Nexstar Media began broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 on its Denver stations KDVR and KWGN-TV, it said Wednesday. When all 2021 deployments of 3.0 are done, about a third of TV households reached by a Nexstar station will receive a NextGenTV signal, said Brett Jenkins, Nexstar executive vice president-chief technology officer.
Nexstar's WGN America cable network will be part of the Hulu + Live TV lineup starting Jan. 19, Nexstar said Friday. This restores Nexstar’s ABC-affiliated stations, the broadcaster said. It follows similar agreements with YouTube TV and fuboTV (see report, Dec. 14 issue).
Maintain the waiver process rather than relax rules to let broadcasters use ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission systems (see 2012110052), said New America’s Open Technology Institute in a call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks Monday, per an FCC filing posted Thursday in docket 20-74. Proposed changes would “undermine the Commission’s recent Report and Order that expands rural broadband access leveraging television white space devices,” OTI said. If DTS deployments with more than minimum spillover beyond a station’s current contour are allowed, FCC should say such transmissions are unlicensed and don’t get interference protection, OTI said.
Nexstar will buy consumer product rating company BestReviews from Tribune Publishing for $160 million, Nexstar announced Wednesday. Nexstar plans to “quickly scale” the online review service “through increased content syndication and brand awareness,” Chief Financial Officer Tom Carter said. This means a substantial return on Tribune’s investment, Noble Capital Markets’ Michael Kupinski emailed investors Thursday. The deal is expected to close by year-end.
FCC OK'ing all-digital AM operation takes effect Jan. 4, said a public notice Thursday. The changes, which include a voluntary transition and don't alter interference rules, were unanimously approved in October (see 2010270035).
The FCC should narrowly tailor new rules on sponsorship identification requirements for foreign-government-supplied content (see 2009150059), said NAB in a call with Media Bureau staff Tuesday, according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-299. The agency “may inadvertently sweep in other content, unduly burdening speech and creating unjustified compliance burdens,” NAB said. The group asked why the proposed rules apply only to broadcasters and not those who have either not demonstrated an ability in the past to be free from foreign influence (e.g., certain online platforms) or are similarly situated to broadcasters (e.g., MVPDs).”
The FCC Enforcement Bureau went after owners of properties hosting pirate broadcasting operations, flexing new powers enabled by the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act. “It is unacceptable -- and plainly illegal under the new law -- for landlords and property managers to simply opt to ignore pirate radio operation,” Bureau Chief Rosemary Harold said Thursday. “Parties that knowingly facilitate illegal broadcasting on their property are liable for fines of up to $2 million.” The bureau sent out a new type of notice, called a notice of illegal pirate radio broadcasting, to two New York property managers. Bronstein Properties received one and Benedict Realty Group two (here and here), for three city buildings that the agency said host pirate radio operations. The notices give the companies 10 days to respond, warning that failure to do so could still lead to the determination that the companies knowingly allowed an unlicensed radio station to operate. The bureau released an order Thursday implementing provisions of the Pirate Act, including fines for property owners and a section allowing the agency to proceed immediately to skip the “notice of violation” stage. “We move directly to an order here because implementation of new section 511 entails no exercise of our administrative discretion and, therefore, notice and comment procedures are unnecessary,” the order said.
The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on the University of Missouri’s request to change its KOMU-TV Columbia from VHF channel 8 to UHF channel 27, said an NPRM Wednesday. The station “regularly receives complaints from viewers who report being able to receive all other signals in the market, including a low power television station operating on a UHF channel, but not KOMU-TV,” the NPRM said.
The FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai violated administrative procedure requirements when it used the same record as evidence for a 2017 reconsideration order loosening ownership rules that the prior commission had used to justify keeping them, said the public interest group respondents in a brief filed Wednesday in the broadcasters' and FCC's Supreme Court appeal of Prometheus IV (see 2011170057). The FCC “first concluded that largely retaining local rules was necessary for the public interest,” said groups including Prometheus Radio Project, Common Cause and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. “One year later, upon reconsideration of the same record after a change in Commissioners, the Commission reversed course.” The brief countered broadcaster and FCC arguments that the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ retention of jurisdiction has stalled broadcast deregulation for years. “Any purported ‘freezing’ of ownership rules is the Commission’s doing, not the Third Circuit’s,” the document said. "The Commission itself re-adopted most of its rules in 2008 and 2016. The Commission (until now) declined to repeal the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule entirely, and the Commission took nearly ten years between this 'quadrennial' review and the last one." The respondents’ argument “isn’t so much about diversity as about the basic tenets of administrative law,” said University of Minnesota assistant professor-media law Christopher Terry. He said it’s hard to tell how the justices, some of whom seem focused on the question of judicial deference to federal agencies, will react. "The appellate court reviewed the FCC's work and found it failed the bare minimum for a federal agency,” said United Church of Christ Office of Communication attorney Cheryl Leanza on the office's website: “The lower court should clearly be upheld." The 3rd Circuit “rejected bad FCC media ownership rule changes four times because each time the agency ignored the Court’s demand for evidence and a reasoned explanation,” said former Commissioner Michael Copps, now special adviser to Common Cause, in a release. The FCC didn’t comment. Oral argument is Jan. 19.
The FCC Media Bureau Audio Division fined Imani Communications $3,000 for a late renewal application for WBFZ-FM Selma, Alabama, said a forfeiture order Tuesday. WBFZ’s license renewal should have been filed by October 2019 but wasn’t until March 2020, the order said. Imani “provided no explanation for its untimely filing of the application” and hasn’t responded to the previously issued notice of apparent liability on the matter, the order said. Imani didn’t comment.