Commissioner Mignon Clyburn called the FCC’s approval of Sinclair’s $240 million purchase of TV stations from Bonten Media a “FridayNewsDump,” and in a series of tweets Monday said it was approved without any communication with her office. “Where’s the #transparency?” Clyburn asked. “The FCC followed its standard procedures for approving unopposed broadcast station transfers," an FCC spokesman said in an email. "When Commissioner Clyburn ‎was Chairwoman, she did not inform then-Commissioner [Ajit] Pai when unopposed station transfer requests were approved so her complaint rings quite hollow.” Friday’s FCC approval covered eight full-power TV stations, and the transfer of six low-power TV stations that were also part of the deal was approved Wednesday, a person with knowledge of the deal told us. Clyburn also tweeted that Friday’s order didn’t make clear how the acquisition would affect Sinclair’s ownership reach for purposes of calculating how close it is to the national ownership cap. When Sinclair announced the deal, attorneys said the purchase would increase Sinclair’s ownership reach by 1 percent, and with the UHF discount Sinclair would remain well under the cap. Last week, Sinclair formally asked for FCC approval of its proposed $6 billion buy of Tribune (see 1706300056).

The proposals in the FCC’s NPRM on eliminating the main studio rule would “disproportionately harm marginalized groups,” said Free Press in comments filed Monday in docket 17-106. The proposed rule changes would allow “broadcast conglomerates” to move resources away from “struggling communities” and “centralize broadcasting facilities and staff in wealthier metropolitan areas,” Free Press said. The rule helps to hold local stations accountable to the public interest, Free Press said. “Technological development is not a reasonable replacement for physical main studios, and competitive market conditions alone will not protect communities if the main studio rule is eliminated,” the filing said. Other filings posted in the docket show overwhelming broadcaster support for eliminating the rule. We Are One Body Catholic Radio and Presence Radio Network said the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act, and Kona Coast Radio said the rule has led to smaller markets being denied broadcast service. The main studio rule “subsidizes the commercial real estate industry,” said Bryan Broadcasting, Honey Creek Broadcasting, Point Broadcasting and Canyon Media in joint comments.“The requirement for a physical main studio is a remnant of another era in broadcasting and in commerce generally, when all communications took place in person,” the joint filing said.

Pearl TV supports the FCC’s initial proposal to incorporate only the A/321 “bootstrap” physical-layer document into the final rules on ATSC 3.0, it told representatives of the commission's Media Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology in meetings Tuesday. ATSC 3.0 “was designed to be flexible and to adjust to changing technology,” Pearl said in an ex parte notice posted Thursday in docket 16-142. With only A/321 in the rules, the FCC “will ensure that ATSC can develop different features and capabilities for Next Generation TV depending on how the standard is received and develops,” it said. “This ongoing flexibility is a virtue of the standard and should be maintained. The arguments made by the few parties who support incorporating A/322 are not persuasive, in particular because some parties may stand to benefit from their intellectual property interests in A/322.” It didn’t mention names, but LG Electronics has been a particularly outspoken proponent of putting A/322, the document on physical-layer protocol, in the final rules, saying failure to do so risks “disenfranchising” the public in the form of faulty receivers that don't properly demodulate the ATSC 3.0 signal (see 1706080054). LG and Zenith R&D Lab representatives met with the commission Thursday to emphasize "the importance of incorporating A/322" into the ATSC 3.0 rules, LG said in an ex parte notice posted Friday. LG and Zenith have made no secret of their stake in ATSC 3.0's physical layer. At Cleveland field trials two years ago, they said that of the 16 “blocks” that will comprise ATSC 3.0's physical layer, LG has at least some involvement in at least 10 of those blocks (see 1507130007). Pearl worries “low-end manufacturers, motivated by avoiding IP expenses, will simply bypass A/321 and only build their devices to the specifications of A/322,” it said. “As technology evolves and improves, these devices would be left orphaned without the core A/321 capability to be updated to more advanced standards.” Sinclair's One Media also has come out against putting A/322 into the final ATSC 3.0 rules (see 1706080054). Pearl and Sinclair partnered with LG rival Samsung in an ATSC 3.0 memorandum of understanding two years ago (see 1506170046). Samsung publicly has been silent on the A/322 issue.

Sinclair's proposed buy of Tribune broadcast outlets would boost its operational efficiencies and let Sinclair upgrade the stations’ facilities and expand the stations’ local coverage, thus offering more value to MVPDs, and increase syndicated and original programming offerings, they said in public interest statement filed at the FCC Friday. They also said the deal will let Sinclair "be better able to develop greater strategic complements to its current broadcast operations," such as more digital content offerings and a faster rollout of an ATSC 3.0 network. The filing listed investments Sinclair has made in stations it bought in recent years from Fisher Broadcasting and Allbritton. The companies said they both own full-power TV stations in 12 designated market areas, and that in 10 of them FCC rules preclude Sinclair buying the Tribune licenses. Those 10 are Seattle-Tacoma, Washington; St. Louis; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; Oklahoma City; Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Michigan; Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, Pennsylvania; Richmond-Petersburg, Virginia; and Des Moines-Ames, Iowa. They also said Tribune has a legal duopoly in Indianapolis but FCC rules preclude Sinclair buying the Tribune licenses there. They said Tribune owns multiple licenses in Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, New Orleans and Denver, but FCC rules would allow Sinclair purchase of the licenses there. They also said, without divestitures, Sinclair would have an audience reach exceeding the 39 percent cap under the national TV television ownership rule, but they "intend to take such actions as necessary to comply." Sinclair said it favored station swaps over station sales in the $6.6 billion deal (see 1705080018).

The FCC’s ownership rules for TV stations in mid-sized and small markets are “inconsistent with economic realities and public necessities,” Gray TV said in meetings this week with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s Chief of Staff Matthew Berry and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, according to an ex parte filing in docket 09-182. Gray was represented in the meetings by former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, now a partner with Cooley. Gray wants the FCC to relax ownership rules to allow a single entity to own two stations in the same designated market area if one of the combining stations hasn’t produced a newscast in two years or if three other news providers would remain in the market. Gray also asked for reforms to the agency’s rules for failing and satellite stations, to reduce the need for repeat showings that stations merit those designations.

​The FCC should relax enforcement of the main studio rule “in any way possible,” said radio licensee Starboard Media Foundation in comments posted in docket 17-106 Wednesday. At a minimum, the agency should allow licensees with multiple stations in the same market (“whether a Nielsen Metro or otherwise”) to collocate them, Starboard said. Once all broadcasters transition to online public files in 2018, “there no longer will be any justifiable reason to force stations to accommodate in-person visits from community members,” it said. Technological innovation has made the main studio rule obsolete, the company said.

Ultra HD is now “unequivocally dominant in the U.K.” and fast becoming the “common coin currency” for European TV, said Nick Simon, account director-consumer electronics for research company GfK, at the SES Ultra HD conference last week in London: Full HD “is so last year.” He estimated U.K. shipments of Ultra HD Blu-ray hardware underwent a “massive increase” since last July, rising by 233 percent. But David Klafkowski, CEO of The Farm Group, a global production company, said he "can’t see the production industry switching fully to UHD for a while,” with the huge storage demands for 4K production and post-production being the biggest impediments. “But I do see a time in two years or so when everything is in HDR, with wider color gamut,” he said of high dynamic range. “It will become the norm.” The BBC “cannot disenfranchise license payers” among the British TV-viewing public, many of whom own sets without HDR, “so compatibility is essential” with standard dynamic range content, said Andy Quested, BBC HD & UHD head of technology. That’s why all the HDR content that BBC “commissions” will be in the hybrid log-gamma (HLG) HDR format that BBC co-developed with NHK, “unless someone pays us a considerable amount of money not to use HLG,” said Quested. He cautioned the creative community not to overdo it with overly bright HDR content. He told BBC engineers and producers: “If it hurts your eyes in the grade, then it will hurt the eyes of the audience, so don’t do it.” He said he thinks the “sweet spot” for HDR peak brightness is around 1,000 nits.

Emergency alert system participants must create an FCC user name within the commission registration system to use the 2017 EAS test reporting system (ETRS), the Public Safety Bureau said in a public notice Monday. The bureau will release a PN in July announcing the deadline for EAS participants to have updated their information in the ETRS, it said. Participants need to create a user name as part of an improvement to the ETRS system that stems from the 2016 nationwide EAS test, the PN said. “Filers will now use a single account to file on behalf of multiple FCC Registration Numbers,” the PN said. “The ETRS was designed to increase the reliability and value of the EAS, while minimizing reporting burdens on EAS Participants."

Commissioners dismissed an application for review filed by a low-power TV station challenging the Media Bureau’s dismissal of its displacement application, said an FCC order released Friday. WOCK-CD Chicago argued that its channel’s poor signal quality was the result of interference from WHBF-TV Rock Island, Illinois, but failed to provide sufficient evidence for that claim and earlier had filed a displacement application that didn’t blame WHBF, the order said. WOCK is on low-VHF spectrum, which often has reception problems, the order said. “The Commission has long recognized the reception difficulties for digital TV broadcasting in the low VHF band.” After the bureau rejected WOCK’s application, the station filed the application for review, also warning in a separate filing that it couldn't auction off the UHF channel WOCK sought to move to in the broadcast incentive auction without deciding on WOCK’s filing. WOCK’s displacement application was rightfully rejected because it didn’t satisfy the proper criteria for displacement, and its claim on the prospective channel was filed untimely and not part of the broadcaster’s original filing, the full commission ruled. In any case, “no station has a ‘right’ to a specific channel such that the Commission is precluded from reassigning or reallocating that channel in connection with the incentive auction,” the order said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai acknowledged the May 23 death of Video Division Chief Policy Counsel Dorann Bunkin at the close of Thursday’s FCC meeting. “She is an inspiration to many around this agency,” said Pai, noting Bunkin, who was also legal adviser to the Incentive Auction Task Force, won an award for her public service last year. "We say goodbye to an exemplary friend, exemplary co-worker, and a terrific wife and mother,” Pai said. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly praised Bunkin’s commitment to the FCC, and said her work highlighted the valuable contribution of “all of the people in the agency.”