The FCC Media Bureau froze applications for digital replacement translator (DRT) stations and displacement applications, the bureau said in a public notice Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1kPoEik). The freeze is intended to “protect the opportunity for stations displaced by repacking of the television bands to obtain a new channel,” said the bureau. It will also facilitate the bureau’s plans to open a special window for applications for DRTs, low-power TVs and translators displaced by the repacking, it said. The bureau will continue processing current applications, but isn’t waiting for publication in the Federal Register to enact the freeze -- it’s effective immediately, said the bureau. During the freeze, the bureau will consider waiver requests by LPTV and TV translator stations that can show they are causing or receiving “interference to or from full power stations,” it said. Minor-change applications and applications for digital flash cut and digital companion channels filed by existing LPTV, translator and Class A stations will still be accepted, said the notice.

The Minority and Media Telecommunications Council endorsed Nexstar’s proposed deal to sell three TV stations to minority-owned Marshall Broadcasting and operate them through sharing arrangements, said MMTC President David Honig on the group’s website Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1hPe9MM). National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters Executive Director Jim Winston has also said he was in favor of the deal (CD June 11 p9). This transaction could be a promising development for minority ownership in media, said Honig.

The FCC should extend deadlines for comments and replies to the FCC 2014 broadcast ownership quadrennial review rulemaking by roughly a month, said a filing from the Coalition of Smaller Market Television Stations posted online Tuesday (http://bit.ly/Sw8jnd). Comments are due July 7, replies Aug. 4, but the group of smaller-market broadcasters -- which includes LIN Television, Raycom and Schurz Communications -- wants to move those dates so comments are due Aug. 6, replies Sept. 8. The broadcasters want to move the deadline so they can gather more information to answer the questions in the ownership FNPRM, said the joint filing posted Tuesday in docket 09-182. The commission also has proceedings on retransmission consent and syndicated exclusivity with deadlines in the same months, the coalition said. It said more time will allow all interested parties to present more complete information and data.

Legislative and regulatory proceedings on compulsory copyright, retransmission consent, and broadcast exclusivity are intended to hurt the broadcast TV industry, the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology told Commissioner Ajit Pai in a presentation last week, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1pgQvLp). The presentation (http://bit.ly/1n46ZBz) argued that TV doesn’t have overwhelming market power, and that retransmission consent prices are reasonable, according to the filing. Multichannel video programming distributors have the right to sign exclusive programming agreements on a nationwide basis, but want to “deny TV stations the right to enter into agreements for territorial exclusivity,” said the filing.

The FCC should investigate whether an internal lack of diversity led it to not complete the 2010 Quadrennial Review of broadcast ownership rules, said the Washington Technology Project in comments filed in docket 14-50 Monday (http://bit.ly/1s0VwJW). “Neither the 2010 nor 2014 Quadrennial review will be able to move forward in a meaningful way unless the Commission considers the extent to which it is itself a discriminating entity,” said WTP in the filing. The federal Office of Personnel Management shows that 79.4 percent of commission hires in 2012 were white, while blacks were 6.3 percent, and Hispanics 3.2 percent, WTP said. The data also shows “significant, two-digit gaps favoring men over women” working at the commission, except among blacks, where it favors women, WTP said. The FCC should investigate whether those disparities affect its policies and “why it believes its own diversity and inclusion standards set an appropriate tone for the industries it regulates,” said WTP.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau warned Vision Latina Broadcasting that future violations of the public inspection file rule may result in substantial fines, regardless of its financial situation. As former licensee of KBPO(AM) Port Neches, Texas, Vision Latina failed to make available a complete public inspection file for the station, the bureau said in an order (http://bit.ly/1uMObvD). No forfeiture was imposed in light of the licensee’s “poor financial condition and the other factual circumstances of this case,” it said. Vision Latina received incorrect advice from an outside consultant and paid in full its prior forfeiture, the bureau said. The bureau concluded that “it acted in good faith and should be afforded mitigation of the forfeiture,” it said.

Nexstar will sell three stations to African-American-owned Marshall Broadcasting and operate them under a sharing arrangement with Nexstar, subject to FCC approval of the $58.5 million deal, Nexstar said in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1utRSGj). MBG will fund the transaction through loans guaranteed by Nexstar, it said. The deal “addresses recent proposed FCC regulation changes while expanding the opportunity for minority broadcasters to play a greater role in the U.S. broadcasting industry as owners and operators of television stations,” said MBG owner Pluria Marshall. The FCC Media Bureau in March announced increased scrutiny for transactions involving sharing arrangements, and the full FCC enacted new rules for attributing ownership in sharing arrangements involving as sales. Both new policies pointed to public interest benefits as possible justifications for sharing arrangements, and the dearth of African-American-owned stations was discussed during the buildup to the rule changes (CD March 14 p9). Nexstar said it will provide sales and other nonprogramming services to MBG “allowing MBG to use Nexstar personnel for engineering support, master control, traffic and billing, and other administrative functions that do not relate to control of the stations or their programming.” The stations involved in the deal are Fox affiliates KMSS-TV Shreveport, KPEJ-TV Odessa, Texas, and KLJ Quad Cities, Davenport, Iowa, said Nexstar.

CEA’s survey finding that the percentage in the U.S. of Internet-only TV homes soon will top that of homes that get their TV exclusively through an antenna (CD June 6 p14) drew a sharp rebuke Friday from supplier Antennas Direct, which bills itself as the leader in antenna technology reinvented for the digital era. CEA President Gary Shapiro had said the findings are evidence that “we are at a pivotal point in consumer behavior, as fewer and fewer American homes are now using only antennas to watch their favorite television programs, and more and more households turn to the Internet as a source of TV content.” But Antennas Direct President Richard Schneider said Shapiro is wrongheaded because “with the popularity of digital television, antenna sales are on fire with unit volume doubling in the first quarter,” in an email. “The billions of dollars invested by broadcasters and antenna companies have brought joy to millions of Americans’ viewing experience. Customers are embracing this new digital over-the-air technology at a pace that is shocking for even the jaded consumer electronics industry.” Shapiro typifies those “who oppose innovation” and can’t “let go of the status quo,” Schneider said. “Consumers despise the relationship they have with pay television and want to be liberated from it.” Millions of American TV viewers “have already cut the cord,” he said. “Over-the-air television is exploding thanks to digital multicasting, cord-cutting and a better picture quality. You can’t stop that. They want the dozens of uncompressed high-definition channels over the air for free.” Shapiro in an email Friday defended the survey as “real unbiased objective research.” It shows that fewer and fewer people are relying on free over-the-air broadcast TV, Shapiro told us. “It also shows that there is real cord cutting going on. These are facts and we are just reporting them. The trend to other forms of media is real. Personally attacking me for the data is like attacking the weatherman because you don’t like the weather.” CEA is “on record” with the view that broadcast spectrum “is underused by the American public and we have supported the incentive auctions and were instrumental in getting that legislation to become a law,” Shapiro said. “We want to see the auction succeed.” Antennas Direct spokesman Scott Kolbe confirmed by email that the NAB supplied his company with journalists’ contact information so it could refute the CEA survey findings. NAB itself had declined comment on the CEA survey. “I think the reality is we are frustrated” because no antenna company can compete with CEA on lobbying resources, Kolbe told us. “It is a $50 sale and you are done.” Kolbe urged us to “look at the sales growth of Antennas Direct” and its competitors. “Everyone is growing,” he said. NAB representatives didn’t immediately comment.

The FCC has “declared war” on broadcasters, especially low-power TV (LPTV) and translator stations, said the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance in a news release Thursday. The commission’s auction order “wrongly defined LPTV to a status below wireless,” said ATBA Executive Director Louis Libin, adding that the auction is “poisonous” to LPTV. The FCC had previously defined low-power TV as secondary to full-power stations, but the auction framework leaves LPTV secondary to wireless as well, said ATBA board member and LPTV station owner Randy Weiss in the release. “It is unconscionable that the FCC would now try to redefine secondary status with the singular intent of enabling the confiscation of spectrum licensed to small broadcasters,” said Weiss. The release called for a “grass roots movement” of low- and full-power broadcasters and citizens to oppose the auction framework.

The percentage in the U.S. of Internet-only TV homes soon will surpass that of homes that get their TV exclusively through an antenna, CEA said in a study. It estimated 6 percent of TV homes rely exclusively on an antenna, compared with 5 percent that rely on the Internet only for TV programming. “We are at a pivotal point in consumer behavior, as fewer and fewer American homes are now using only antennas to watch their favorite television programs, and more and more households turn to the Internet as a source of TV content,” said CEA President Gary Shapiro in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1kCrMhj). He cited “a nine-year, downward trend that shows antenna-only viewership remains at all-time lows and an upward trend of consumers watching video programming when and where they choose.” Despite the explosive growth of smartphones and tablets, the TV “remains the most commonly owned video viewing device and our primary means of watching video content,” said Brian Markwalter, CEA senior vice president-research and standards. “But significantly more households that use televisions to watch TV programming are now also turning to alternative video devices at home. The explosive growth of Internet programming means consumers now have better options to watch video content on different types of screens they may own.” Viewership on connected devices continues to grow, with nearly half of TV homes surveyed reporting watching video on a laptop or smartphone in the last year, CEA said. More than a third of homes reported watching video on a tablet or desktop PC in the last year, it said. CEA used the survey results to trumpet its advocacy for broadcasters to free up their spectrum. “As consumers continue to turn to other devices and services for TV programming -- devices that need wireless spectrum to deliver the content we want anytime, anywhere -- it’s clear that the free, public spectrum given to broadcasters could be put to much better use,” Shapiro said. NAB declined comment.