The full FCC rejected an application for review appealing a Media Bureau decision denying review of a bureau ruling that International Aerospace Solution’s licenses for an AM station and FM translator in South Lake Tahoe, California, expired automatically for failure to broadcast, said an order Tuesday. The item had been on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting as an unnamed adjudicatory matter, the agency told us. A deletion notice for the item was also released Tuesday. International Aerospace Solutions argued the Media Bureau improperly rejected its arguments that its owner had been unable to execute tasks connected with the station due to suffering from Parkinson’s disease and that the company was negatively affected by the loss of site and by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those were new arguments that couldn’t be raised in an appeal, the bureau said, and the FCC affirmed. “While IAS presents its principal’s disability as a matter beyond its control, the Bureau properly stated that the Commission expects licensees to delegate any matters they are unable to carry out themselves,” the order said. “A licensee’s choice of whether to delegate station management functions is a matter within its control.”

Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., filed the Betting on Our Future Act Thursday in hopes of banning most advertising of sports gambling entities as a partial counter to the Supreme Court’s 2018 strikedown of a federal ban on online sports betting. Tonko’s legislation would bar sports betting advertising “on any medium of electronic communication subject to the jurisdiction of” the FCC. “In the years since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting, these unfettered advertisements have run rampant, with betting companies shelling out billions to ensure they reach every screen across America,” Tonko said. “These ads pose a particularly dangerous threat to adolescents and young adults unaware of the risks involved in gambling, and to individuals prone to addiction.” Congress “must take the necessary steps to reel in an industry with the power to inflict real, widespread harm on the American people,” he said. The New York State Broadcasters Association swiftly came out against the bill. “We oppose legislation that bans both mobile sports and casino sportsbook advertising in the” U.S., said NYSBA President David Donovan in a statement. Advertising “has stimulated local economies in areas lacking job opportunities. Advertising revenue from these ads helps broadcast stations meet the needs of their communities by financing local news and public affairs programs.” A “ban on sports wagering advertising prevents all responsible adults from receiving information about a legal product in New York, raising significant constitutional issues,” he said: “There are more effective options available to address issues concerning problem gambling and protecting children.”

Comments are due April 10, replies April 25, in docket 22-227 on the FCC’s NPRM on updating or eliminating rules that reference analog television or the pre-incentive auction TV band (see 2209290017), said a public notice Thursday.

The FCC Media Bureau granted a minor modification permit for Call Communications Group’s noncommercial educational station WMFL(FM) Florida City, Florida, over an informal objection from the Bascomb Memorial Broadcasting Foundation, said a letter Wednesday. Call sought to increase WMFL’s power, relocate its transmitter and change the station’s community of license to Palmetto Bay, Florida. Bascomb argued the changes would cause prohibited contour overlap with Bascomb’s station WDNA(FM) Miami. A long-standing waiver, called a Raleigh waiver, already allowed WMFL to overlap with WDNA, but Bascomb said it didn’t cover the changes in circumstances allowed by the minor modification permit. The Media Bureau disagreed. Raleigh waivers are granted with the acknowledgment stations may need to make future changes to their facilities, the letter said. “Because the express terms of the WDNA Waiver allow future modifications to the existing overlap area caused by WMFL and received by WDNA, we deny the Objection and grant the Application.”

The FCC should refresh the record on treating streaming services as MVPDs, NAB President Curtis LeGeyt told Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a meeting last week, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-261. The top five virtual MVPDs now have as many subscribers as Charter, and none of them existed when the FCC’s proceeding began in 2014, NAB said. The FCC “would greatly benefit from learning more from all stakeholders about how this important market has evolved,” the filing said. “When the proceeding began, vMVPDs were in their infancy,” but the agency now has access to more information on their effect on the video marketplace, NAB said.

The FCC Media Bureau approved Spanish Broadcasting System’s application to exceed the 25% foreign-ownership threshold, said a declaratory ruling Friday (see 2212090063). SBS sought approval for foreign investors to hold up to 49.99% aggregate equity interest in the company due to a litigation settlement. Under the settlement, some investors -- including some foreign entities -- would receive a combination of cash and SBS stock and could cause the company's aggregate foreign ownership to exceed the FCC’s 25% benchmark. SBS’ petition was unopposed. The petition is in the public interest because it "provides the company with greater access to foreign capital and thereby contributes to the strengthening of the broadcast industry," said the ruling.

NAB proposed concessions to its request for relaxed ATSC 3.0 multicasting rules to expedite FCC action, in a meeting with Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Media Bureau staff, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 16-142 Thursday. The FCC could limit lateral hosting arrangements -- where broadcasters host the multicast channels of another broadcaster as part of an ATSC 3.0 sharing arrangement -- “to markets where there are likely to be capacity considerations that may make lateral hosting more useful,” the filing said. NAB proposed limiting lateral hosting arrangements to markets that are hyphenated (such as the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose market), already have channel sharing agreements, have multiple public TV stations, or have fewer than six full-power TV stations, because all of those situations lead to limited capacity for the ATSC 3.0 transition. NAB has been pushing the FCC since 2020 to relax multicast sharing rules to allow broadcasters more flexibility in transitioning markets (see 2011100067), and insisted in this filing there’s no reason for the agency to oppose the practice. “There is simply nothing in the record to support the idea that viewers would somehow be harmed by lateral hosting,” there “are no novel policy considerations associated with lateral hosting,” and “there is no basis in the record of this proceeding to prohibit or limit the use of lateral hosting arrangements,” NAB repeated.

The FCC should pause the 2022 quadrennial review until the 2018 QR is complete, and finish the 2018 by the end of Q1, said NAB in an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 22-459. Requesting comments for the 2022 QR with the 2018 version unfinished violates the Telecommunications Act and appears to make the comments for both reviews unclear and useless since both reviews appear to concern the same ownership rules, NAB said. “How are stakeholders supposed to intelligibly comment for purposes of the 2022 quadrennial review on rules subject to change in a previous unfinished review?” asked the filing. “In the 2022 quadrennial, interested parties should be commenting on the ownership rules in light of the FCC’s final decisions in its 2018 review.” It seems possible “that NAB and other stakeholders expended significant time and resources to prepare multiple sets of comments, data, and studies in the 2018 proceeding for no real purpose.” Participating in QRs and submitting comments and data is “burdensome and expensive,” NAB said. The FCC “should take into account the evident lack of meaningful work on quadrennial reviews since 2018” as it considers broadcaster regulatory fees for 2023, the filing said. The FCC didn't comment.

There should be closer coordination between government agencies and emergency alert system manufacturers on “validation, disclosure and the action steps” for future public warning cybersecurity vulnerabilities, said EAS equipment manufacturer Digital Alert Systems (DAS) in a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-94. Vulnerabilities connected with DAS equipment were discussed at a hacking convention and the subject of FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency notices to broadcasters last year (see 2301300054). “During the conversation, we confirmed that to the best of our knowledge, these vulnerabilities have not resulted in any actual compromise of the EAS,” DAS said. The company said it has been providing security patches to users without cost, and users haven't needed a major upgrade for the past three years. DAS also said the agency should bring back the National Advisory Committee to make recommendations on public warning system matters, and the FCC should oversee security certifications for EAS manufacturers.

The FCC should act promptly on the Standard/Tegna deal, said a group of free market advocates from R Street Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the American Enterprise Institute and others in a joint letter to all four FCC commissioners posted Monday in docket 22-162. “Prolonged review can harm the public in delayed investment and innovation,” said the letter, signed by Roslyn Layton of Strand Consult, Steve Pociask of the American Consumer Institute, and Institute of Liberty President Andrew Langer, among others. The FCC is required to review deals expeditiously, but Standard/Tegna’s review included “not one, but two extensions of pleading cycles; two cycles of FCC document and information request; a rules waiver to allow the petitioners to raise new matters on reply; and two pleading cycles.” The FCC’s “failure to review this transaction in a timely manner carries great cost to the parties and diverts human and financial capital and human resources away from making productive investments,” the letter said. Standard General founder Soohyung Kim said last week the deal will grow more expensive for Standard the longer the FCC waits (see 2301230063).