The FCC should delay deciding to reserve a vacant channel for unlicensed use until after the incentive auction and repacking, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters said in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 15-146. The FCC's claim the reserved vacant channel will have little impact because there will be two vacant channels in most markets is “only speculation,” NABOB said. “The only appropriate action for the Commission to take at this time is to hold off any reassignment of television channels to unlicensed services until it knows the needs of its licensed services.” The FCC's vacant channel plan has the potential to “severely harm African American and other minority television station ownership, especially in the largest markets where minorities tend to live,” NABOB said. The FCC “should do everything it can to keep the small number of African American owned [low-power] TV stations on the air after the auction,” NABOB said. “Giving away channels that may be needed by those stations goes completely against that objective.” Carriers and technology companies have sought a vacant channel for use with devices in unlicensed spectrum (see 1511020059).

The FCC needs to clarify how it will treat requests for waivers of the multiple ownership rules in connection with channel sharing-arrangements for stations entering the reverse part of the broadcast incentive auction, said PMCM in a petition for clarification and/or declaratory ruling posted in docket 12-268 Monday. Though the FCC indicated it might grant waivers allowing channel-sharing arrangements that violate media ownership rules, “the Commission has shed no light on the process by which any waiver request will be considered,” PMCM said. “As the March 29 deadline for initial commitments draws near, it is imperative that the Commission publicly clarify those matters.” It’s “inconceivable” that the FCC would let a station proceed all the way through the auction “only to deny it an essential waiver at the conclusion of that process,” PMCM said. “Consideration and disposition of waiver requests must occur prior to the initial commitment deadline. But that's less than a month away, and the Commission has yet to explain how it plans to address whatever waiver requests it has received.”

The FCC decision to exclude Latina Broadcasters' Class A WDYB Daytona Beach from the incentive auction was “not a reasonable exercise of discretion, but an arbitrary act of outcome-driven decision making,” said Latina in a reply brief filed with the U.S.Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Monday. The FCC ”purposefully redrew the line defining Auction eligibility without reasoned basis, and with scant time for Latina to seek judicial review,” said Latina. CEO Nora Soto said in a news release she's “crushed, disappointed, and deeply saddened” by FCC actions. Soto praised Commissioner Ajit Pai for standing “in support” of her cause in his opposition to the FCC order that disqualified Latina from the auction. Latina has asked the court to either include it in the auction or stay the auction process. The D.C. Circuit scheduled oral argument on Class A's Fifth Street, Video House and WMTM’s challenge of the auction for May 9, more than a month after the auction’s planned March 29 start date. Video House has also requested a stay. Latina has asked the court to rule by Friday.

The FCC released samples of the data files it will use to update broadcasters about their incentive auction progress. Broadcasters planning to participate in the reverse auction “should probably start now to get familiar with the data,” Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Harry Cole said in a blog post Thursday. Each round, the FCC will post each participating licensee’s data for that licensee’s review only, the commission said in a public notice on the data samples. “That, ideally, will help each participant in its bidding strategies,” Cole said. “We emphasize that the sample data files we release today are for illustrative purposes only; they do not reflect any predictions or assumptions about the actual bidding in the auction, the number of rounds, or the outcome of the auction,” the FCC said.

DTS is getting increased interest in its headphone technology for smartphone customers, and expects growth in installation in automobiles of HD Radio, which it acquired last year (see 1510070014), said CEO Jon Kirchner on an earnings call Wednesday. DTS is in discussions with automotive partners on leveraging its technology and HD Radio implementation inside vehicles, he said. It also developed customizable implementations of Headphone:X to address smartphone customer requests for the technology on multiple platforms, said Kirchner. DTS signed a contract with a top-five smartphone manufacturer for a 100-million-unit order last year for Headphone:X, Kirchner said. After the launch of Headphone:X on a Qualcomm chip, DTS “engaged with a number of partners” about integrating the technology in their flagship phones, said Kirchner. He also cited the latest content companies to join DTS' Play-Fi ecosystem: Amazon Music and iHeartRadio. DTS was particularly happy with Dish Hopper demonstrations at CES that are taking the company “in a new direction,” Kirchner said, along with Acer's news at Mobile World Congress that Liquid Jade 2 smartphone users will be able to stream content to Play-Fi speakers.

ATSC 3.0 no longer is “just a pie-in-the-sky idea with engineers in the basement skunkworks piecing things together,” new ATSC Chairman Richard Friedel said Tuesday in the March issue of ATSC’s monthly newsletter, The Standard. “Bottom line” is that ATSC 3.0 as a standard “is real and it’s coming upon us like a freight train!” said Friedel, Fox Networks executive vice president-engineering and operations. ATSC 3.0's “reality” will be in plain sight at next month’s NAB Show, “where ATSC members will demonstrate operational 3.0 hardware, running 3.0 applications on actual 3.0 over-the-air broadcasts,” Friedel said. “Broadcasters will begin placing orders for 3.0 professional equipment, and we’ll see actual consumer 3.0 receivers and ancillary equipment -- okay, they’re still prototypes but using real chips -- from major consumer electronics brands.” Friedel thinks ATSC 3.0's framers’ biggest challenge will be to “articulate” the technology’s capabilities “so broadcasters can develop their business plans and begin to make the necessary investments for the future,” he said. “With the spectrum auction underway and implementation of 3.0 expected to coincide perfectly with the spectrum repack, now is the time for broadcasters to work in earnest on business plans, implementation plans and transition plans,” he said. “Now is the time for all the stakeholders to recognize that ATSC 3.0 is real and ready to redefine the future of television.” As for ATSC 3.0 demo activities at the NAB Show, they’ll be centered around the ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Pavilion in the NAB Futures Park exhibit area on the upper level of the Las Vegas Convention Center’s South Hall, the ATSC newsletter said. The pavilion will highlight broadcast equipment and systems “from nearly 20 companies and research institutions that [are] designed to facilitate the introduction of ATSC 3.0 services,” it said.

The FCC could meet PMCM’s channel placement demands for WJLP Middletown Township, New Jersey, only by “setting aside its rules” said Meredith, CBS and Ion in a letter to the Media Bureau posted Tuesday. Though PMCM has said its placement on virtual channel 33 makes it hard for viewers to tune to the channel without tuning to 33.1, PMCM’s request for relief is singular, the letter said. “The tuning phenomenon that PMCM identified is not unique to WJLP, is known to the Bureau, and has been identified in more than forty other markets, yet in no other market has a licensee found the phenomenon of sufficient concern to seek relief from the Commission,” the letter said. The tuning problem is “avoidable with viewer education,” the letter said, and shouldn't lead the commission to reverse the bureau’s order to give PMCM the assignment to channel 3 it has been seeking.

The FCC issued an enforcement advisory warning that operating radio equipment without a license is a violation of federal law, as Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said it would during a recent speech to NAB (see 1602230070). The law against pirate radio applies “equally to the rebellious high school kid operating a radio station from his bedroom as it does to slick and sophisticated high-powered illegal broadcast operations,” the advisory said. It laid out the sections of the Communications Act that makes such activity illegal, and explained how to tell a pirate station from an authorized one. “Rules require licensed broadcast stations to identify themselves each hour using their FCC-assigned call signs, as close to the hour as possible. If the station does not identify with a call sign, it may be a pirate operation,” the advisory said. It also advised readers to look up station call signs in the Consolidated Database System. Those who suspect they’ve found a pirate operation are advised to give all possible information to the commission. The advisory also warns against supporting such stations. “Be advised that pirate radio operators also seek support from landlords or advertisers, including nightclubs, concert promoters and local merchants,” the advisory said. “Providing support for such illegal activity could not only damage the reputation of such businesses, but could expose them to FCC enforcement or other legal actions.”

The FCC said that on ex parte filings on presentations regarding Nexstar buying Media General, it's now deemed a “permit-but-disclose” proceeding where all parties need not be present, said a Media Bureau public notice on docket 16-57. Petitions to deny Nexstar/Media General are due March 18, said the PN in Monday's Daily Digest. The $4.6 billion deal is likely to get agency OK (see 1602020071).

The FCC OK'd transfer of the license for WNMN Saranac Lake, New York, to Cross Hill Communications from Channel 61 Associates, denying objections from competing broadcaster Convergence Entertainment and Communications, said a Media Bureau letter to the companies. Convergence's 2013 opposition cited the seller's misrepresenting facts in a 2007 analog license application to cover a new construction permit. In 2015, the bureau reached a consent decree on violations found in reviewing the WNMN deal, with Channel 61 agreeing to pay $30,000, the letter released in Monday's FCC Daily Digest said: "The Consent Decree terminated the investigation."