The FCC’s “complex and under-developed dynamic reserve pricing proposal” won’t generate as much participation and will lead to a less successful auction than a pricing plan from the Expanding Opportunity for Broadcasters Coalition, the EOBC said in reply comments on the incentive auction public notice in docket 12-268. The EOBC pricing plan would weight stations’ interference higher than their population served in calculating opening bid prices. The FCC also shouldn’t allow anything to delay the auction, EOBC said. “Any deviation from the FCC’s current auction timeline would be unjustified and have potentially disastrous consequences,” EOBC said. “It is imperative that the FCC now adopt these data-driven proposals to ensure that the Incentive Auction achieves its full potential.”

The FCC Media Bureau extended the reply comment filing deadline for a proceeding on defining multichannel video programming distributor to April 1, the bureau said in an order Wednesday in docket 14-261. The bureau approved NCTA's motion for an extension of time to respond, it said. NCTA requested a 30-day extension, but the bureau said it found two weeks to be sufficient.

Yahoo expanded its relationship with Disney/ABC Television Group, and Disney/ABC content will be featured on Yahoo, the Internet company said in a news release Thursday. Clips from Disney/ABC will be available on Yahoo Screen and Yahoo TV, it said. The daily Yahoo Your Day series with Yahoo editors will launch on Good Morning America March 16, it said. Yahoo News and ABC News will also collaborate further on major news events, including the 2016 presidential election, Yahoo said. ABC News will distribute content from Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric, it said.

The FCC should “establish a path to Class A status” for low-power TV stations that survive the post-incentive auction repacking and “have demonstrated a commitment to serving their communities,” Gray Television said in an ex parte filing in docket 03-185 Wednesday. “Those LPTV stations that do secure a channel and that demonstrate a commitment to serving their local communities should be given the opportunity to apply for Class A status and secure a permanent channel in the post-auction environment.”

Shareholders of E.W. Scripps and Journal Communications approved the companies’ previously announced plans to combine their broadcast divisions while separately spinning off and joining their newspaper arms, Journal said in a news release Wednesday. The combined broadcast operations will take on the Scripps name, while the print company will be called Journal Media Group. The new Scripps company will have approximately 4,000 employees, and the Scripps family shareholders will continue to have voting control, the release said. Journal Media Group will be based in Milwaukee with 3,600 employees, and combine Scripps' newspapers and digital products with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Journal’s other publications and digital offerings, the release said. The transactions are expected to close early in Q2, Journal said.

The FCC Media Bureau Audio Division tentatively selected Canton Seventh-day Adventist (CSDA) Church to be awarded a construction permit for a new noncommercial educational (NCE) FM station on Channel 254A at Asbury, Iowa, the bureau said. Aquinas, CSDA, Family and Grace filed mutually exclusive applications for an NCE FM facility on this channel in the August through September 2014 filing window for existing, vacant FM allotments on channels 221 through 300, reserved for NCE use, the bureau said. The filers were required to demonstrate that their proposal would provide a first or second NCE service to at least 10 percent of the population in the proposed station’s service area, including at least 2,000 people, it said. Aquinas, Family and Grace failed to make the required population showing to satisfy the reservation criteria, the bureau said. CSDA showed it would provide first and second NCE service to 11.2 percent of the total population in its contour, it said.

All three ATSC 3.0 audio system proponents delivered detailed system proposals on time by the Monday deadline, marking the formal beginning of the review, ATSC said Tuesday. The three proponents are Dolby Labs, DTS and the MPEG-H audio consortium of Fraunhofer, Qualcomm and Technicolor. Their systems will be tested "discretely and in their entirety" this summer "as comprehensive, end-to-end systems" for use as the audio layer for the ATSC 3.0 signal, with the goal to complete a candidate standard for ATSC 3.0's audio component this fall, ATSC said.Though DTS has yet to formally introduce its DTS:X object-based surround technology, the ATSC released the most comprehensive summary of the technology disclosed so far. "DTS:X is the next-generation object-based codec technology from DTS," said the summary submitted to and released by ATSC. "This release is the successor to DTS-HD and marks another milestone in DTS's long line of industry-leading sound innovations. DTS:X delivers the ultimate in flexibility, immersion and interactivity to listeners of all forms of entertainment. The DTS:X solution for ATSC 3.0 is an end-to-end broadcast chain that includes support for key elements including both audio channels and objects, advanced loudness and dynamics management, device and environmental playback processing, and is integrated with DTS's Headphone:X technology." DTS:X will be delivered "with the industry support and certification that has made DTS the trusted partner for industry professionals all over the world," the summary said. "Manufacturers representing nearly 90 percent of the home AV receiver and surround processor market, as well as several integrated circuit providers, have agreed to launch products supporting DTS:X in 2015. DTS is also working with a wide range of infrastructure partners to ensure broadcasters have choices when building a complete system." Much more has been disclosed about the Dolby and MPEG-H technologies, though the ATSC-released summary of Dolby's proposal offered the first confirmation that the Dolby AC-4 codec is at the heart of its ATSC 3.0 audio proposal (see 1501210023). "Rooted in generations of broadcast audio experience, Dolby AC-4 provides the content and device industries a strong foundation to collaboratively build leading-edge audio experiences that meet the needs of consumers of varied interests and abilities," Dolby's summary said.

The FCC should ensure that Charter Communications’ customers are able to purchase and attach their own modems, Zoom Telephonics said in an ex parte notice posted Monday in docket 14-57. Charter restricted subscribers from attaching customer-owned modems for more than two years with “unclear and in some cases overreaching” rules for certification of cable modems, Zoom said. One modem, without Wi-Fi capability, passed Charter’s new certification process, it said. Zoom and other manufacturers should be able to supply modems to Charter customers, it said. Charter also doesn’t state the monthly charge for cable modems that it supplies to customers, Zoom said. The commission should make Charter state its unsubsidized price for leasing cable modems, it said. Charter didn't have an immediate comment.

The FCC's Incentive Auction Task Force is holding information sessions in several cities around the country between February through June to offer broadcasters more information about the TV incentive auction and repacking process, the commission said in a public notice Monday. It will hold information sessions in Cincinnati on March 30, Columbus on March 31, Cleveland on April 1, Louisville on April 6, Indianapolis on April 7 and Las Vegas on April 13 to 14, during the NAB Show. Future visits will be announced in public notices, it said. A tentative list of cities can be found in an FCC blog post.

Comcast refused to engage in “good faith negotiation” to expand carriage of Liberman Broadcasting's (LBI) Spanish-language TV network Estrella TV, said LBI in an ex parte notice posted in docket 14-57 Friday. LBI officials met with the FCC Media Bureau March 2 about how decisions made by Comcast forced the removal of Estrella TV from Comcast cable systems in several markets, LBI said. Comcast’s actions failed to serve the public interest and goals of fostering competition, diversity and localism, LBI said. It said Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable is approved, Comcast will control access to 19 of the top 20 Hispanic markets. LBI said Comcast asserted that Estrella TV's ratings lag behind other networks, so this precludes distribution parity for the network on Comcast, but Estrella received high ratings from Nielsen, LBI said. Comcast has treated other Hispanic networks favorably while it refused to expand carriage of or pay license fees to Estrella TV, LBI said. “This is the first time a programmer has pulled its signal from our customers," Comcast said in a statement emailed Friday. Comcast is "very disappointed" that LBI is taking away its Estrella stations from Comcast customers in Houston, Denver and Salt Lake City, it said: "Liberman’s precipitous action is particularly puzzling given that we are Estrella’s largest distributor and have been negotiating in good faith to reach a fair arrangement with Liberman." Eighty percent of Comcast’s customers will continue to receive Estrella in Chicago; Fresno, California; Miami; and New York, it said. "We want to continue to carry the Estrella stations for our customers in these three markets and offered to do so under our existing arrangements with Liberman, which are the same arrangements we have with other, comparable stations. Unfortunately, Liberman is insisting that we go far beyond the market and that our customers pay millions of dollars for Estrella programming, which is not widely viewed among Latino audiences, and also is insisting on significant additional distribution throughout our footprint." As the top U.S. cable provider of Spanish-language network packages, Comcast's Hispanic customers "will continue to have many viewing choices,” it said.