The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should dismiss the appeal of the FCC decision not granting the license applications of two New York City radio stations because of lack of standing or affirm the FCC's order, said the commission in a brief for appellee filed at the FCC Friday for case 14-1130. The commission granted an application to assign the licenses of the New York radio stations, WLIB(AM) and WBLS(FM), in accordance with an agreement approved by a bankruptcy court, the brief said. The appellants, four residents of the New York City area, filed a petition May 29, 2012, seeking denial of the license application because it would reduce radio programming "geared toward black and local audiences" and encourage more consolidation of media "into the hands of the corporate elite," the brief said. The appellants, on appeal of the commission, said granting the application would violate their Fifth Amendment right to equal protection under the law. The commission concluded the appellants failed to raise substantial and material questions of fact regarding the qualifications of the applicants or to present other evidence that the license assignments would be contrary to the public interest, the brief said. The equal protection argument was dismissed since it wasn't presented to the Media Bureau, which is required by commission rules, it said. Inner City Media (ICMC), the parent company of Urban Radio I, the licensee of the radio stations, was placed into involuntary bankruptcy on Aug. 19, 2011, because it defaulted on its loan obligations, the brief said. In February 2012, the bankruptcy court authorized the sale to YMF Media for all of ICMC's assets, including the two radio licenses, subject to FCC consent, it said. Urban Radio filed an application for consent to the assignment of the licenses to YMF Media's subsidiary, YMF Media New York Licensee, on April 30, 2012, it said. Oral argument hasn't been scheduled.

EchoStar will become a shareholder in SmarDTV, a subsidiary of Kudelski Group that offers advanced set-top boxes and conditional access modules, EchoStar said in a news release Tuesday. EchoStar's operations in Steeton, U.K., and Madrid, Spain, will be transferred to SmarDTV, it said. SmarDTV will facilitate joint commercial activities and deliver consumer devices to TV broadcasting and broadband markets, it said. The devices, including conditional access modules, gateways and set-top boxes, will use Kudelski technologies for security, middleware and user experience, it said.

Stations' use of last-in, first-out (LIFO) is consistent with Communications Act Section 315(b)(1) and FCC rules, NAB said in an ex parte notice Friday in docket 15-24. NAB officials met with Media Bureau officials March 23 to urge the commission to deny Canal Partners Media's petition for a declaratory ruling on how broadcasters sell political time, it said. Canal didn't provide facts for its claims and the commission shouldn't grant its petition, NAB said. If the bureau granted the petition, the LIFO category of time, an inexpensive option for political candidates and other advertisers, would be eliminated, it said. This wouldn't be in the public interest, it said. Media buyer Jan Crawford Communications (JCC) explained that Canal's claims "do not bear any resemblance to actual political advertising practices," NAB said. LIFO creates "an equitable and legal rate structure for all buyers," NAB said, agreeing with JCC. Canal has said TV stations haven't been disclosing LIFO policies to political ad buyers (see 1503180041).

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force announced additional dates for sessions to offer broadcasters more information about the TV incentive auction and repacking process, said a public notice Thursday. It plans two information sessions in Las Vegas April 13 and 14 in conjunction with the NAB show; a session in Richmond April 21; Baltimore, April 22; Seattle, April 27; and Denver, April 29.

The FCC rejected various filings seeking further revisions to Travelers’ Information Stations (TIS) rules, in an order released Thursday. The filings asked the FCC to rethink its prohibition against the routine rebroadcast of weather information as part of the service. Following its recent order revising the rules, the FCC said it “received a number of petitions, styled as ‘comments,’ asking it to reconsider this decision on the basis that such weather information would help travelers to plan their routes. ... We treat these ‘comments’ as petitions for reconsideration and dismiss them.” The comments rely “on arguments that have been fully considered and rejected by the Commission within the same proceeding,” the FCC said. But the FCC also said it allows TIS licensees to integrate weather broadcasts into their TIS feeds “during times of hazardous or potentially hazardous conditions” and affords licensees “substantial discretion to determine what information is relevant to such conditions.”

Sinclair launched a new division that will invest in “emerging digital technologies and digital content companies,” said the broadcaster in a news release Thursday. It said Sinclair Digital Ventures will “focus on companies with products or services that support and expand Sinclair’s digital capabilities and non-linear footprint.”

The FCC notice of apparent liability to Schurz Communications' WDBJ Roanoke, Virginia, (see 1503230068) is “remarkably punitive” and disappointing, NAB said in a statement Monday. “This unprecedented fine against a family-owned broadcaster with a demonstrated commitment to serving communities is wholly unwarranted." Proposing the maximum fine of $325,000 against the TV station for inadvertently airing pornographic content that was largely visible only on large-screen HDTVs could mean problems for other broadcasters, Pillsbury Winthrop broadcast attorney Scott Flick said in a blog post Monday. “Stations in an analog world could usually rely on the low resolution of the medium to solve 'background problems' like adult magazines in the background of a bookstore interview,” Flick said. “In a hi-def world where DVRs make it possible for viewers to replay and analyze video frame by frame, stations must be conscious of every corner of every frame.” The growing focus on the mobile audience and tiny screens makes worrying about large screens counterintuitive, Flick said.

Broadcasters overwhelmingly support a rule change letting contest rules be disclosed online instead of on-air, but want flexibility over how often the online location should be broadcast and how specific the announcement of the Web address should be, according to replies in docket 14-226. Only iHeartMedia, the state broadcast associations of North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia and Clarke Broadcasting replied. “Announcement of a short, branded home page URL address makes more sense than announcement of a lengthy URL address containing backslashes and potentially unusual characters because the short home page address is almost always more memorable and understandable,” said the broadcast associations, echoed by iHeartMedia. Requiring stations to recite long, specific Web addresses on air is “unnecessary given consumers’ familiarity with website addresses and how to enter them into their browsers,” iHeartMedia said. Stations should be able to decide how often to mention the Web address, commenters agreed. “It would be bad programming to follow each 'mention' of one of these contests with an announcement that the contest terms are available on our website,” said Clarke. “The announcement itself would disrupt the normal programming flow and quickly begin to irritate our listeners, who are very familiar with these long-running contests.” Broadcasters were similarly supportive in initial comments, with several referring to the change as a rare FCC action where everyone agrees (see 1502200035).

EchoStar wants to “underscore its request” that the FCC Media Bureau “grant expeditiously” the waiver it seeks of the analog tuner requirement (see 1502270044) so it can market a new model of SlingLoaded HD Internet-enabled DVR in the U.S. without an over-the-air analog tuner, said the company in reply comments posted Friday in docket 15-47. No opposition to the petition was filed in the docket, and “the lone commenter,” CEA, “unambiguously supported grant of the waiver in order to provide consumers with access to a new, competitive, cost-effective choice in an increasingly popular category of consumer entertainment devices” (see 1503130017), EchoStar said. The waiver EchoStar seeks will give consumers "access to a new device that combines over-the-air television content with over-the-top streaming content functionality from almost any broadband-enabled multimedia platform, all in a sleek, ultra-thin, energy-efficient form factor,” the company said. Although EchoStar believes consumers won’t be “adversely impacted” by a waiver, EchoStar “has committed to the labeling, marketing, and consumer education conditions” the bureau imposed in granting past waivers, it said. “Any such obligations should be lifted if the Commission declines, as it should, to impose labeling and education requirements in the pending analog tuner rulemaking proceeding” for low-power TV, it said.

At the end of the 2014 campaign, the ratio of political advertising time to political news stories on Philadelphia’s major TV stations was 45:1, said a study released Thursday from Philly Political Media Watch. In the eight weeks leading up to the election, it said viewers of the top six stations in Philadelphia were bombarded with nearly 12,000 ads designed to influence the outcome. The study was a collaboration between technologists, academics, journalists and civic activists, funded by the Democracy Fund and the Rita Allen Foundation and led by the Internet Archive. Other major participating organizations were the Sunlight Foundation, the Committee of Seventy and the University of Delaware’s Center for Community Research and Service. The study was based on an examination of political ad and news broadcasts in the Philadelphia market, chosen for the pilot project because of its size and a coverage area that includes parts of three states, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Candidates and outside groups spent more than $15 million Sept. 1-Nov. 4 to air nearly 14,000 TV ads on the stations in the entire Philadelphia market, including surrounding municipalities and some small stations in New Jersey, the report said.