A proposed FCC draft order prohibiting joint negotiation in retransmission consent agreements by two top-four stations in a market is “an important first step in curbing broadcaster abuse and reforming the outdated retransmission consent regime,” American Cable Association, DirecTV and other multichannel video programming distributors said in a joint ex parte filing in docket 10-71 (http://bit.ly/1nnqM3w). The draft order began circulating Monday and is featured on the tentative agenda for the March 31 FCC meeting (CD March 11 p7). Such arrangements among separately owned broadcast stations “are starkly anticompetitive and harmful to consumers,” the MVPDs said. Broadcasters that coordinate their negotiations will pull two or more stations from an MVPD when their retrans consent demands aren’t met, “which increases the harm to consumers,” the MVPDs said. “Such harms take the form of increasing subscription rates and the loss of popular broadcast programming.” The filing recounts a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and her policy director, Clint Odom.

The attribution of joint sales agreements (JSAs) for ownership cap purposes, including those disclosed to the FCC and granted by the FCC, would be a serious disservice to the public interest, LIN Media said in an ex parte filing in dockets 10-71, 09-182 and 07-294 (http://bit.ly/1fA8G9t). It will “almost certainly result in less local news and other local programming in markets LIN serves,” it said. LIN acquired WJCL Savannah, Ga., in 2012, and entered into a JSA with WTGS Hardeeville, S.C., it said. LIN plans to make significant new investments in local programming for both stations, it said. If the commission attributes JSAs, “LIN will naturally have to reconsider its investment in the market,” it said.

Nexstar acquired Internet Broadcasting Systems for $20 million. The IB suite includes fully scalable digital solutions and a software-as-a-service-based digital publishing platform, Nexstar said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ihQIZH). The planned acquisition is expected to be complete this month and broadens Nexstar’s digital media portfolio with technologies that are complementary to the companies’ clients’ existing digital businesses and multi-screen strategies, it said.

A minority-owned TV station benefiting from a joint sales agreement (JSA) -- highlighted as an example of the benefits of JSAs by FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai (CD March 6 p6) -- is actually an example of “exactly the type of concentration of broadcast station control” that ownership rules were intended to prevent, said the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters in an FCC filing (http://tinyurl.com/n2yc5kt). As pointed out by Pai, Tougaloo college’s WLOO Vicksburg, Miss., is in a JSA with WDBD Jackson, but WDBD is itself in a sharing arrangement with a Raycom-owned NBC affiliate, WLBT Jackson, NABOB said. “Both WLOO and WDBD are operated out of the Raycom studio and listed by Raycom as ‘Raycom Television Stations,'” NABOB said. That “strongly suggests” Raycom has “significant” control over the stations, NABOB said. “We believe that the JSA under which WLOO is currently operated needs to be amended such that it provides a clear plan and timetable for Tougaloo College to operate the station without a JSA or [shared services agreement] operator,” NABOB said. “We do not believe that this current arrangement is one that should be used as the example for allowing continued operation of JSAs across the country.” Asked for comment on NABOB’s ex parte, a spokesman for Pai’s office said the commissioner “supports African American broadcasters and looks forward to visiting WLOO in the future to see all of the good work the station is doing.” Asked for comment on NABOB’s ex parte, a spokesman for Pai’s office said the commissioner “supports African American broadcasters and looks forward to visiting WLOO in the future to see all of the good work the station is doing.”

Berkshire Hathaway agreed with Graham Holdings to buy a wholly owned subsidiary of Graham that includes WPLG Miami, Berkshire shares held by Graham, and cash, in exchange for 1.6 million shares of Graham stock currently owned by Berkshire, said the media company in a news release Wednesday (http://tinyurl.com/lp9c95b). Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett said the deal would be mutually beneficial and “greatly reduce” Berkshire’s position in Graham. That company now owns cable systems, Web and other assets, after selling the Washington Post to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos.

Despite incursions made by music-streaming services iTunes, iHeartRadio, Pandora and Spotify, the streaming market is still in its “MySpace phase” and it’s “too early to declare a winner,” Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey said Wednesday during a panel discussion at the Piper Jaffray investor conference in New York. Traditional radio remains “wide open,” Dickey said, despite Pandora’s increasing its share of U.S. listening to 8.91 percent in February from 8.6 percent the previous month and 8.1 percent in October. Cumulus bought a stake in online music service Rdio last year and is planning to sell advertising for a free, ad-supported U.S. version of the service that’s expected to debut later this year, Dickey said. Rdio typically carries a $5-$10 monthly fee in 31 global markets. Cumulus is creating a custom playlist of its syndicated services for Rdio subscribers. While Dickey argued that the streaming music field remains open, it’s “undeniable” that Pandora’s increased market share is “coming from broadcasters,” Pandora Vice President Dominic Paschel said. While 81 percent of Pandora’s 75.3 million active listeners in February -- those that use the service for 15 or more minutes in a given month -- come from mobile devices, the music service is expanding its foothold in the automotive market, Paschel said. It had 4 million active users in motor vehicles in December, up from 1 million at the start of 2013, he said. Pandora is available in 135 models of motor vehicle, up from 100 in December, Peschel said. The automotive market remains the main place consumers listen to broadcast radio, industry analysts have said. “We are moving much more into the digital area, but terrestrial broadcasting is still a great delivery system and people are still listening to it,” said Alpha Broadcasting CEO Larry Wilson, whose company operates 49 radio stations. With broadcast radio having withstood Sirius XM, Dickey was confident the industry would withstand a challenge from Pandora and its rivals and remain a profitable business. “It’s all based on content what people are looking for and it’s back to the $6 million hour of broadcast television versus the $200,000 of production on cable. Listeners and consumers understand the difference and ultimately gravitate toward quality. You can’t substitute a playlist which is static and punctuated by commercial announcements with the full production of a radio station that engages and entertains people.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s plans to increase regulation of joint services agreements are inconsistent with the section of the 1996 Telecom Act that requires quadrennial review of ownership rules, said NAB General Counsel Jane Mago in a post on the association’s blog Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1fSkTHB). The section was adopted as part of a “deregulatory framework,” Mago said. “I find it very hard to understand how one could conclude that reaching back to a docket from 2004 to increase regulation of joint sales agreements (JSAs) without any consideration of the larger picture or change in the marketplace is consistent with the directive.” Mago also found fault with Wheeler’s reasoning that since parent companies claim sidecar companies’ profits in their SEC filings, the sidecar stations should be attributable. “Those filings respond to rules and goals established by the SEC for a very different purpose than FCC licensing. SEC filings are not a part of FCC precedent or law,” Mago said. FCC decisions on attribution should be based on “decision-making authority over programming, personnel and financing,” Mago said. “The FCC is not free to ignore precedent.” The FCC should look at local TV ownership rules “in light of current competitive conditions,” Mago said. “That cannot mean starting another never-ending quadrennial review while tightening restrictions on local broadcast stations alone."

A Free Press study criticizing TV joint sales agreements (CD March 11 p11) relies on “irrelevant facts, misleading or partial citations” and “outright false statements,” said Nexstar in an ex parte response to the FCC filed Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1iad6nz). “Nexstar and its relationship partners are far from absentee owners who operate to evade the commission’s rules for the sole purpose of maximizing profit at the expense of their stations’ local communities.” The study doesn’t provide “one single fact” supporting Free Press’s claims that sharing agreements are used to exercise “de facto control” over TV stations in markets where outright purchase of the stations wouldn’t be allowed by the FCC, Nexstar said. The broadcaster said it doesn’t enter into network affiliation agreements or syndication contracts on behalf of its affiliated company Mission Broadcasting. Nexstar also disputed Free Press contentions that because the SEC treats Nexstar as owning Mission, the FCC should as well. The two agencies are “examining different things,” Nexstar said. The broadcaster also took aim at a letter criticizing sharing arrangements submitted to the FCC by several multichannel video programming distributors, including DirecTV and Time Warner Cable. If the FCC bans joint negotiation in retransmission consent deals, Mission will have to hire its own staff for such negotiations, the cost of which will be passed on to MVPDs, Nexstar said.

The FCC ordered amateur radio operator Brian Ragan to pay $13,600 for operating a radio transmitter on 104.9 MHz in the San Francisco area without a license. He acknowledged he violated the Communications Act but asked for a lower fine because he had no malicious intent, the Enforcement Bureau said (http://bit.ly/1geMEIZ). Ragan had refused to allow FCC agents to inspect his station. “Under the applicable statute, the Commission need not demonstrate an intent to violate a rule to make a finding that a licensee engaged in willful misconduct,” the bureau said. “The proposed penalty is consistent with those assessed against other operators who engaged in unlicensed operations and failed to allow inspection by FCC agents. As a licensed amateur radio operator, Mr. Ragan is expected to comply with the Rules."

Maine Public Broadcasting Network will deploy a public safety broadcasting service based on Triveni Digital’s SkyScraper DTV content distribution system. MPBN plans to use the system to deliver real-time emergency alert system messages, Triveni said in a news release Monday. The messages will include audio and video originating from the Maine Emergency Management Agency headquarters to every broadcast operation center in Maine, “providing TV and radio stations with immediate information to relay to their viewers and listeners,” Triveni said. SkyScraper offers a highly scalable end-to-end environment “that supports point-to-multipoint digital media content distribution, with targeted point-to-point delivery,” it said.