Joint sales agreements and shared services agreements between Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting have created economies of scale and cost savings “which have enabled Mission’s stations to air an additional 170 hours per week of locally produced news,” Nexstar said in an ex parte filing in docket 10-71 (http://bit.ly/1q2qX34). Some Mission stations wouldn’t broadcast news absent the JSA and SSA relationships, it said. The many hours of broadcasting local sports programming wouldn’t be possible with these relationships, it said. The companies asked the FCC to defer any action relative to JSAs “until a decision on the Comcast/Time Warner [Cable] merger has been reached and its impact fully assessed,” they said. The filing recounted a meeting with Mission and Nexstar executives and FCC staff from all the commissioners’ offices and Media Bureau staff. Attributing JSAs will make it harder for LIN’s WJCL Savannah, Ga., to continue working with WGTS Hardeeville, S.C., wrote WJCL General Manager Les Vann to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. The letter is part of an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1fFwEef). “Proposals regarding shared services agreements could go further and could cause even more harm,” wrote Vann. The FCC seems poised to consider an order that would make it harder for TV stations to enter into JSAs (CD Feb 25 p1).

The FCC shouldn’t make broadcaster sharing arrangements attributable, said state broadcasting associations from Colorado, Missouri, Kansas, New Jersey and South Carolina in meetings with commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel and their staffs last week, according to numerous ex parte filings. “Given the competition faced from other forms of media, there is often insufficient revenue to support the local programming each station seeks to provide,” said the Missouri Broadcasting Association. “The efficiencies afforded by JSAs and sharing arrangements make that local public service possible.” Rather than having a “bright line rule” making such arrangements attributable, the FCC should “look at ownership holistically, and not just one or two individual pieces of regulation,” said the South Carolina Broadcasting Association. The state broadcasting associations also weighed in on the FCC’s stalled draft Critical Information Needs studies. The Wisconsin Broadcasting Association commended Pai’s “leadership role” in highlighting “the very serious constitutional Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech issues raised by the study,” said the WBA filing. Several broadcasting associations said they would file a letter asking the commission to “eliminate the study in its entirety.” The broadcasters also expressed support for the commission’s AM revitalization efforts, including a proposed window for new FM translators reserved for the rebroadcast of AM stations, and the elimination of the ratchet rule.

Gannett and affiliated company Sander Media completed the sale of KMOV St. Louis to Meredith Corp., Gannett said in a release (http://tinyurl.com/l8jjtmm). The divestiture was required by the FCC and Department of Justice as a condition for the approval of Gannett’s purchase of Belo (CD Dec 17 p6).

The American Cable Association, Charter Communications, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable made false statements about Gannett in their filings against broadcaster sharing arrangements, Gannett said in an ex parte filing Friday (http://tinyurl.com/kbfgyve). The statements concern retransmission consent negotiations for Belo stations in Phoenix and Tucson and “demonstrate that the [multichannel video program distributors] MVPDs’ assertions in pursuit of their policy objectives should not be taken at face value,” said the Gannett filing. The sharing arrangement in Phoenix “does not provide for any Gannett involvement in retransmission consent negotiations,” Gannett said. Though the agreements for the Tucson stations allow Gannett to act as an “agent” in retrans negotiations, they don’t give Gannett “control” over the proceedings, Gannett said. “The MVPDs’ allegations about Gannett’s purported control over third-party stations and their retransmission consent negotiations in the Phoenix and Tucson markets are utterly false,” Gannett said. “The misstatements betray the MVPDs’ lack of attention to (or intentional mischaracterization of) the facts about which they make claims, which the Commission should take into consideration in evaluating the overall credibility of the MVPDs’ contentions,” Gannett said.

If joint sales agreements (JSAs) and shared service agreements (SSAs) are the most likely way to encourage minority ownership of full-power TV, the FCC should handle such deals on a case-by-case basis in a manner to encourage minority ownership, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters told FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in a meeting Wednesday, said an ex parte filing Friday (http://bit.ly/1jG5oS8). The reversal of NABOB’s long-held opposition to such arrangements is caused by “an unfortunate fact,” said the filing -- two of the three full-power TV stations in the nation licensed to African American owners are operating under JSAs and SSAs. “There is no reason to think that the number of African-American owned TV stations is going to increase in the near future without some serious rethinking of the commission’s policies,” NABOB said. To promote diversity of ownership, instead of making JSAs attributable across the board as Chairman Tom Wheeler office is reportedly considering, the commission should review such arrangements on a case-by-case basis, NABOB said. Conditions could be placed on JSAs that would enable licensees to eventually take over the station and operate it without sharing services with a larger company. The conditions could include requirements for progress reports that should show increasing responsibility for the station being transferred to the licensee, and require the JSA to be terminated within five years, NABOB said. “This proposal would not have to replace the Commission’s plan to treat JSAs and SSAs as attributable, but would work to obtain a waiver of the attribution rule for the JSA or SSA operator,” NABOB said. Under the NABOB proposal, existing sharing arrangements that aren’t amended to accommodate the turnover of operations would fall under the attribution rules, and future JSAs and SSAs without provisions for the structured turnover could be denied, NABOB said. The commission could include the NABOB proposal in any public comments on proposed changes to the JSA rules, NABOB said.

Schurz Communications urged the FCC not to change its policies on joint sales agreements (JSAs) and shared services agreements. Cable complaints about joint negotiation of retransmission consent agreements are unjustified, it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1ht05EI). “The proposal to prohibit only broadcasters from entering into joint sales agreements with another local station would result in asymmetrical regulation,” it said. If the FCC requires such arrangements to be dismantled, “there would be substantial, and perhaps devastating, breakup costs incurred by both parties,” it said. “The station now receiving services would have to create infrastructure and obtain services elsewhere that it needs to operate,” it said. Schurz, Entravision and NAB met this week with staff from the offices of Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai, Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, it said. They also met with Media Bureau staff. Meanwhile, Sinclair urged the FCC to evaluate JSAs within the larger context of the statutorily required 2014 quadrennial review, it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1hsCyDZ). The commission’s failure to analyze recent increases in competition in both the video and advertising sales markets “makes any piecemeal rulemaking arbitrary and capricious,” it said. Sinclair again said it’s concerned about the consequences of attributing JSAs for ownership cap purposes “without permanent grandfathering for existing JSAs and those currently awaiting FCC approval as part of pending assignment and transfer applications, because there is no evidence that selling a station’s advertising spots influences the programming decision of that station,” it said. Complaints from multichannel video programming distributors claiming that broadcasters enjoy undue leverage in retransmission consent negotiations as part of JSAs also have no basis in fact, it said. Broadcasters remain “at a tremendous disadvantage in compensation negotiations,” it said. Although almost 40 percent of TV viewing is of broadcast signals, broadcasters received only 9.5 percent of basic cable fees in 2013, it said. The filing recounts a meeting with staff from the offices of commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai.

A coalition of independent broadcasters from 170 stations launched Voices for TV Choices, a new advocacy group for “independent ownership in media, rich and diverse programming for viewers, and local content for communities” Thursday, said a news release (http://bit.ly/1cXiJDM). Members include the Ion Network, Trinity Broadcasting, OTA Broadcasting and the National Black Religious Broadcasters, said the group’s website. “Together, these stations offer more than 330 additional multicast channels -- all free to consumers with a digital antenna -- and the broadcast stations are provided at no charge to cable systems,” it said. With Congress considering an extension of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) and a review of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the new group “will provide a strong, united voice in support of policies that preserve competition, choice and localism in programming,” said the group. “As the barrier to entry for cable carriage has become almost insurmountable for small, niche players, independent broadcast stations like ours provide an avenue for programmers to offer and communities to receive targeted, localized programming,” said Bill Tolpegin, CEO of OTA Broadcasting, in the release.

Aereo’s system for streaming broadcast TV is “manipulative technological exploitation,” said The Media Institute in an amicus brief filed Thursday in Aereo’s case at the U.S. Supreme Court (http://xrl.us/bqoacj). Aereo’s system of small individual antennas “violates broadcasters’ rights under copyright law and is merely a blatant attempt to avoid paying licensing fees,” said TMI in a news release. Aereo poses “a massive threat to the settled economic and legal arrangements that undergird the broadcast industry,” and the high court should overturn the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision in Aereo’s favor, TMI said.

If the FCC attributes Joint Sales Agreements, the commission should grandfather in all existing such agreements, the Nevada Broadcaster’s Association said in an ex parte filing Wednesday. “Forced termination” of JSAs would “substantially” increase costs for affected stations and undercut their ability to compete, “leading to reduced programming and diversity, and potentially to total loss of broadcast service from those stations,” NBA said. Attributing JSAs would “effectively ban them outright in most markets despite their public benefits,” NBA said. The FCC should “utilize a triage approach” to evaluating ways to revitalize AM radio, NBA said. The commission should “act as soon as viable options are identified, rather than delay until all of the numerous options have been assessed in order to release a single Report and Order addressing all proposals,” NBA said.

Sinclair Broadcast Group called Buckeye Cablevision’s complaint against it “frivolous.” A letter from Buckeye supplementing the complaint seeks to “short-circuit the well-established process for resolving retransmission consent disputes, and seeks expedited treatment of its complaint,” Sinclair said in a response (http://bit.ly/1k7p83U). Buckeye alleged that Sinclair failed to negotiate in good faith a retransmission consent agreement with Buckeye (CD Feb 21 p20). The supplement letter asked the FCC to take enforcement action against Sinclair (http://bit.ly/1c5NMPV). The companies haven’t been able to reach agreement, resulting in a blackout of programming from WNWO-TV, Toledo, since last week. The FCC has made clear that multichannel video programming distributors and broadcasters alike “will not be required to engage in an unending procession of extended retransmission consent negotiations,” Sinclair said. “When Buckeye failed to respond, it was not bad faith for SBG to advise the public that the parties are so far apart that negotiations had ended and that the station involved will not be carried for the foreseeable future.”