The potential investments in newspapers blocked by the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban are more important now that newspapers face the challenge of “fake news,” said the News Media Alliance in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 14-50 Tuesday. “Social media platforms have the global scale to attract the advertising dollars on which newspapers used to rely,” said NMA. “Without any prohibition on investment, newspapers would finally have a fair chance to achieve the scale necessary to compete in the digital space.” Without the ban, broadcasters could invest in newspapers and combine with them on digital ventures that would be attractive to advertisers, NMA said. The FCC should grant NAB’s petition for reconsideration of the 2014 quadrennial review of ownership rules, NMA said. “Real, reputable, and trusted news content is the true remedy to fake news.”

There’s “little reason” to maintain AM/FM subcaps, and the main studio rule should be eliminated or severely modified, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Tuesday in a speech at the Radio Ink Hispanic Radio Conference. O’Rielly also highlighted pirate radio enforcement (see 1703280074) The radio industry has “made a compelling case” that the subcap limits “no longer make any sense,” O’Rielly said. Even if larger AM station owners “exited, opting for FM stations" after the rule change, "it would only increase the chances for new entrants, like Hispanic radio and others, to serve diverse and niche populations,” he said. “Since minority ownership has been one of the biggest obstacles to modernizing our media ownership rules in the eyes of some, isn’t this potentially a good thing?” He said the FCC should look at “raising the overall ownership caps within a market.” The main studio rule is among several “archaic” rules faced by radio stations, and is no longer relevant now that all radio public file requirements have been moved online, he said. On the post-incentive auction repacking affecting radio stations, he said: “Collocation of radio and TV transmission facilities is a common situation, so as we get into the nuts and bolts of repacking, rest assured that I will keep your concerns in mind and work toward an outcome that minimizes the impact on TV and radio stations alike.” O’Rielly acknowledged in his remarks that the 2017 Hispanic Radio Conference has been called the most important ever held, a point his written remarks footnoted to a Radio Ink article on how the Trump administration’s immigration policies could adversely affect Hispanic radio advertisers and listeners. “In all fairness, I only have so much control within my own universe, so I hope you will forgive me for not commenting on other topics,” O’Rielly said of the matter.

The value of FM translators is “seriously diminished” by permitting amendments to the FM table of allotments that don’t account for translators, said Media One in a pair of filings in dockets 13-249 and 16-442 Monday. “This clearly conflicts with the ultimate goal of the AM Revitalization Program -- which is to ensure the viability of the AM service in the face of newer technologies in order to guarantee that AM broadcasters continue to serve the public interest,” Media One said. Broadcasters said last year the influx of new translators for AM stations could cause conflicts with full-power FMs (see 1611040051). Media One will face “financial hardship” if the translator for its WRNE (AM) Gulf Breeze, Florida, is bumped by broadcaster Northwest Florida Media, it said. “MediaOne has invested some $70,000” in the threatened translator, the filings said. “MediaOne understands that there is very little that can be done if someone ever wants to take away Media One's FM translator by petitioning to amend the FM Table of Allotments," the filing said. Northwest Florida Media didn’t comment.

The FCC should take “a hard look” at AM/FM subcaps as it considers NAB’s reconsideration petition of the 2014 quadrennial review and associated ownership rules, said Dick Broadcasting in a letter posted in docket 14-50 Friday. “Changes within terrestrial radio have mitigated the difference between FM and AM service originally justifying the subcaps,” the firm said. "In its ownership order retaining the subcaps, the Commission mischaracterized or ignored record evidence of the impact of such changes,” Dick Broadcasting said. It said the agency should “now reevaluate the AM/FM subcaps in light of the new media landscape.”

The full FCC approved a $45,000 settlement for a Detroit Class A station that repeatedly violated children’s TV requirements, said a consent decree in Friday's Daily Digest. WLPC-CD improperly reported “and/or failed to air” the required weekly total of three hours of kids' programming between 2008 and 2013. The station didn’t include numerous required documents in its public file. WLPC’s license will be renewed for two years, during which it must pay the $45,000 settlement, $10,000 of which is due within 30 days of the effective date of the decree.

“NextGen TV Hub” will be the name of an exhibit planned for next month’s NAB Show to showcase ATSC 3.0 “benefits and capabilities,” ATSC said in a Wednesday announcement. A highlight of the exhibit in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center will be beaming Ultra HD programming from KLSV-LD Las Vegas on Nevada's Black Mountain to an LG 4K TV with a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner, it said. ATSC is teaming with CTA and NAB to sponsor the exhibit, which also will have the support of LG, Pearl TV, Sinclair and others, the announcement said. The NAB Show exhibit floor opens April 24 for a four-day run.

NAB backed a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling Tuesday against FilmOn X streaming broadcast programming, in a case by Comcast's NBCUniversal, ABC, CBS, Fox and others (see 1703210023). "The court reached the correct conclusion as supported by NAB’s amicus brief,” a spokesman told us Wednesday. The big four networks are NAB members, he noted.

Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia sought FCC release of incentive auction information, citing transparency moves by Chairman Ajit Pai and a blog post by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly encouraging votes by members on substantive actions that staff might do on their own. FAB, which challenged some rules of the auction in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1611290048), also sought action on its Oct. 21, 2015, appeal of denial of its Freedom of Information Act request on repacking's impact on low-power TV stations. The LPTV company wants a vote on a channel reassignment public notice, release of TV channel reassignments and the Incentive Auction Task Force to list LPTV stations that will be affected by proposed reassignments. An IATF spokesman declined to comment Monday. "Channel assignment information has already been released in a haphazard form to individual stations," FAB said in a filing Friday in docket 12-268. "Just as the Commission waived the quiet period requirements for reverse auction participants to discuss openly their repacking plans or their payments, the Commission can decide to provide early public access to the listing of the new channel assignments."

Dish Network -- not its reseller OpticalTel -- is responsible for following Communications Act requirements on retransmission consent of WXCW Naples, Florida, the FCC Media Bureau said in a docket 14-258 order posted Monday dismissing WXCW's complaint against OpticalTel. The order follows an OpticalTel petition for reconsideration that was filed after a 2016 order that concluded OpticalTel had retransmitted WXCW's signal without retrans consent. That 2016 order "erroneously focused" on whether Dish provided OpticalTel with transport services and not the right to retransmit the WXCW signal when it should have focused on clear precedent that retrans consent obligations rest with the DBS operator not the reseller, the bureau said. The bureau also dismissed an objection by WXCW owner Sun Broadcasting and said language Sun cited in the Cable Act doesn't change the fact a DBS operator needs to get retrans consent where it allows a reseller to distribute its service. Sun counsel didn't comment Monday.

A group of religious broadcasters wants the FCC to act after waiting "a number of years" on allowing noncommercial educational (NCE) stations to fundraise on-air for other nonprofits, calling it "nonpartisan" since then-Chairman Julius Genachowski started the proceeding. National Religious Broadcasters said, based on concerns of public broadcasters "being put in an awkward position," the rule could apply only to NCEs that aren't CPB grantees. NRB Vice President-Government Relations Aaron Mercer, who reported Friday on lobbying earlier in the week aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, also noted his group sought to limit "the scope of third-party non-profits to 501(c)(3) organizations." Mercer disclosed in docket 12-106 a meeting with Pai Chief of Staff Matthew Berry, acting media adviser Alison Nemeth, and Nathan Leamer, recently hired as a policy aide to Pai (see 1703070019). In a recent meeting with Berry and Nemeth, NPR said rules restricting third-party fundraising by NCEs shouldn’t be relaxed (see 1703030063). The deregulation could encourage “the use of NCE broadcast stations as fundraising vehicles for independent third parties or other non-station interests rather than as sources of public interest programming,” the public radio programmer said.