The American Television Alliance isn’t trying to stop ATSC 3.0, the pay-TV group said in a blog post Monday responding to recent criticisms from NAB (see 1612090031). “We have to take the Ronald Reagan approach in this case: ‘Trust but verify.’” ATVA “is working with the FCC to weigh all of the significant factors, because that’s exactly what Americans deserve,” ATVA said. The new standard could lead to fees for consumers for buying new equipment, and “ATSC 3.0 carriage could be leveraged by broadcasters to extract yet even more retrans fees that could be passed on to consumers,” the post said. “Those concerns and the others impacting access and consumer cost burdens should all give us pause,” ATVA said. “We welcome a conversation with the NAB and federal regulators to address the concerns for consumers.”

A reconsideration petition filed by Ion against FCC elimination of the UHF discount could give the upcoming Republican-controlled agency its first crack at media ownership rules, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast lawyer David Oxenford in a blog post Monday. Ion's petition was published in Monday's Federal Register, which makes comments due Dec. 27, replies Jan. 6. Though NAB filed a recon petition of media ownership rules, Ion's will complete its comment cycle sooner. Other companies have challenged the UHF discount rule change in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1611220074). Courts likely will defer to the FCC decision on recon first, Oxenford said. “These petitions for reconsideration will give a new post-inauguration Republican-led FCC the opportunity to revisit the ownership decisions made in the Democratic administration,” he said. “It is quite possible that changes in these decisions will be made without having to rely on courts to overturn or otherwise question the FCC’s decisions."

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a penalty of $25,000 apiece regarding California alleged radio pirates. The actions targeted Iglesia el Remanente Fraternidad Elim/Belarmino Lara for operating an unlicensed radio station in Arleta and Nelson Quintanilla in Panorama City, said notices of apparent liability (and here). “The Station Operators’ deliberate disregard of the Commission’s warning warrants a significant penalty," the NALs said. FCC officials repeatedly warned Lara and Quintanilla that the operations were unlicensed, the bureau said.

The expected nomination of Andrew Puzder to be labor secretary (see 1612080067) got more opposition from the communications field. The CEO of CKE Restaurants likely to be nominated by incoming President Donald Trump "is the same man who moved a family-oriented restaurant into hyper-sexualized marketing. He publicly and vehemently defended his explicit marketing as harmless fun and as what young guys want. This is a troubling move from a new Administration that has said it wants to ‘drain the swamp,’” said Parents Television Council President Tim Winter in a release Thursday. “For someone who is charged with overseeing the interests and concerns of our labor force, it’s disconcerting that we’d rely on someone so seemingly eager to hyper-sexualize women for his own corporate gain."

Performing rights organization Global Music Rights sued the Radio Music License Committee in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on claims RMLC is violating federal and state antitrust law by forming a “cartel” of commercial terrestrial radio stations to negotiate a blanket license with the PRO. The lawsuit was filed weeks after the RMLC sued GMR in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on claims GMR is seeking licensing rates that are about three times the fees paid to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music Inc. RMLC claimed ASCAP and BMI are now seeking higher rates from radio stations, citing the GMR rates as a new benchmark (see 1611210011). GMR said its lawsuit isn't a direct response to the RMLC's Philadelphia suit. RMLC-affiliated stations “represent more than 90% of the country’s terrestrial radio revenue,” and the group's members have “flexed their collective muscle to attempt to force GMR to submit to a mandatory licensing scheme and artificially depressed license fees,” GMR said in its complaint (in Pacer). RMLC “will not roll over in the face of the baseless, bullying lawsuit” by GMR, said Executive Director Bill Velez in a statement. GMR’s lawsuit “is an obvious ploy designed to pressure the RMLC in response” to RMLC's original complaint, he said. “GMR now tries to hide from reality: the fight between the RMLC and GMR stems from GMR’s attempt to impose monopoly pricing on the radio industry and the RMLC's opposition to that plan.” It's “in everyone’s interest in the music community that there is this kind of joint negotiation between associations representing music users and rights organizations representing copyright holders,” said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post. “As most radio stations don’t have individuals at their stations familiar with music licensing practices, it is difficult to imagine” every small station individually “negotiating with all of the songwriter representatives.”

Tessera's DTS agreed to buy All In Media, which supplies smartphone apps and broadcast systems for radio stations owned by Australian Broadcasting Corp., RTÉ Radio, Wireless Group and others. DTS said in a news release Thursday the firm also helps run visual radio services.

A failed incentive auction would be “more of a disappointment than a thesis changer” for broadcast stocks, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors Wednesday. Ryvicker defined an auction failure as a conclusion of Stage 9 of the incentive auction without the final stage rule ever being satisfied, meaning the money bid in the forward auction didn't ever rise to the price determined by the preceding reverse auction. Stage 4 is expected to start next week (see 1612050062). “We are still quite a ways away from this potential outcome,” said Ryvicker of any failure. One possible cause for concern is the fall in the money being offered in the forward auction, which Ryvicker suggested could indicate a major bidder may have ceased bidding. That lack of enthusiasm likely comes from the auction's proximity to the AWS-3 auction, and doesn't indicate a true drop in spectrum value, she said. “We think the political environment (and spec. the potential for media ownership relaxation) is more of a game changer than the auction ever was.” A failed auction would likely enhance the value of Dish Network's current spectrum by increasing scarcity, the analyst said; a peer also said similar (see 1612070016).

The FCC properly rejected Walker Broadcasting's petition to enter the incentive auction, said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in an opinion. The FCC issued a construction permit to Walker in 2009, but the broadcaster took no action on the permit until the incentive auction was announced in 2014 (see 1607220028). In May 2015, it submitted an interference study related to the permit five years late and petitioned to enter the auction. After the FCC denied both requests, Walker appealed the decision to the D.C. Circuit. The court said Walker had forfeited its permit and its right to participate in the auction. “The Commission reasonably found that granting the application six years after the deadline would be 'inappropriate and inconsistent with the Commission’s goals of prompt initiation of service and spectrum efficiency,'” Monday's opinion said.

E.W. Scripps expects the FCC to “advance” an ATSC 3.0 NPRM in Q1, “setting the stage for early investment and development” of ATSC 3.0 products and services “starting early next year,” Brian Lawlor, senior vice president-broadcast, told a UBS investor conference Tuesday. That Scripps thinks the FCC will issue its ATSC 3.0 NPRM not by year-end but in early 2017 is consistent with a recent forecast from NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny at the NAB Show New York (see 1611100032). Scripps “remains probably one of the biggest proponents of the opportunities associated with ATSC 3.0,” Lawlor said. “We believe this new standard provides the foundation of a modern consumer experience and also sets the stage for things like targeted advertising and several other new business opportunities.” Lawlor thinks the industry is “in the third or fourth inning” in the progress it’s making on ATSC 3.0, he said in Q&A. “It will be important to watch over the next year or so, sort of, how that continues to march towards its destination of full commercial deployment.”

The proposed transition to ATSC 3.0 isn't as voluntary as broadcasters claim, said the American Television Alliance in a meeting Wednesday with FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and his staff. The FCC's next step on ATSC 3.0 should be a notice of inquiry rather than NPRM, said ATVA, represented at the meeting by officials from AT&T, Charter Communications, Dish Network and the American Cable Association. Requiring MVPDs and customers to buy new equipment to receive ATSC 3.0 signals isn't voluntary, the ATVA said. The proposal would include negotiations over carrying ATSC 3.0 signals in retransmission consent negotiations, which MVPDs don't necessarily enter into on a voluntary basis, ATVA said. “Any station group with sufficient leverage to compel carriage of unwanted programming or to raise consumer prices by 40 percent per year possesses sufficient leverage to compel carriage of ATSC 3.0 signals as well.” An NOI would give the FCC time to study the proposal more in depth, the pay-TV group said in docket 16-142. “The Commission should want to understand whether the proposed transition would allow broadcasters to collect the benefits of the transition (e.g., new, monetizable services) while externalizing much of the associated costs to others.”