NAB, E.W. Scripps and Tegna asked the FCC to clarify how FCC licensing rules affect TV stations multicasting during the ATSC 3.0 transition, in replies for Monday night’s deadline in docket 16-142. “The clarification and rule changes NAB seeks in this proceeding are ministerial in nature and intended only to ensure that the Commission has a consistent regulatory framework,” said NAB. Recognizing or codifying rules around broadcasters hosting programming streams for other stations is needed to clarify the arrangements don’t create attributable interests for ownership purposes, and that the stream’s originator is responsible for ensuring it complies with FCC considerations such as kidvid and emergency broadcast rules, Tegna said. The clarification would “provide regulatory certainty and efficiencies that would facilitate the deployment of ATSC 3.0 technologies,” said Scripps.

Exempt noncommercial educational stations from new disclosure rules for foreign-sponsored content, Minnesota Public Radio and REC Networks asked in FCC replies in docket 20-299 by Monday night’s deadline (see 2012170075). The rules could require NCE stations to air such identification while broadcasting content bought by the broadcaster from the BBC, MPR said. "A standardized disclosure would be required whenever a foreign governmental entity furnishes program material to a station at nominal cost as an inducement to broadcast such material,” MPR said. “The NPRM does not define ‘nominal cost.’” NCEs aren’t allowed to sell content on their stations anyway, so additional ID isn’t necessary, REC said. That’s not the case for commercial stations, REC said. “We do feel though that for purchased airtime by a foreign government entity, that the specific disclosure that a program is originating from a ‘foreign government’ should be necessary." The FCC's proposals "would duplicate existing laws and rules and sweep in a much broader swath of content than the intended target of foreign propaganda,” said NAB: Rely on Foreign Agents Registration Act rules. If the FCC adopts new rules, they should be “narrowly tailored,” it asked. NCTA made similar points: “Avoid duplication with the disclosures already required” by FARA “and ensure that the rules are reasonable.”

Alpha Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the radio broadcaster announced Sunday. “Balance sheet restructuring will provide greater financial resources and flexibility,” said CEO Bob Proffitt in a release. The company “experienced significant headwinds beginning in the first quarter of 2020 due to macroeconomic factors brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote Chief Financial Officer John Grossi in U.S Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The filing shows outstanding debt and obligations of $267 million. Alpha Media “will continue operating its stations without interruption” and continue day-to-day operations, the release said. Some Alpha lenders “agreed to provide new capital in the form of committed debtor-in-possession and exit financing” and will own 100% of the equity of the reorganized company, subject to FCC OK, the release said. “The Company expects to conclude the restructuring process in the first half of 2021.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau agreed to a $10,000 settlement with The Athenian Multicultural Study Club, low-power FM licensee of WPLP-LP Athens, Georgia, for airing commercials, said an order in Thursday’s Daily Digest. After a complaint was filed with FCC, Athenian said it had aired nine “announcements with prohibited promotional references” on behalf of “for-profit” entities in exchange for pay. Athenian has to institute a compliance plan and send compliance reports to the agency for five years. Athenian didn't comment.

The FCC approved 3-2 rules for broadcaster distributed transmission systems -- also called single frequency networks -- said an order Tuesday. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented in part from the order that's seen as important to the ATSC 3.0 transition over concerns that rules allowing broadcaster “spillover” will interfere with the use of TV white spaces for unlicensed devices. This “threatens to disrupt” a “careful balance” over the white spaces by “moving too quickly,” Starks said. The order replaces the current restriction on DTS signals spilling beyond a station’s service area beyond “a minimal amount” with a hard number dependent on the type of station. The new “bright-line rule” allows for more spillover and clarifies the requirement. That’s a change from the NPRM, which the order said “failed to account for the additive effect of multiple DTS transmissions and thus underestimated the potential interference impact of the proposal.” Starks and Rosenworcel had advocated for an expedited waiver process for broadcasters that sought to use DTS systems, an approach also pushed by Microsoft and New America's Open Technology Institute. “I would have preferred a more fine-tuned approach that would have allowed us to better gauge the effects of these systems on other services that use these airwaves,” said Rosenworcel. The agency is “confident” the order will result in less interference than the proposal. The order won't let stations expand their reach beyond current limits, said Chairman Ajit Pai, whose last full day was Tuesday. "Any DTS transmitters must stay within the broadcaster’s authorized or hypothetical maximum area and must be necessary to ensure better local transmission -- not intended to extend coverage beyond the authorized area." The order “will permit stations to reliably reach viewers that could not otherwise be served by a single transmitter architecture, which is so important in rural and remote areas, in terrains with gaps in coverage, and in urban settings, often in communities with traditionally underserved populations,” said America’s Public Television Stations General Counsel Lonna Thompson in an emailed statement. “We're pleased that the Commission adopted this change to the rules on Single Frequency Networks, since it will help broadcasters roll out NEXTGEN TV more quickly and more efficiently,” said broadcast consortium Pearl TV.

A distributed transmission system signal “is a broadcast TV signal by any other name,” and TV white space rules should apply, said Microsoft in a call with aides to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday, per a filing posted in docket 20-74 Friday. The FCC should maintain existing rules and institute an expedited waiver process for ATSC 3.0 stations that seek to allow the DTS signal to extend a minimal amount beyond their current maximum service areas, Microsoft said. The agency's DTS item has sufficient votes for approval (see 2101050063).

TCL has no current plans to make its TVs compatible for ATSC 3.0 (see 2101130068), a virtual CES event heard. The company has no plans to support the 3.0 standard in 2021, a spokesperson said Wednesday. The company will bring the TCL Home app, available in some markets now, to the U.S. this year, said Aaron Dew, TCL North America director-product development. TCL’s Android and Roku TVs will be controllable through the app, allowing them to manage the company’s smart home appliances from TVs, too. The company is also eyeing 5G (see 2101130072).

The FCC’s proposed distributed transmission system rule changes “would allow broadcasters to transmit beyond their existing service area without a clearly defined need for such an expansion” and “undermine” TV white space technology, said Connect Americans Now, ACT|The App Association and the Open Technology Institute at New America in calls with aides to FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks Tuesday, per a joint ex parte filing in docket 20-74. If DTS deployments are permitted more than a minimal amount of spillover, the FCC should “explicitly state" in the report and order that "these transmissions are unlicensed and do not receive interference protection,” the filing said. The agency should maintain the existing contour and deny changes that would allow DTS signal spillover above a minimum amount outside licensed service areas. FCC and industry officials told us the item received the necessary votes to be approved, but it hadn’t been released.

The FCC issued a $233,000 forfeiture against Cumulus and some subsidiaries for violating a 2016 consent decree by allegedly breaking FCC sponsorship ID rules, said an order Thursday. The FCC didn’t reduce the amount of the fine despite Cumulus’s arguments it should, but Commissioner Geoffrey Starks dissented from the order and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel concurred. Neither FCC Democrat provided a statement with the order, but Starks’ office said he dissented for the same reasons expressed in his dissent from the original August 2019 notice of apparent liability (see 1908060068). Starks, a former Enforcement Bureau staffer, said then the fine amount was too low, “does not follow well-established Commission precedent” and the "system only works if noncompliance with our consent decrees is strongly punished.” According to the NAL and forfeiture order, seven stations owned by Cumulus subsidiaries violated a 2016 consent decree 26 times by airing ads in 2017 and 2018 without proper sponsorship ID, and waiting eight months to report the violations, the NAL said. The consent decree required violations to be reported in 15 days. The 2016 consent decree was also for sponsorship ID violations, and was part of a $540,000 settlement between Cumulus and the FCC under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler. Cumulus argued the $233,000 forfeiture for the more recent ads is excessive, because it has gone through a bankruptcy and restructuring since the 2016 violations, and that as a large broadcaster the violations represent a small percentage of the ads it airs. The agency didn’t agree. “If a corporate entity chooses to acquire many stations, it must ensure that it scales up its compliance efforts accordingly,” the forfeiture order said. “The Respondent’s implication that it is a drastically different organization post-transfer is belied by the fact that its core senior management remained unchanged by the transfer of control,” the order said. The attorney who signed the consent decree is Richard Denning, who's still Cumulus general counsel, and the CEO remains Mary Berner, the order noted. “Our interest in ensuring compliance with consent decrees and deterring the recurrence of violations of the very same rule at issue supports the upward adjustment in this case,” the order said. Cumulus didn’t comment.

NextGenTV can “evolve over time,” said ATSC President Madeleine Noland. “It’s not something that’s so static, like today’s television system.” ATSC 3.0's framers decided to “design it for 4K right now, knowing that we can upgrade to 8K basically at any time,” she told the virtual CES Tuesday. South Korean broadcasters recently started “field trials” delivering 8K over 3.0 using the existing H.265 video codec, she said. Noland predicted consumers who adopt NextGenTV will “get addicted” to the platform's HDR and wide color gamut capabilities. Executives also discussed 8K. Fox Sports used three 8K cameras when it televised Super Bowl LIV Feb. 2, said Michael Davies, senior vice president-field and technical operations. “It paled in comparison, somewhat, to the 102 other cameras we had, yet we did do the whole thing in HDR." Davies last visited Japan just before the pandemic, “and I was embarrassed to say we were still producing shows in 720p SDR,” he said. The Japanese "weren’t even talking about 4K at that point," he said. "They were talking about 8K.”