FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey requested a meeting with Sinclair about the company’s divestitures and plans to comply with the national ownership cap under the Tribune deal, said an ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 17-179. At the meeting Thursday, the parties discussed Sinclair’s divestiture plans and communications with DOJ, the filing said. Sinclair held a similar meeting with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s Chief of Staff Matthew Berry (see 1801090034). Sinclair is “evaluating divestitures, as well as Top-4 showings to be made in amendments to the applications consistent with the recent changes to the ownership rules” but DOJ review “may impact certain divestiture choices,” the filing said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai doesn’t plan to create new processes to review broadcast deals that involve financial and sharing agreements, he said in a Dec. 21 response to a September letter from House Commerce Democrats posted Wednesday. In the initial letter, Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette, D-Colo., asked Pai numerous questions about the Sinclair/Tribune deal (see 1709290063). Along with declining to change the way the bureau handles deals involving sharing, Pai repeated he wasn’t seeking to favor a particular company, and answered questions about the timing of FCC actions related to the merger and contact with Sinclair officials. Pai said One Media Executive Vice President-Strategic and Legal Affairs Jerald Fritz had used Pai's personal email address to send a letter about ATSC 3.0 chip development in India, but that email was then forwarded to Pai's work email address in order to include it in the record. Pai also said the FCC had been in communication with Sinclair about a pending enforcement matter -- the agency released a notice of apparent liability against Sinclair on Dec. 21 (see 1712210042), the same day as Pai’s response. Pai also left open the possibility the Media Bureau could request further information from Sinclair on the deal, and said he first learned of the proposed merger through news reports. Pai responded only briefly to numerous other letters from lawmakers on the Sinclair/Tribune deal, according to responses posted Wednesday. Pai sent the same letter to each lawmaker who wrote in about the deal, assuring all of them that their comments would go into the record but declining to discuss the matter. “While I am unable to discuss the merits of this particular proceeding, I can assure you that the Commission is conducting an open and transparent process as required by FCC rules and regulations,” Pai said in letters responding to questions about the proposed merger from Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “Our decision will be based on a careful analysis of the robust record that has been developed,” Pai said.

Sinclair Broadcast is evaluating amendments to its application to buy Tribune involving divestitures and “Top-4 showings,” the broadcaster said in a meeting Thursday with Chairman Ajit Pai’s Chief of Staff Matthew Berry, according to an ex parte filing in docket 17-179. In recent media ownership rule changes, the FCC said it will allow two top-four stations to be commonly owned in the same market on a case-by-case basis. DOJ review of the deal may affect divestiture choices, the filing said.

Channel Master plans the CES debut of its SMARTenna+, which it describes as the world’s first over-the-air smart, processor-enabled indoor TV antenna available to consumers. It uses “active-steering” technology from components manufacturer Ethertronics, and has built-in amplification and noise-filtering, so it automatically can find the “optimal antenna settings for the available channels, with the option for fine-tuning via a push-button control,” said Channel Master. That combination of features increases viewer “convenience and flexibility while maximizing the number of channels received across all VHF and UHF channels,” it said. The SMARTenna+ has a built-in tuner, which scans the available channels on the “initial plug-in of the antenna,” said Joe Bingochea, executive vice president-product development. It can receive from seven different positions, he said. “It will scan all those seven different positions, and will determine which one of those positions can receive the most channels.” The scan takes about two minutes, he said. Improved Channel Master algorithms reduced the scan time by more than 75 percent, he said.

The FCC NPRM on changes to the broadcast national ownership cap “underscores the uncertainty” about whether the agency has statutory authority to modify the cap (see 1712140054), said Prometheus Radio Project and Media Mobilizing Project in a filing (in Pacer) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday as part of a legal challenge of the order eliminating the UHF discount. The NPRM shows “a majority of the currently sitting Commissioners believe that the Commission cannot modify the national ownership cap,” the groups said. Statements from Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel show the FCC doesn’t “deserve Chevron deference for a position that does not have the support of a majority of the Commission,” the filing said.

The FCC order on reconsideration relaxing media ownership rules takes effect Feb. 7, the Federal Register will say Monday. Legal challenges are widely expected to follow the 3-2 order’s publication (see 1711160054). It eliminates and relaxes rules barring broadcast duopolies and cross-ownership. Comments on a related proposal to create an incubator for new entrants into the broadcast industry are due March 9, Monday's FR also will say.

The full FCC dismissed a second appeal of a decision denying Florida Community Radio a construction permit for a noncommercial educational radio station in Otter Creek, Florida, said an order Thursday. The application for review was denied for raising points that hadn’t been raised in the original proceeding. FCR’s original 2010 application was dismissed in favor of a mutually exclusive application filed by Citrus County Association for Retarded Citizens.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued warnings to six allegedly unlicensed broadcasters, according to notices of unlicensed operation in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The warnings were issued against alleged pirate radio operations in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

LG is the first TV maker to complete “initial field tests” of the Verance Aspect audio watermark for ATSC 3.0, said Verance in a Wednesday announcement. The tests were conducted using the current 1.0 standard in collaboration with Fox and NBC in the Phoenix market, Verance said. That's where broadcast consortium Pearl TV announced plans mid-November for a 3.0 “model market” involving 10 TV stations to “help foster industry consensus and drive ecosystem development” (see 1711140053).

Sinclair may not meet character qualifications to be a licensee and its proposed buy of Tribune should be designated for a hearing before an administrative law judge, said Herndon-Reston Indivisible in a Dec.18 meeting with Office of General Counsel staff, according to a Dec. 27 ex parte filing in docket 17-179, noted in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The recent $13 million notice of apparent liability and a 2016 $9.5 million consent decree (see 1712210042) constitute “a pattern of lawlessness,” the filing said. Such a hearing is supported by prior FCC precedent, HRI said. Sinclair/Tribune is “unprecedented” and “inimical to the public interest,“ HRI said. Sinclair didn't comment.