Several telecom entities urged the FCC in comments on the process reform report to quickly take steps to eliminate unnecessary policies and streamline others to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. Comments were due Monday.

Broadcasters in the AM band and broadcasting engineers continued to push for an FM translator filing window, elimination of the so-called ratchet rule and a revision of the geographic limits on FM translators that rebroadcast AM station signals in reply comments on revitalizing the AM band. Some commenters suggested opening the FM translator window to AM and FM station licensees and engineers called for prompt adoption of technical proposals. Reply comments in docket 13-249 were due last week.

Foreigners could own more than 25 percent of U.S. broadcasters if the FCC grants a licensee’s petition for declaratory ruling, clarified a draft that circulated for a vote at the agency’s next meeting, said commission and industry officials in interviews Thursday, the day the item described as concise and straightforward circulated for the Nov. 14 meeting. The declaratory ruling would clarify what some in the industry and at the agency said they had considered a de facto ban on such ownership. The item said there’s not such a ban, said agency and industry officials.

A chain of truck stops can’t start a wireless TV service that would require waivers to operate in a band used by broadcasters, cable programmers and the federal government, said the FCC. The “entirely new use” of the cable-TV relay service band to run a multichannel video distribution system at Flying J truck stops throughout the U.S. shouldn’t be pursued by a waiver, said an order approved by commissioners and released Tuesday. It said such a change is “the province of a rulemaking.” Since 2006, when Clarity Media Systems first requested the waivers that were a year later denied by the Media Bureau, that company’s owner, Flying J, has filed for bankruptcy and in 2010 combined with another truck stop chain.

Concerns about putting broadcasters on equal footing with new and other media that lack a ban on foreign ownership above 25 percent were mentioned in replies to a broadcast coalition’s petition to the FCC. Cable networks, over-the-top video providers, Internet radio and “online access to a huge variety of news” were cited by the Coalition for Broadcast Investment (CBI) that made the petition. “Only broadcasters, among all these competing outlets, are subject to a rigid foreign-investment restriction,” said the coalition (http://bit.ly/18qTIee). “In this competitive environment, there is no basis in fact or law for any assertion that the public interest would be harmed merely by considering higher levels of indirect foreign investment in broadcasters on a case-by-case basis.” Initial comments had also said cybersecurity wasn’t a likely concern. “The Commission’s policy of safeguarding only the broadcast medium against potential foreign influence is obsolete,” said Alaska Broadcast Communications, Juneau Alaska Communications and Texarkana Radio Center Licenses (http://bit.ly/130N52z). “There is no logical national security rationale for distinguishing between broadcasting and other forms of communications media that are not subject to restrictions on foreign investment.” To the National Association of Broadcasters, “lessening this regulatory disparity would not only promote more robust competition in the communications marketplace, but also would allow broadcasters to invest more in their existing program services and ‘finance new offerings using digital technology,'” it said, citing initial comments by Adelante Media, a member of CBI. “This lack of opposition underscores the modest nature of the requested relief for a more flexible case-by-case review of foreign investment and ownership in broadcast properties,” said NAB (http://bit.ly/11YedNs). Whether commissioners vote on any foreign broadcast ownership rule change or not, allowing waivers would probably be done by a formal action to provide public notice of a new tack, said an FCC official and an industry lawyer. They said it’s unclear if any rule change would be adopted under Acting Chairman Mignon Clyburn, and it may wait until there’s a permanent FCC leader. Tom Wheeler is being nominated for that job by President Barack Obama. (See separate report in this issue). “I'm guessing it’s a little bit controversial,” even though all organizations supported CBI, said broadcast lawyer David Silverman of Davis Wright, who represented the Alaskan broadcasters in the proceeding. “Otherwise it would have happened by now” before last year’s petition was filed, he said. “The media landscape has changed sufficiently that it would seem to justify changing their policy in that regard.” With the Internet and cable programming not “subject to ownership restrictions, there really is no reason to enforce it so strictly in the broadcast context,” said Silverman. He’s “cautiously optimistic” the policy will change once there’s a permanent chairman.

All replies backed the FCC allowing waivers of foreign ownership caps of 25 percent on U.S. radio and TV stations. Several comments from broadcasters and their lawyers pointed to the agency’s order last month streamlining some policies for non-American ownership of some other types of licenses (CD April 19 p17). That commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel in approving that order mentioned the petition to allow waivers on which the replies commented is one reason to be optimistic that the request will be approved, a lawyer who backs the relief told us. That attorney, David Oxenford of Wilkinson Barker, said the agency can without engaging in a further rulemaking deem that ownership above 25 percent meets the public-interest threshold for such holdings in Section 310(b) of the Communications Act.

All companies and groups commenting backed a broadcast coalition’s clarification request (http://bit.ly/11eis79) (CD Feb 27 p14) for the FCC to allow on a case-by-case basis foreign investments in U.S. broadcasters exceeding 25 percent. Some individuals opposed the change. Many of the initial comments posted this week in docket 13-50 (http://bit.ly/10bzk2S) cited competition from new and other media not subject to the same rules. The commission hasn’t waived the 25 percent threshold for radio and TV-station ownership, though it has such procedures for telecom investments, said Nexstar (http://bit.ly/YQFt2C) and others. Cybersecurity and other concerns that may face wireless and wireline investments held by those outside the U.S. don’t apply to stations, said NAB (http://bit.ly/11nLv98).

In large part the order echoes what industry insiders said they were expecting (CD April 8 p6). It requires broadcasters, MVPDs, and “any other distributor of video programming for residential reception that delivers such programming directly to the home and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission” to put an aural description on a secondary audio stream of any emergency information that is available visually. There’s a two-year deadline for compliance with the new order, with a waiver for The Weather Channel and Direct TV, and commercial video equipment and display-only monitors don’t fall under the rules.

DirecTV and the Weather Channel would get more time to comply with coming FCC requirements for on-screen emergency information to be carried in a format where it can be aurally relayed to those with vision problems (CED March 29 p5), while some small cable operators could seek waivers, said agency and industry officials. They said Media Bureau staff recently proposed to other FCC officials making changes to a draft order due under statute to be issued by Tuesday.

DirecTV and the Weather Channel would get more time to comply with coming FCC requirements (CD March 29 p4) for on-screen emergency information to be carried in a format where it can be aurally relayed to those with vision problems, while some small cable operators could seek waivers, said agency and industry officials. They said Media Bureau staff recently proposed to other FCC officials making such changes to a draft order due under statute to be issued by Tuesday. Those changes address some of the concerns of DirecTV and the Weather Channel to give the DBS provider and the programmer a delay in making localized emergency information available on the secondary audio programming stream, or carrying that SAP information as video descriptions, said commission and industry officials. Those two companies and the American Cable Association had sought changes for passing along SAP to TV viewers to what’s in the Feb. 28 version of the draft order.