The FCC Enforcement Bureau requested additional time to review discovery for the hearing proceeding for broadcaster Arm & Rage (see 2206170063) due to a technical issue with some of the filings and the large amount of documents involved, said a filing posted Friday in docket 22-122. Arm & Rage doesn’t oppose the extension, the filing said. The EB wants the close of discovery moved from Jan. 18 to March 31. Arm & Rage's Joseph Armstrong, owner of WJBE (AM) Powell, Tennessee, was convicted of making a false statement on a 2008 tax form.
Searchlight II HMT filed a petition for declaratory ruling seeking permission for its parent company, Hemisphere Media Group, to be up to 100% foreign owned, said a public notice Wednesday. The request is connected with pending broadcast station transactions at the FCC involving Searchlight subsidiary Televicentro of Puerto Rico and Univision, that would lead to the stations being controlled by “certain Searchlight investment fund entities organized in the Cayman Islands that are ultimately controlled by foreign individuals.” Comments on the petition are due Feb. 3, replies Feb. 21.
The Advanced Television Systems Committee will demonstrate new set-top and USB ATSC 3.0 receivers and “upgrade accessory devices” at the Consumer Electronics Show, which runs Thursday to Sunday in Las Vegas, said an ATSC news release Tuesday. Broadcasters expect to launch 3.0 soon in Miami and Boston, the release said. ATSC 3.0 has been launched in 66 markets nationwide, the release said.
Gray Television has built three low-power TV stations to service the loss areas that would be created by its proposed channel substitution for WMC-TV Memphis, said supplemental comments from Gray posted Friday in docket 22-146. Gray wants to substitute Channel 30 for WMC’s current Channel 5. “As the predicted loss areas now are served by these three stations, Gray respectfully requests that the Bureau grant its Petition,” said the filing.
The Media Bureau’s approval of a channel substitution for KRTV(TV) Great Falls, Montana, took effect Thursday, said a notice in Thursday's Federal Register. KRTV moved from Channel 7 to Channel 22, the notice said.
Comments are due Jan. 13, replies Jan. 20, on commitments made by Standard General in the past couple of weeks regarding retransmission consent, local station staffing and coordination between Standard General/Tegna and Apollo Global/CMG Media, the Media Bureau said Friday.
Standard General pledged it won't make any journalism or newsroom staffing layoffs at Tegna stations for at least two years after consummation of the Tegna deal. Standard, in a docket 22-162 filing posted Friday, said it's reinforcing its commitment that the Tegna acquisition won't mean reducing local news or newsroom staff. It said its plans would mean more news content at Tegna stations and "actually increase the number of journalists and newsroom employees at the stations." Standard said it's willing to file regular status reports documenting investments made at Tegna stations and, after the two years, providing information about any Tegna newsroom layoffs. It also pledged Tegna will recognize each of the labor unions covered by a collective bargaining agreement with that company. Standard earlier this year told Tegna employees it's not planning newsroom cuts (see 2206170051).
Broadcasters hosting other broadcasters’ ATSC 1.0 multicasts doesn’t create any harms for cable companies, said NAB in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 16-142 (see 2210040070). NCTA has said the FCC should allow the practice -- called lateral hosting -- only through a waiver process and require notice and comment for each application. NAB has been pushing for the FCC to affirmatively authorize lateral hosting to speed the ATSC 3.0 transition. “NCTA plainly has no meaningful interest in this aspect of the proceeding,” NAB said. The FCC’s role “should not be to indulge the NCTA’s obviously anticompetitive concerns but, rather, to lay the groundwork for success by providing broadcasters with as much flexibility as possible,” NAB said.
The FCC Media Bureau granted an extension on comments on proposals to update foreign-sponsored content rules, said a public notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Comments are now due Jan. 9, replies Jan. 24, in docket 20-299. Comments had been due Dec. 19, replies Jan. 3 (see 2212070062). NAB and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council requested the extension, which was supported by a group of religious broadcasters. The groups “correctly note that ‘three significant Federal holidays’ occur during the comment cycle,” said the PN. “The Joint Filers have provided sufficient justification to warrant grant of their requested extension.”
The Rainbow/Push Coalition supports Standard General’s proposed buy of Tegna, said a letter to the FCC Monday from Rev. Jesse Jackson. Standard founder Soo Kim as a “Korean-American, is sensitive to the plight of racial justice, equity and inclusion,” said the letter posted Tuesday in docket 22-162. “The attack on Asian Americans, anti-semitism, and the attempt by leadership to turn back racial justice are foremost in his mind,” Jackson wrote. But a retransmission dispute between Dish Network and Cox Media Group -- which is owned by Standard/Tegna deal participant Apollo Global Management -- is evidence the acquisition will lead to retrans consent collusion, said the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and National Alliance of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians sectors in their Friday letter to the agency. Dish allegations that its retrans talks with Cox are delayed because Apollo sought to include stations owned by Standard and Tegna are evidence of coordinated pricing behavior, the unions said. “Such collusion could raise serious issues about violation of the Commission’s retransmission consent requirements and might even constitute a premature exercise of control of the TEGNA stations,” the unions said. Cox denied the allegations. Even if there is no violation, “this incident demonstrates precisely why the dubious structure of the proposed transactions is inherently contrary to the public interest,” said the unions. “The complexity of these interconnections cannot be effectively remediated through behavioral conditions.”