King Kong Broadcasting’s opposition to E.W. Scripps' channel substitution request in Las Vegas “contravenes KGNG’s secondary regulatory status” as a low-power television station (see 2107270065) and asks the FCC to “apply a hierarchy of protection of low power television stations depending on the relative value of programming,” replied Scripps in docket 21-221. “In neither the Petition, nor its Comments, nor its Reply Comments, did Scripps provide any engineering explanation whatsoever for why it is seeking to move KTNV-TV to Channel 26,” said King Kong this week. “Scripps must be unnecessarily targeting KGNG-LD as a means of removing a strong competitor -- especially for ethnic minority audiences and advertisers.”

CEO Chris Ripley criticized the market’s valuation of Sinclair and touted its planned direct-to-consumer sports offering, but said little about ATSC 3.0 progress, on a Q2 call Wednesday. When Sinclair's assets beyond stations and regional sports networks are considered, the stock should be worth double the current price, said Ripley. “It is becoming painfully obvious the market doesn’t understand Sinclair.” Shares closed 4.1% higher Wednesday at $29.43. The additional assets include a stake in gambling company Bally’s and Sinclair’s licensed spectrum, which Ripley valued at $1.7 billion based on the prices from the broadcast incentive auction. Sinclair’s DTC sports service is to launch in the first half of 2022 and gives the company the opportunity to create a “metaverse” around sports, Ripley said. Sinclair is well-positioned for the service because it owns a panoply of sports rights and its many channels give it access to a large potential subscriber base, he said. The rise of DTC sports offerings and consolidation among the RSNs have “just massive industrial logic,” Ripley said. Sinclair is pursuing financing for the project. It expects any “cannibalization” of MVPD subs from the DTC offering will be “low,” said the CEO. The service is expected to appeal to “a younger cohort,” he said. It would allow targeted advertising and other revenue opportunities around sports gambling, Ripley said. If 5% of RSN customers also subscribe to the app, that's 4.4 million households -- a "very achievable” number, he said. Sinclair launched 3.0 through July in 17 cities, including Baltimore, Grand Rapids and Little Rock, said the company. Total ad revenue for Q2 was $491 million, up 109% from a year earlier, due to the general recovery of the ad market from the pandemic and the resumption of professional sports, said Chief Financial Officer Lucy Rutishauser.

Comments are due Sept. 2, replies Sept. 17, on a petition by the ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox network affiliate groups for clarification of new sponsorship Identification rules for programming from foreign governments, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 20-299. The FCC’s reference to “traditional short-form advertising” has “caused confusion” among broadcasters, the petition said. The affiliate groups want clarification the rules “do not apply when a station ‘sells time to advertisers in the normal course of business,' in contrast to when it leases airtime on the station,” the PN said. Commenters should provide “objective criteria” on how to differentiate between those situations, the PN said. “Commenters are encouraged to articulate specific characteristics that might distinguish what they consider to be advertising from a lease of airtime."

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $4,500 forfeiture for Autaugaville Radio over late-filed renewal applications for WXKD(AM) Brantley, Alabama, and translator W292HL Troy, Alabama, but renewed their licenses, said a notice of apparent liability and order released Monday. The applications were due April 1 and filed June 18. Autaugaville didn’t provide an explanation to the bureau and didn’t comment to us.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau called for a status conference to decide discovery questions and “focus on what matters” in the hearing proceeding against broadcaster Auburn Network, said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-20. “Auburn’s attempts to turn the focus of this proceeding to the Bureau, Animal Farm, agency procedures, or, indeed, anything other than the facts and law central to this hearing are delaying the proceeding,” EB said. Auburn doesn’t oppose the motion for a status conference and called the request “yet another invective soaked broadside." Staff has objected to interrogatories by Auburn that it says are redundant or outside the scope of the case, while Auburn said the EB was flouting rules by saying it will wait for a ruling by Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin.

Gray Television completed its $925 million purchase of Quincy Media and related divestiture to Allen Media, Gray said Monday. DOJ signed off last week (see 2107280060), and the FCC Media Bureau OK'd the transaction Friday. Similar to a Scripps purchase also approved with little fanfare earlier this year, Gray/Quincy didn’t draw petitions to deny. The deal gets Gray into eight new markets and adds 12 stations. If Gray's purchase of Meredith's 17 TV stations is approved later in 2021 (see 2107150003), Gray will become the No. 2 U.S. TV broadcaster behind Nexstar.

Comcast's NBCUniversal Local will buy four full-power TV stations, one Class A and three low-powers in the Albuquerque market from Ramar Communications, NBCU announced Friday. This takes Ramar out of the TV business: “It will continue to operate 8 radio stations and several digital media products,” the release said. “We are pleased to expand on Ramar Communications’ work with the Latino community in the market and look forward to serving Albuquerque’s Spanish-speaking audiences with the launch of our own Telemundo local news operation,” said Valari Staab, NBCU Local president. The deal requires FCC and other federal approvals, NBCU said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau got 20,000 pages from Auburn Network but hasn’t turned over any discovery, said the broadcaster's opposition to a motion to quash. It's the latest salvo in discovery (see 2107210041) that has made up the bulk so far of the proceedings on the fitness of Auburn principal Michael Hubbard to hold an FCC license. Hubbard is serving a four-year prison sentence in Alabama on ethics charges for his time as speaker of the Alabama House, and his earliest possible release is in 2023, said the Alabama Department of Corrections. Auburn argued EB violated ex parte rules by discussing the case with Media Bureau staff and planning FCC litigation strategy. “The Enforcement Bureau has set itself up as the more equal party, exempt from the FCC’s rules,” Auburn said. “The Presiding Judge should order the Enforcement Bureau to respond to Auburn’s interrogatories completely, fully and without further delay.”

A Florida broadcaster asked a federal court to prevent the FCC from auctioning his FM construction permit in the ongoing Auction 109, arguing it owed him extra time to complete his construction permit in 2014 after it reinstated a previous definition of an eligible entity in 2016. “The plaintiff’s construction permit will be wrongfully auctioned off to a third party bidder,” said the complaint (docket 1:21-CV-02050) filed in U.S. District Court In Washington Thursday by William Johnson, managing member of Florida-based Urban One Broadcasting Network. The company doesn’t appear to be connected to Maryland-based broadcaster Urban One, but neither company nor Johnson responded to requests for comment. Johnson’s filing lists him as representing himself. The complaint repeatedly warns the auction will start imminently and is dated July 24, but Pacer records it as having been filed Thursday. Auction 109 started Tuesday (see 2106030078). Johnson argued his company qualifies as an eligible entity under the revenue-based eligible entity definition, and he should have had additional time to complete construction on an FM station in 2013. Instead, the agency ruled the permit expired in 2014, the complaint said. Johnson filed petitions for stay in 2016 and a petition for declaratory ruling in June, after the Supreme Court’s Prometheus reinstated the eligible entity definition. Auctioning his permit will do “irreparable injury,” the filing said. Johnson wants the court to issue an injunction against the auction, order the FCC to withdraw the permit from the auction, and to act on Johnson’s pending filings. The agency didn't comment.

The FCC Media Bureau OK'd Gray Television’s request to allot Channel 26 to Eagle River, Wisconsin, as the community's second local service, said an order on docket 21-157 Wednesday. The bureau is also seeking comment in docket 21-124 on KVVU Broadcasting’s request to switch KVVU-TV Henderson, Nevada, to Channel 24 from 9. Comment dates will be determined after Federal Register publication.