Tightening the FCC’s local TV ownership rules would have “negative impacts” on small and rural television markets across the country, said Gray TV representatives in separate meetings Tuesday with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner Nathan Simington and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, according to three terse and similarly worded ex parte filings posted in docket 18-349 Thursday. One of Gray’s representatives in those meetings was former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, now an attorney with Cooley.
The FCC has “clear authority" to act and a “necessary role” in preventing patent licensing abuses in the ATSC 3.0 market, said ACT | the App Association in a meeting with staff from the Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel Monday. The record in docket 16-142 and experiences with other technical standards show that FCC action “is necessary to avoid the exploitation of fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing commitments voluntarily made by SEP [standard essential patent] holders." Without the FCC's reinforcement and assurances on how the agency views patent license requirements, “innovators seeking to enter the ATSC market will face lockout from competing, to the detriment of American consumers,” ACT said.
“The state of minority owned broadcasting continues to deteriorate as each day of FCC inaction and indifference passes,” said the International Black Broadcasters Association in a letter calling for the agency to authorize radio geotargeting. The lack of geotargeting is “harming all of radio, but it’s especially harming minority-owned broadcasters who tend to be smaller and struggle to raise capital,” the filing said. NAB and a number of larger broadcasters have said the geotargeted radio proposal pushed by GeoBroadcast Solutions -- the company that developed the technology-- would create interference problems. GBS and other proponents say their tests of the tech show otherwise. Other media such as cable “can and do geotarget precisely because it’s good for business and is critical to attracting capital in today’s fragmented media and information marketplace,” said the IBBA filing. “But radio can’t broadcast localized content to its audience because of a relic in FCC rules that effectively bars radio broadcasters from doing so,” the filing said. “What possibly could be the public interest rationale for maintaining this disparate treatment of radio?
The FCC should retain local ownership limits on FM radio, said multiple music licensing groups and low-power FM entity REC Networks in an ex parte meeting with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Monday, per an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-310. The meeting included representatives of the musicFIRST Coalition, the Future of Music Coalition, SoundExchange and the American Association of Independent Music. “The current numeric limits on local commercial FM radio station ownership remain necessary in the public interest to preserve and promote ownership diversity, viewpoint diversity including through music and lyrics as well as news and information,” the filing said.
It isn’t possible to eliminate the interference to electric vehicles from AM radio, said Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella in a blog post Monday. The techniques for shielding EVs from AM interference add weight to the cars, reduce their range and increase costs to consumers, said the blog post. According to an October Center for Automotive Research report, reducing interference would cost $3.8 billion over the next seven years. Mandating AM in vehicles is not required for public safety, not popular with consumers “and now we know: not cheap," said the post. "It is noteworthy that the impartial Congressional Budget Office estimates the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act would necessitate automakers spend a fraction of their estimate to ensure access to local AM radio stations in electric vehicles," emailed an NAB spokesperson. "We hope automakers follow Ford’s lead in reversing their decision to remove AM radio capability from their vehicles to ensure the 82 million Americans who listen to AM radio have access to this local, free service.”
Broadcasters that support geotargeted radio are confounded the FCC hasn’t approved the technology, said Roberts Radio CEO Steve Roberts in a letter to the agency posted Friday in docket 20-401. “What is the Commission waiting for? More of us to exit the market?” wrote Roberts. Consolidation is forcing smaller broadcasters out of the industry, and geotargeting technology would help them to compete by allowing hyperlocal advertising and information, he said. NAB and several larger radio groups have opposed proposed rule changes that would allow the use of GeoBroadcastSolutions’ geotargeting technology, and the docket for the proceeding has largely been quiet since 2022, until recently. Last week, representatives of the U.S. Black Chambers (USBC) and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council meeting with Commissioner Geoffrey Starks pushed for geotargeted radio. Several months ago, the USBC acquired the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, which had been a vocal proponent of geotargeted radio until November 2022, when it publicly withdrew its support (see 2210310070). Roberts is a founding member of NABOB. NABOB didn’t comment on whether the USBC letter means its stance on geotargeted radio has changed. “Time is running short for the Commission to make this change while it can still make a difference,” said the USBC ex parte filing.
America’s Public Television Stations President Patrick Butler will retire in 2024, APTS announced in a news release Wednesday. “It has been my great honor to advance the cause of America’s public television stations during a period of extraordinary challenge and opportunity,” Butler said in the release. Butler, who has headed the group since 2011, “will stay on through the selection of his successor but no later than the end of next year,” the release said. Federal and state funding for public broadcasting has reached record levels during Butler’s tenure and 40 of 50 state governments now fund public TV, the release said. Thirty-four states funded public TV before Butler took office. Under Butler, the former Association of Public Television Stations rebranded to its current name, the trade group reached record membership among public TV stations, and Congress enacted the Next Generation Warning System infrastructure program for public broadcasters, the association said. Prior to joining APTS, Butler was senior vice president of The Washington Post Company for 18 years, served as an aide to Senate Majority Leader and White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker, and was a speechwriter for President Gerald Ford.
Filings by the Media and Democracy Project petitioning against the renewal of the license of WTXF Philadelphia have become repetitious and the FCC should conclude the proceeding, said Fox in an ex parte letter Monday posted in docket 23-293. “The FCC has been generous in allowing MAD to continue making filings well after the close of the formal pleading cycle,” said Fox. “Now that these filings have become entirely repetitious, both the Commission and the viewing public would be well-served by conclusion of this proceeding.” Recent MAD requests for the FCC to include filings and evidence related to lawsuits against the Fox network by shareholders and voting machine companies run counter to FCC rules, Fox said. The FCC’s character policy for licensees does not override language in the Communications Act limiting the agency’s review of a station’s license renewal to consideration of conduct by that station, Fox said. Fox and retiring Chairman Rupert Murdoch's family “are attempting to deny the FCC readily available information essential to the FCC making a ‘character qualification’ determination -- in effect, trying to pull the wool over the Commission's eyes,” MAD said in an email. “My takeaway from this filing is that the Murdochs and Fox really do not want the FCC and MAD to see the documents they produced in the Shareholder, Dominion and Smartmatic court cases -- obviously relevant documents, already on digital disks and easily produced,” said MAD supporter Preston Padden, a former Fox and Disney executive.
The FCC’s order creating a gradual phase-in of audio description rules to additional markets over 10 years (see 2310170070) will take effect Nov. 27, said a Media Bureau public notice posted Friday in docket 11-93.
A proposed $25,000 forfeiture against a small radio broadcaster shows that stations need to recruit broadly and adhere to FCC equal employment opportunity rules, said Wiley broadcast attorney Kate Dickerson in an online post. The FCC enforcement bureau issued a notice of apparent liability earlier this month against Rocking M and Melia Media, two Kansas radio groups owned by Monte and Doris Miller. According to the NAL, the broadcaster late-filed EEO reports, didn’t recruit adequately for vacancies and failed to adequately document EEO recruitment efforts. The stations told the agency that their businesses were disrupted by COVID-19 and the departure of a CEO. “Relying on a licensee’s own private contacts, such as employee or client referrals, is not recruitment as contemplated under the Commission’s rules,” which require public outreach, the NAL said. “The lesson for broadcasters here is to use a variety of sources -- including online sources with a broad reach, such as Indeed, and more locally focused sources such as a college or university -- to advertise full-time job openings,” Dickerson wrote. A broadcaster should also “get in the habit of taking screenshots or retaining job-posting confirmation emails for each and every online source it utilizes,” said Dickerson. Broadcasters should also periodically review their recruitment sources, Dickerson said. “If the same sources are referring applicants over and over, the broadcaster should consider adding additional sources (preferably, local sources and sources targeted at relevant minority populations),” she wrote.