notices is the result of changes to how such information is publicized and a more aggressive enforcement policy (see 1708180057). The warning letter issued in Alaska was to the Anchorage Baptist Temple; and a warning letter issued to Kacy Rankine of West Orange, New Jersey, identified him as the operator of pirate Roadblock Radio. A notice issued to Jonathan Campbell of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, said his unlicensed broadcasts came to light after an interference complaint from the local county 911 operation. The bureau also warned seven unlicensed operators in New York -- Yonkers, Monroe, Spring Valley, New York City and three more operators were warned in Brooklyn (here, here and here).

The majority of emergency alert system Law Enforcement Warnings were about notification of road closures and non-emergency traffic disruptions, making it unacceptable to use in lieu of creating a new Blue Alert code to warn about dangers to police officers, said the DOJ Office of Community Oriented Policing Services in reply comments in FCC docket 15-94. “There is often a perceived lack of urgency associated with the LEW event code,” the COPS Office said. “A dedicated EAS event code for Blue Alerts would streamline Blue Alert plans across the nation and will help to integrate existing plans into a coordinated national framework, the COPS Office said. "Such a code would also serve as the central and organizing element for Blue Alert plans coast-to-coast and greatly facilitate the work of the National Blue Alert Network.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a warning letter to two operators of a pirate radio station in Oakland Park, Florida, said a notice. Bureau agents followed the signal on July 11 and July 18 to a “commercial suite,” the letter said. Wilfrid Salomon and Samuel Salomon were operating the unlicensed station, it said. Friday's letter was in Monday's Daily Digest.

Leaders of four organizations saying they represent minorities asked FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to deny approval of Sinclair buying Tribune “on the grounds that it would destroy the diversity of media programming,” in a letter Monday. Diverse media networks, and “the programming they produce, are critical to how we access and digest news,” said the Latino Victory Project, AAPI Victory Fund, Emgage and Color of Change. Latino Victory is a member of the Coalition to Save Local Media, which was formed to oppose the deal. The letter was critical of Sinclair’s requirements that stations air “must-run” content, which the groups said sometimes includes “racist and Islamophobic content that echoes the rhetoric used by white supremacists.” The Sinclair segment “Terrorism Alert Desk” has “repeatedly targeted Muslim-Americans and conflated Islam with terror,” the letter said. The merger’s effect on program diversity represents “substantial public interest harm,” the letter said. Sinclair didn't comment but said last week must-run segments represent a tiny portion of its programming (see 1708230061).

Sinclair’s One Media met with FCC commissioners or their aides twice in the past week to press its argument for incorporating only the ATSC’s A/321 document on “System Discovery and Signaling,” not the A/322 standard on “Physical Layer Protocol,” into ATSC 3.0 rules, filings in docket 16-142 show. The FCC “should avoid over-regulation to permit innovation,” One Media told Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and aide Erin McGrath in Thursday meetings, said the company's latest ex parte notice, posted Friday. The commission need not mandate A/322 “to ensure universal compatibility,” it said. “Equipment manufacturers build to industry standards -- and service providers use those standards -- in the ordinary course without any government mandates,” it said. “Mandating A/322 would hamper innovation without any corresponding benefit.” One Media has support from NAB, PBS and Pearl TV in urging exclusion of A/322, while LG Electronics has been the strongest advocate for including it as a critical measure to help prevent receiver compatibility problems (see 1707120044). CTA recently urged the FCC to write final rules to “encourage” adoption of A/322, but in keeping with the voluntary, market-driven nature of the 3.0 transition, it stopped well short of seeking an A/322 requirement (see 1706090026).

Items on PMCM’s battle over channel assignment and the dismissed hearing designation order of a former Entercom station in Sacramento, California, were circulated to the eighth floor, according to the FCC website. Though the nature of the items is unclear, both proceedings have been appealed by pending applications for review. Edward Stolz appealed an administrative law judge’s dismissal of a hearing proceeding against Entercom after the broadcaster surrendered KDND(FM)’s license (see 1702030074). PMCM appealed Media Bureau decisions preventing it from transmitting its signal on virtual channel 3.10, though channel 3 already is assigned to another station (see 1607260059).