The FCC Media Bureau needs more information to rule on Spanish Broadcasting System’s request for remedial permission to exceed the 25 percent foreign ownership benchmark, said a letter. SBS learned its foreign ownership percentage may have changed after some of the company’s shareholders served it with a lawsuit, the letter said. SBS then filed a petition for a declaratory ruling allowing it to temporarily exceed the foreign ownership benchmark. The company didn’t know the identities of the shareholders involved until they filed the complaint, the letter said. SBS hasn’t established that the shareholders are foreign shareholders, and the investors agreed to cooperate with determining the company’s level of foreign ownership, the bureau said. SBS should amend the petition with that information before the agency can act on it, staff said. If the shareholders or broadcaster doesn’t cooperate, the agency reserves the right to classify all the shareholders in question as aliens for the purpose of foreign ownership review.

Public interest groups asked the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the FCC’s rollback of broadcast ownership rules, block any deals that would be inconsistent with current broadcast ownership rules, and force the agency to comply with the Prometheus III decision. The request came in a petition for writ of mandamus filed by Prometheus Radio Project and Media Mobilizing Project Thursday. The same groups appealed the broadcast ownership reconsideration order last week (see 1801180045). They want the court to rule on the request by Feb. 7, the effective date of the recon order that would eliminate rules against cross-ownership and restricting duopolies. “If not stayed, the FCC’s most recent order will result in so much consolidation in local media markets and such dramatic impact on ownership diversity, so as to deny Citizen Petitioners adequate relief,” the filing says. The stay request castigates the FCC for failing to comply with all three 3rd Circuit Prometheus decisions, which required the FCC to establish a new definition of an eligible entity and to collect data on how ownership rules affect ownership diversity. The writ asks the court to stay implementation of the ownership recon order until “60 days after the adoption of a final, reviewable order adopting or rejecting an eligible entity definition that will advance ownership by minorities and women,” or until after the court has ruled on the groups’ appeals of the recon order and the 2014 quadrennial ownership review. The groups also asked the court to appoint a special master to supervise FCC compliance with the court’s previous Prometheus remands and oversee implementation of data collection plans. The FCC didn’t comment.

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s request for an en banc rehearing of its case for multilingual emergency alert system rules should be rejected because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s ruling (see 1712080070) doesn’t conflict with other court decisions or raise novel issues, the FCC said in a respondent brief. The decision “applied settled principles of law” and the MMTC petition for rehearing should be denied, the agency said. The original rule committed to gathering information on multilingual alerts, and members of the public who don't understand English have other ways to get emergency information, the agency argued. MMTC plans for multilingual EAS alerts would have required a massive restructuring of the system, and rejecting such a plan was reasonable, the regulator said. “The panel determined that the agency was reasonable in seeking to obtain a complete record before concluding its examination of what is a complex and difficult issue.”

Tegna is investing in free streaming and TV movie network Tubi TV to give it a bigger over-the-top footprint and better options for local advertising in long-form OTT content, it said Tuesday. Tubi TV will distribute Tegna local content, it said.

Sinclair buying Tribune “hits Iowa hard,” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wrote Monday for the Des Moines Register. The combined broadcaster would own two of the top four stations in Des Moines and own or operate “nearly a dozen television stations across the towns and cornfields of Iowa,” Rosenworcel said. “Allowing a broadcaster to become so big has real consequences for news, campaigns and communities across Iowa,” she said. “Washington should not be clearing the way for big companies to overwhelm local media markets.” Sinclair didn't comment.

The FCC should modify or eliminate outdated media regulations such as rules requiring station identification, quarterly issues and programs lists, and requirements for an on-screen children’s television symbol, said America’s Public Television Stations, CPB, NPR and PBS in a meeting with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and bureau staff, said an ex parte filing in docket 17-105. The joint filing asked the FCC to adjust satellite broadcast signal carriage rules to align with cable rules and let stations fulfill station identification requirements online.

The full FCC issued a hearing designation order for the license renewal applications of two commonly owned and located AM stations in Virginia with a history of long periods of silence, the HDO said. Birach Broadcasting’s stations WBVA(AM) Bayside and WVAB(AM) Virginia Beach were silent for the vast bulk of time between 2008 and 2017, operating for a few days each year to avoid breaking commission rules against staying silent for a year, the HDO said. WBVA was operating for less than 200 days in that span, WVAB just under 400, the HDO said. The policy against allowing extended periods of silence by licensees “is to ensure that scarce broadcast spectrum does not lie fallow and unavailable,” the order said. The hearing on Birach’s stations will use an expedited process (see 1708030026) approved last year for stations that have long been silent, the HDO said. The proceeding will be a “paper hearing” because the FCC has “found no substantial issues of material fact or any credibility issues regarding this renewal application,” the HDO said. The hearing won’t involve discovery, though the FCC requested copies from Birach of program logs and emergency alert system records. The company has 30 days after the HDO is published in the Federal Register to turn over the records, and 60 days to file a response, the order said.

A Florida man will owe the FCC $12,500 if he operates a pirate radio station within the next 20 years, said an order released by the Enforcement Bureau Friday. The order and a consent decree require Kedner Maxime of Oakland Park, Florida, to pay a $2,500 penalty now, but he will owe the additional fee if there's further pirate activity or if the FCC finds that he misled officials about his financial status, the order says. Maxime was found to be operating an unauthorized radio station from two locations in Broward County, and the FCC issued a $15,000 notice of apparent liability against him in 2016. The amount of the forfeiture is based on Maxime’s inability to pay a higher fine, the consent decree said.

Last year was “strong but not overwhelming” for TV and radio deals, said BIA/Kelsey Chief Economist Mark Fratrik in a blog post Friday. In 2017, 107 TV stations sold for a total of $4.7 billion, 10 more stations than the previous year but with a total value of $600 million less, Fratrik said, and 755 radio stations were sold in 2017 for $3.3 billion, $2.8 billion more than in 2016. That increase stems from the Entercom/CBS Radio deal, Fratrik said. For 2018, the FCC’s relaxation of ownership rules could lead to an increase “in station trading activity,” he said. The tax bill passed in 2017 is likely to lead to value increases for broadcast properties because of the reduction in corporate tax rate and changes to capital expense rules, Fratrik said. “We’ve already seen some increases in the values of publicly traded broadcast companies while the negotiations and passing of this legislation was occurring,” said Fratrik. “Of course, it will take some time in the marketplace for these increased values to lead to higher prices for radio and television stations.” The stronger economy and elevated stock prices could also lead to more deals in 2018, Fratrik said.

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council wants an extension on comment and reply dates on the FCC’s plan for an incubator program (see 1711160054) to increase communications ownership diversity so that the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment (see 1709250062) can vote on draft comments, MMTC said in a motion posted Thursday in docket 17-289. The ACDDE’s next meeting is March 27, but comments on the incubator plan are due March 9, replies April 9. MMTC Senior Adviser David Honig is a member of the ACDDE, and MMTC wants an extension of 31 days, making comments due April 9, replies May 10, the motion said. The extension would give the committee time to vote on and submit comments. The incubator NPRM “sought answers to over 70 substantive questions, many of which are highly complex,” so it will “not be possible for a complete and comprehensive set of Comments to be circulated to the ACDDE members for their review until March,” the motion said. ACDDE Chair Julia Johnson supports the motion, the filing said. Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn urged the committee to examine the incubator proposal at the body's first meeting last year. The recon order proposing the incubator was challenged in court by public interest groups (see 1801180045).