Complications for an FCC headquarters move are mounting. A lawsuit was filed Wednesday by the owner of its current building, and the General Services Administration ruled that its current location is considered to be on a floodplain. The commission has been seeking extra money from Congress for the move, which in part is needed because agency staff has shrunk (see 1602100058).
FCC-proposed changes to rules for third-party set-top boxes (see 1602180065) would have a negative impact on programmers, and on minority programmers in particular, MPAA President Chris Dodd and NCTA President Michael Powell said Tuesday at a briefing hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute. The FCC proposal would give third-party set-top manufacturers access to programming they haven’t paid for, devaluing the content industry, Dodd and Powell said. If tech companies want access to content, they should negotiate with programmers the way multichannel video programming distributors do, said Victor Cerda, president of network V-me.
Although the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected requested injunctions against the incentive auction by Class A and low-power TV broadcasters, those cases are proceeding on the merits and could still have an effect on the auction proceedings, according to court filings and interviews. Briefing in the cases filed by Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia (FAB), Mako Communications and Videohouse will be complete in May, with court decisions likely being issued during or just after the auction, attorneys have told us. Legal challenges against the FCC's treatment of LPTV would greatly complicate the auction if resolved in the broadcasters' favor, since the current repacking plan doesn't set aside room to protect LPTV, broadcast attorneys told us.
Schurz Communications paid its full $325,000 FCC indecency fine -- the maximum possible -- to lift an Enforcement Bureau hold on the Gray/Schurz transaction, Schurz’s attorney Jack Goodman told us Monday. The bureau “held up” the transaction even though approval of the deal “posed no risk” to the FCC's being able to recover its proposed forfeiture (see 1507010066), Goodman said. The Parent’s Television Council pointed to the proceeding against WDBJ Roanoke, Virginia, and broadcaster reaction to it during a news-media call Monday as evidence that indecency regulation can be effective.
The FCC voted to seek comment on expanding the scope of its video description requirements, with Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly approving in part and dissenting in part because they said the proposal exceeds the FCC's authority. As expected, the NPRM asks for comment on increasing both the number of hours of described video required (see 1603160057) and the number of pay-TV carriers and broadcasters required to provide the service. That's an overreach, since Congress authorized the FCC only to increase the number of required hours, the Republican commissioners said. "The law is what the law is," Pai said. "It simply doesn't allow the commission to have its cake and eat it too." FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler called the proposal "logical," and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said it furthers the goal of "universal opportunity and inclusiveness."
The FCC will require state emergency alert system organizations to document their multilingual EAS offerings, said an order approved Wednesday by a 4-1 vote, with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly dissenting in part. The order is a response to “The Katrina Petition,” a 2005 request for multilingual EAS offerings by the Independent Spanish Broadcasters Association, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the United Church of Christ. “We reaffirm our commitment to promoting the delivery of Emergency Alert System (EAS) alerts to as wide an audience as technically feasible, including to those who communicate in a language other than English or may have a limited understanding of the English language,” the order said.
Though Tuesday evening is the final deadline for broadcasters to enter their spectrum in the incentive auction and has been billed by the Incentive Auction Task Force and Chairman Tom Wheeler as the start of the auction for months, no actual bidding is likely to happen for more than a month, according to statements by Chairman Tom Wheeler and IATF officials. The window for broadcasters to tell the FCC what they'd like to happen to their spectrum in the auction -- called the initial commitment window -- opened Monday at 10 a.m. EDT, and will close Tuesday at 6 p.m. Broadcasters that don't make an initial commitment to sell all their spectrum or relocate to VHF by Tuesday's deadline will be repacked, the IATF has said. To give broadcasters a chance to test the sign-up process, the commission made it available for a preview period starting last week.
The federal government spends close to $1 billion a year on advertising, but very little of that is going to minority-owned broadcasters, said panelists at the FCC Office of Communications Business Opportunities roundtable Wednesday. “Our purpose is not to indict but to understand why federal government ad dollars are not more spread out,” said OCBO Director Thomas Reed.
Broadcasters need to be more aware of their vulnerability to hacking and cyberattacks, said panelists on an NAB webcast on cybersecurity. Broadcasters are considered “critical infrastructure” by the federal government because of their role as “first informers,” and have a responsibility to maintain their ability to transmit emergency alert system messages and information, said Kelly Williams, NAB senior director-engineering and technology policy. It's “vital” that broadcasters prevent attackers from taking over or shutting down “broadcast resources,” said David Simpson, chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau.
AM broadcasters, engineers, professional sports teams and associations don’t agree on whether the FCC should alter some protections that prevent Class B, C and D radio stations from interfering with the more powerful Class A stations, in comments filed in docket 13-249 in response to a Further NPRM and notice of inquiry on AM revitalization. Dual-band broadcasters also opposed an FCC proposal to require them to surrender one of their licenses, and NAB and the Society of Broadcast Engineers argued the proceedings should focus on reducing the growing interference from unlicensed devices rather than changing power levels in the AM band. It’s “discouraging” that the FCC “seems content to allow the ambient noise levels in the AM broadcast band” to continue to increase and accepts “the deteriorating RF environment as a given,” SBE said.