The “vast majority” of broadcasters are “nowhere close” to exhausting their initial allocation of repacking reimbursement funds, according to their expense filings, said Incentive Auction Task Force Chief Jean Kiddoo at Tuesday’s America’s Public Television Stations’ Public Media Summit. The timing of the agency’s release of a second allocation will be based on how quickly the first portion of funds is drawn down, Kiddoo said. “So far, we don’t see stations maxing out." Kiddoo said the IATF monitors the status of reimbursements “daily.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s petition for an en banc rehearing of its appeal of FCC actions on multilingual emergency alert system rules (see 1801240030), said an order (Pacer link) Friday. The FCC gathers information on state efforts to provide multilingual EAS messages, but no such efforts are required. MMTC didn't comment Tuesday.
RALEIGH -- Capitol Broadcasting remains “on the fence” whether to use 4K or 1080p in the transition to ATSC 3.0, Pete Sockett, head of engineering and operations, told us Monday, repeating comments he made at May’s ATSC conference (see 1705160044). Sockett spoke at a demonstration that Capitol organized with partners, including NBCUniversal, NAB, LG, Samsung and the Korean government-funded Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), to showcase 3.0's capabilities. In addition to showing 3.0 as a carrier for Ultra HD video, the demo also previewed 3.0-capable advanced emergency alerting on an LG TV and showcased a prototype 3.0 home gateway for interactive content developed by NAB Pilot.
From ensuring localism to redefining media markets amid shifting industry dynamics, the FCC's eighth floor has a variety of media priorities, media aides to the five commissioners said at a FCBA panel Tuesday. Mike O'Rielly aide Brooke Ericson said with the 2018 quadrennial review of ownership rules this year (see 1801080059), her boss hopes for a redefinition of media markets that better reflects the market. Chairman Ajit Pai aide Alison Nemeth said he has been clear about his goals of either modernizing or eliminating regulations, especially given how media rules often have gone long without any review. Mignon Clyburn aide David Grossman said she continues to push her independent programming NPRM, though the issue hasn't moved since its 3-2 approval in 2016 (see 1609290036). She also remains focused on localism and diversity, he said. While the media market has changed, that doesn't necessarily translate into greater accessibility, since many over-the-top services are out of reach to some consumers due to broadband unavailability or finances, he added. Asked about the effect of publicly releasing items in advance of monthly meetings, Jessica Rosenworcel aide Kate Black said it gives more time for finding compromise on items. Aides said it also reduces the amount of guesswork in ex parte meetings on what's in items, making for more-focused meetings. Nemeth said along with front loading bureaus' work, leaving less time for last-minute tweaks, it resulted in people increasingly skipping meetings with bureaus and trying to set up meetings with the eighth floor, "a bad move." Commissioner Brendan Carr aide Evan Swarztrauber said parties shouldn't skip meeting offices they think will disagree with then, since eighth-floor offices want to hear an array of viewpoints. Asked about the broadcast TV repacking time frame and financing, Nemeth said Pai's office has no reason to think it will go beyond 39 months, but the $1.75 billion fund is likely insufficient. She and Ericson said neither commissioner is interested in revisiting the OTT-as-MVPD proceeding. Asked about last month's false missile alert in Hawaii, Ericson said O'Rielly was happy with how the emergency alert system worked in distribution, and problems came in the alert generation.
President Donald Trump’s administration again proposed to cut federal funding to CPB in its FY 2019 budget proposal, placing it among the 22 entities it’s aiming to zero out for federal funding in a bid to “bring Federal spending under control, and reduce deficits by $3.6 trillion over the budget window.” The administration also proposed Monday expanding FCC authority to do spectrum auctions and eliminating accrued interest on future deposits in the Rural Utilities Service borrowers’ cushion of credit accounts. The budget largely maintains the funding levels the FCC, FTC and NTIA proposed in the Trump administration’s FY 2018 request, all of which are down from the year’s funding levels under continuing appropriations (see 1705230041). The White House also released its infrastructure legislative proposal, which would streamline the permit review process for small cells and Wi-Fi deployments (see 1802120001).
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, led Tuesday's filing of the Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats (Alert) Act to address issues with the emergency alert system highlighted in the Jan. 13 false missile warning in Hawaii, as expected (see 1801160054 and 1802060055). Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo.; Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, joined Schatz in sponsoring the bill. It would give the federal government the sole authority to issue missile threat alerts and pre-empt state and local governments' role in issuing such warnings. The legislation also would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency National Advisory Council's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System subcommittee to “make recommendations on the best practices that state and local governments should follow to maintain the integrity of IPAWS,” which would at minimum “make recommendations regarding the incident management tools used to originate alerts, and the procedures for testing and sending notifications to the public to avoid false alarms.” The bill would require FEMA to establish minimum requirements for state and local governments to participate in IPAWS within 120 days of receiving the subcommittee’s recommendations.
Some residents along the East Coast received a false tsunami warning Tuesday morning, in the hours leading up to a hearing by the House Homeland Security Communications Subcommittee on last month’s false missile alert in Hawaii (see 1801160054). Effective and reliable alerts are vital to the public and wireless emergency alerts need to be improved, said Chairman Dan Donovan, R-N.Y. False alerts undermine confidence in them, he said.
A Tuesday House Homeland Security Communications Subcommittee hearing is likely to mirror a recent Senate Commerce Committee one in focus on the Jan. 13 false missile alert in Hawaii, but some witnesses are likely to contrast that incident with industry and other states’ best practices, communications sector officials and lobbyists said in interviews. The false warning already drew congressional scrutiny, particularly from Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and other members of the state’s delegation (see 1801160054, 1801170050, 1801240046 and 1801250061). A planned Feb. 16 House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the FCC budget is expected to partially focus on the Hawaii incident and other public safety communications issues (see 1802050025).
The FCC approved an order Tuesday 5-0 imposing a Nov. 30, 2019, deadline for carriers to more accurately “geo-target” wireless emergency alerts. The order requires participating wireless providers to deliver WEAs to the target area specified by the alert originator with no more than a one-tenth of a mile overshoot, the FCC said. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly expressed concerns about the deadline and whether it's achievable.
Hawaii’s false missile alert stemmed from lack of safeguards and human error, including a Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee who repeatedly confused drills and real alerts, said reports from the Public Safety Bureau at an FCC commissioners' meeting and later Tuesday from Bruce Oliveira, the retired brigadier general investigating for HI-EMA (see 1801250061). That staffer was fired and other employees were disciplined. Members of Congress told us they continue to be concerned, as are FCC members.