Monty Tayloe

Industry trade groups said 21st Century Communications Video Accessibility Act rules are sufficient, but consumer groups want the FCC to examine and strengthen accessibility requirements for the online and streaming media due to problems that rose in use during the pandemic, per comments posted Tuesday in docket 21-140. “Acknowledge the wide range of Internet-Protocol-based multimodal communications services,” said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and other groups for the hearing-impaired. They asked the FCC to complete rollout of real-time text, update TV closed captioning rules, “vigorously enforce” rules, migrate the Disability Rights Office to a new Office of Civil Rights, and seek more authority on accessibility from Congress. NAB, NCTA and CTA said the rules are sufficient. “There is no need for the Commission to update its rules implementing the CVAA,” said NCTA. “No additional obligations are necessary or appropriate” now, said NAB. “Leverage” the emergency broadband benefit and emergency connectivity fund to increase connectivity to the disabled, CTIA said. “Evaluate the accessibility of emergency information, government press conferences, and other critical sources of public information presented through television,” urged the American Foundation for the Blind. ACA Connects said the FCC “bizarrely” never made rule changes from 2016 on programmer closed captioning certifications effective: “It is well past time for the Commission to address this by publishing with dispatch the requisite Federal Register notice.”

FCC inaction on an NAB petition for clarification of ATSC 3.0 rules is making the transition to the new standard more difficult, broadcasters said. The petition was filed in November and has been a focus of NAB lobbying in recent months and was again Friday (see 2011100067).

Emergency alerting officials and broadcasters see more information-rich alerts and increased geotargeting as the biggest needs for improving alerting, looking to ATSC 3.0 as a solution, said speakers at the Advance Warning and Response Network’s virtual summit Tuesday. More authorities are including links and additional information in their alerts, and that’s information that can’t be “effectively delivered” using the current emergency alert system, said Wade Witmer, deputy director of the Federal Emergency Management Association's Integrated Public Alert Warning System. Last year, there was an almost 200% increase in use of wireless emergency alerts compared with 2019, and a 135% increase in EAS use, Witmer said.

The FCC proceeding on its Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act isn’t considered likely to lead to rule changes, but increased enforcement and warnings to licensees could be in the cards, said broadcast and cable attorneys. The FCC acted quickly to begin an examination after the act’s originator, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., criticized lack of enforcement. The agency has authority to enforce the rule, Rosenworcel told reporters Thursday. Comments on the rules are due June 3 (see 2105070058).

Using streaming services to disseminate emergency messages mightn't be feasible, isn’t necessary and is outside FCC jurisdiction, industry trade groups and companies commented on a notice of inquiry. The “broadcast-centric” emergency alert system architecture is “not readily transferable to the varied and location-agnostic nature of internet-connected devices and streaming services,” said CTA. “At best, implementing such a requirement would be extremely cumbersome, and invoke a long list of unknown consequences related to complexity, user privacy and cost,” said NAB.

Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said she’s an optimist but also “clear-eyed” about the challenge in stopping robocalls. Commissioners vote next week on rule changes to accelerate the secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) (see 2104290082). The problem of cheap, easily deployed robocall tech won’t be fixed without collaboration among the FCC, state attorneys general and other agencies, Rosenworcel told a National Association of Attorneys General 2021 virtual conference Tuesday. She called on state officials to reach out the FCC. “Collectively, we should be able to make a difference,” she said. Acting FTC Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said older rules -- such as the do-not-call list -- no longer prevent robocalls because the primary actors aren’t legitimate businesses. The FTC, FCC and other federal agencies have been “laggard and lacking” in enforcing their rules, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in recorded remarks. If laws aren’t enforced, they're a dead letter, he said. Following the Supreme Court invalidating the FTC’s ability to seek monetary redress for consumers (see 2105040057), the FTC will have to partner with state AGs more frequently, Slaughter said. “They have access to redress authority we no longer have.” The FTC will plead rule violations more frequently to get access to civil penalties, Slaughter said. Separately, Rosenworcel said the FCC will seek information from state and local officials as part of its broadband mapping efforts. The agency has “a lot of lawyers” spending time on making the information gathered in that mapping effort as public as possible in the face of nondisclosure agreements, she said. Rosenworcel praised the New York AG’s office for its report on fraudulent net neutrality comments filed at the FCC under her predecessor, former Chairman Ajit Pai. Government agencies should care about fake public comments and keeping lines of communication to citizens open, Rosenworcel said. See our article on the AG's report here.

The FCC should immediately reject last week’s complaint from the Maryland Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City calling for an investigation into the news content of Sinclair's WBFF Baltimore, said Commissioner Brendan Carr Monday. “The FCC should make clear that it will not operate” as the Democratic National Committee’s “speech police,” said Carr. The complaint by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney Communications Director Zy Richardson calls on the FCC to investigate WBFF over its coverage of State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, which Richardson said could incite racist violence: “They have become a megaphone that amplifies, encourages, and provides fodder for racists, throughout the city and beyond, to continue sending hate mail and death threats.” While WBFF understands "it’s not always popular with the individuals and institutions upon which we are shining a light, we stand by our reporting,” said General Manager Billy Robbins in a statement. Carr said it's “particularly troubling that a public official would work to silence reporters that are investigating her work at a time when federal prosecutors have already opened a criminal investigation into her activities.” He linked the complaint letter to other recent attempts by Democratic officials to lobby the FCC to take action against media outlets (see 2104200077). An FCC official told us that a week would be an unusually accelerated turnaround time for the agency to respond to a complaint of this nature. The agency has historically not acted on complaints about broadcaster content outside of indecency rules. “The Commission carefully reviews all communications sent to the agency, from formal filings to informal consumer complaints,” emailed a spokesperson. “We’re reviewing the Baltimore State Attorney General’s recent letter. The acting Chairwoman is clear about her support of the First Amendment and believes freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy.”

Broadcast advertising improved and station owners see opportunities in sports betting and ATSC 3.0 but little chance of relaxed ownership rules anytime soon, they said in Q1 calls last week. “What a difference 10 weeks makes,” said Cumulus CEO Mary Berner of the COVID-19 recovery. “We are optimistic for gradual, but continued progress throughout the balance of the year as macroeconomic conditions progress, said Entravision CEO Walter Ulloa.

Tegna shareholders vote Friday on whether three candidates pushed by shareholder Standard General should be added to the board, resolving a proxy fight that included allegations of discrimination, poor management and hidden motives. Standard released a heavily redacted report last week chronicling what it says is widespread discrimination, while the broadcaster’s current leadership says the investor treats diversity, equity and inclusion as weapons. “Sadly, Standard General continues to exploit these crucial issues,” said a Tegna spokesperson. “Not once before launching this proxy fight did Standard General seek constructive engagement with us.” Tegna suffers from “poor governance,” said Standard investment analyst Amit Thakrar in an interview.

Gray Television agreed to buy Meredith’s 17 TV stations for $2.7 billion, they announced (see here and here) Monday. This includes one overlapping market where Gray plans to divest a station, it won’t put Gray over national ownership limits, and it isn’t expected to hit regulatory snags, broadcast attorneys and analysts said in interviews. Expected to be completed in Q4, the deal would make Gray No. 2 broadcaster by revenue. It would give Gray access to larger markets and leaves room for more acquisitions, making the company a “super-broadcaster,” said Noble Capital Markets' Michael Kupinski.