NAB wants the FCC not to “look at one narrow issue -- specifically, the regulatory treatment of joint agreements between television stations -- in a vacuum, as somehow separate from its rules regulating the ownership structures of all” TV stations, the association said executives told aides to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. Chairman Tom Wheeler’s office has been working on a draft order to make joint services agreements, when a broadcaster brokers more than 15 percent of another station’s ad time, attributable under ownership rules to the brokering station (CD Jan 30 p1). The agency should “complete its statutorily-mandated quadrennial ownership reviews in a timelier manner,” said NAB in the meeting, according to a filing posted Tuesday in docket 09-182 (http://bit.ly/1fHDunP). It said pay-TV providers’ “rising share of local advertising is fueled in part by joint advertising sales arrangements,” so it “would be both anticompetitive and fundamentally unfair to prevent or restrict” stations, “but not their direct competitors, from selling advertising time jointly.” The last quadrennial media ownership review was due in 2010, under the Telecom Act, but not yet completed.
The FCC Media Bureau issued notices of apparent liability to Pollack/Belz of Tennessee, Northeastern Illinois University, Aerco Broadcasting Corp. of Puerto Rico, and Word of God Fellowship in Arkansas. The bureau proposed a $2,400 fine for Pollack for failing to timely file its renewal of broadcast station license application for KLAX-TV, Alexandria, La., the bureau said in a notice of apparent liability (http://bit.ly/1brH5BC). Word of God is apparently liable for a $2,400 fine for the same violation for its station KWBM-TV, Harrison, Ark., the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1e473ea). For failing to retain all required documentation in the public inspection file of WZRD(FM) Chicago, NIU is apparently liable for a $1,000 fine (http://bit.ly/1irAk7k), and the bureau proposed a $20,000 fine to Aerco for a series of violations, including failing to file the quarterly TV issues and program lists of WSJU-TV, San Juan, Puerto Rico (http://bit.ly/1dqZMFi). Also, the Enforcement Bureau issued Steckline Communications two $21,000 fines for failing to maintain required directional patterns within prescribed parameters for its Wichita, Kan., AM stations, KGSO and KQAM. Steckline also failed to operate the stations within authorized power limits and maintain complete public inspection files, the orders said (http://bit.ly/1kdYFBs, http://bit.ly/1bvLDtZ). The Media Bureau reduced the fine for Pentecostal Revival Association from $15,000 to $6,500, for its low-power TV station WJGV-CD in Palatka, Fla., bureau said on reconsideration (http://bit.ly/1lBhYGf). PRA was originally fined $15,000 for failure to timely file the station’s Children’s Television Programming Reports and to report the violations in its renewal application, the bureau said. In its response, the licensee provided financial documentation in an effort to support its argument that it cannot pay the original forfeiture amount, the bureau said.
The FCC Media Bureau admonished two Florida TV stations applying for renewal for violating the commission’s children’s TV rules against host selling, according to letters filed Tuesday. Both WKCF Clermont (http://bit.ly/LMnMN2) and WTOG(TV) St. Petersburg (http://bit.ly/LMnVQS) violated the rules during a CW network broadcast of the kids’ show Xiaolin Showdown, when a cereal commercial aired that used characters from the show. “The fact that the commercial was inserted into the program by the Station’s television network does not relieve the Licensee of responsibility for the violation,” said the letters. The stations were punished only with admonishments because of the isolated nature of the incident, the bureau said.
The FCC granted the Alabama Educational Television Commission’s request to change the channel of WBIQ Birmingham from Channel 39 to Channel 10. The change will benefit the public, the Media Bureau said in the order (http://fcc.us/1evw1YK). In a separate decision, the bureau allowed Family Broadcasting Group to change the channel of KSBI Oklahoma City, Okla., from Channel 51 to Channel 23 (http://fcc.us/1ikNyTq).
Sony America closed on its $170 million Gracenote sale
Super Bowl XLVIII was watched by an average audience of 111.5 million people, making it the most-watched TV show in history, said the Fox network, which broadcast the game. The previous record of 111.3 million was for NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI in 2012. Three of the last four Super Bowls have set viewership records, Fox said in a news release Monday. Super Bowl XLVIII had a 46.4/69 Nielsen rating, matching the household rating and share for last year’s Super Bowl, said the broadcast network. The ratings for this year’s game “climbed through the first half and peaked at a 47.9/71” at around 7:30 to 8 p.m. ET, “as Seattle established a commanding 22-0 halftime lead,” said Fox. “Viewership remained impressively high through the fourth quarter despite the fact that Seattle had the game well in hand.” The game earned a 44/63 rating from 9:30 p.m. until it ended, “meaning that even in the closing minutes the rating was only 5 percent lower than it was for the entire game,” Fox said. Kansas City was the biggest market for the game broadcast, followed by Seattle, Indianapolis, New Orleans and Tulsa, Okla., Fox said. It also showed the game on Spanish-language Fox Deportes, where it averaged 561,000 viewers, making it “the most-watched non-soccer sports event in Spanish cable history,” Fox said. The game was also the most viewed live-stream in history, Fox said.
The U.S. broadcast TV industry remains stable, said Moody’s Investors Service in an email to investors Monday. Broadcaster “core revenue” is expected to grow 1-3 percent over the next 12-18 months, and advertising revenue could rise faster if U.S. economic growth is better than expected, Moody’s said. Broadcasting will get a “cyclical” 12-16 percent boost from political advertising and the Winter Olympics, Moody’s said. Political ad revenue will reach around $2.6 billion, short of the $2.9 billion during the 2012 presidential election, said the analysts -- though it’s likely to rebound during the next presidential election in 2016. “E.W. Scripps, Sinclair Broadcast Group, LIN Television, Media General, Nexstar Broadcasting and Gray Television are among the broadcasters that will benefit most from owning stations in markets in which elections likely will be heated,” said Moody’s. Retransmission consent fees will contribute more than 20 percent of broadcaster revenue in 2014, Moody’s said. “Operators will negotiate still higher fees from cable, satellite and telecom distributors as they attempt to match the far higher carriage fees cable and satellite companies pay cable networks for programming,” said the email. Broadcasters will also use free cash flow to finance acquisitions and invest in growth, Moody’s said. “Their stronger balance sheets will help offset the higher debt burden that comes with acquisitions,” it said.
Shared services agreements and other such arrangements lead to the shuttering of local newsrooms, less competition in the local TV marketplace, and less diversity of viewpoint and ownership on the public airwaves, Free Press said in an ex parte filing in dockets 09-182, 10-71 and 13-189 (http://bit.ly/1cA77H1). The filing recounted a phone conversation with Adonis Hoffman, chief of staff to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.
Two groups’ challenge to an FCC decision paving the way for Tribune’s privatization in 2007 by real-estate investor Sam Zell was mostly dismissed by the agency, acting Thursday after a draft circulated in late 2012. Commissioners approved an order saying the Media Alliance (MA) and United Church of Christ (UCC) had standing to challenge in additional markets the deal, which preceded the newspaper, TV and radio station owner’s bankruptcy. But the agency, also as expected (CD Nov 26/12 p1), left the rest of the order in place. That the two groups “had standing to contest Tribune’s waiver requests does not, however, alter any other decisions” made in the order “because the Commission considered and addressed all of UCC/MA’s substantive arguments there,” said the order on reconsideration (http://fcc.us/MlYgyp). “The Commission did this by treating UCC/MA as an informal objector to the extent they had not demonstrated standing.” A newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership waiver and license renewals for Tribune were left in place. A lawyer for UCC had no immediate comment.
Broadcast station owners don’t pay anything for their spectrum licenses to the federal government on behalf of U.S. citizens, who own the airwaves, Mediacom said in an ex parte filing in docket 10-71 (http://bit.ly/LeEQui). The filing is a response to a Navigant study commissioned by NAB saying nearly all TV station owners paid market value for their licenses privately (CD Jan 22 p11). “Besides collecting billions in straight-to-the-bottom-line retrans fees on top of the billions in operating profits they enjoy while they own their stations, broadcasters who sell pocket billions more for spectrum they do not own and have no right to transfer without the consent of the public’s steward, the FCC.” Taxpayers who actually own the spectrum get nothing, it said. Mediacom also included its letter to Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other lawmakers asking Congress to direct the commission to use its authority over license grants, renewals and transfers “to ensure that private parties do not appropriate solely to themselves the significant value generated by transfers of licenses of publicly-owned airwaves,” it said.