The FCC should take more steps to ensure communities continue to be served by public broadcasting after the spectrum incentive auction and repacking process, said the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) staff, collectively PTV, in an ex parte notice posted at the commission Wednesday in docket 14-252. PTV met with commission staff Wednesday to discuss noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcasters, the auction and repack, PTV said. PTV urged the commission to grant the petition for reconsideration filed Sept. 15 and to revise its incentive auction rules to ensure at least one NCE reserved channel remains in each community after the auction. The petition presents an auction design that allows broadcasters to volunteer to participate and reserves space for new entrants in case an unserved area develops in the process, PTV said. The commission also should adopt a selection priority for displacement applications of translators that NCE licensees operate, it said. PTV also encouraged the commission to provide a selection priority for NCE translators where mutually exclusive displacement applications are filed. The commission shouldn't assign TV stations in the repurposed 600 MHz band during the repacking process, PTV said. "Placing television stations in the 600 MHz band risks creating many of the same challenges faced with channel 51 for years following the digital transition, but magnified and significantly more complicated due to the combined impact of interrelated geography, frequency, and power level variables," PTV said. A contiguous TV broadcast band should be maintained because of challenges with a repacking plan that combines broadcast and wireless services in the band, PTV said.

Turner Broadcasting System and Hulu announced a multiyear licensing agreement, Turner said Thursday. The agreement grants Hulu exclusive subscription video-on-demand rights to previous seasons of Turner’s programming from Cartoon Network and Adult Swim and current and upcoming series from TNT and TBS, it said. It's the first licensing agreement between Hulu and Turner, Turner said.

The FCC scheduled the upcoming auction for FM broadcast construction permits, Auction 98, to start July 23, the Media Bureau and Wireless Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday in docket 15-3. Auction 98 will offer 131 construction permits in the FM broadcast service, the bureaus said. The construction permits to be auctioned are 113 new FM allotments and 18 construction permits that were offered but not sold or were defaulted upon in previous auctions, the bureaus said.

The FCC Media Bureau opened a window for filing for FM translator new station construction permit applications, it said in a public notice Tuesday. Applicants have to file Form 349 applications, an application filing fee and Form 159 through the bureau's Consolidated Database System by May 21. The window is limited to Auction 83 tech box proposals, which the bureau identified as no longer being mutually exclusive with other tech box proposals that remain pending from the Auction 83 filing window, it said. The applications are exempt from the commission's auction procedures, the bureau said.

AT&T added the Disney Story Central platform for its U-verse customers, AT&T said Tuesday. Disney Story Central, a subscription-based on-demand service, offers U-verse TV customers a collection of narrated Disney stories for $8 a month, AT&T said. New stories will be added every few months, it said. U-verse customers already have access to live and on-demand programming from Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD, it said.

The FCC Media Bureau Video Division requested comments on an NPRM in docket 15-98 to substitute Channel 50 for Channel 51 for station WJAR-TV Providence, Rhode Island. The channel substitution would serve the public interest and remove interference with a wireless licensee in the Lower 700 MHz A-Block adjacent to Channel 51 in the Providence, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Boston TV markets, WJAR said. It would also allow the A-Block licensee to fully utilize spectrum adjacent to Channel 51, which was acquired in auction 71, WJAR said. Comments are due May 12, replies May 26.

IHeartRadio, iHeartMedia's streaming radio and digital music service, is now available on the Xbox One, iHeartRadio said in a Tuesday news release. Listeners can download the app from the Xbox Store, it said. IHeartRadio's in-home integrations include Amazon Echo, Android TV, Roku, Sonos and Xbox 360.

Gannett’s broadcasting and digital spinoff will be called Tegna, Gannett said in a news release Tuesday. Gannett is creating two publicly traded spinoffs: one focused on its publishing business, and Tegna, the name of which comes by rearranging the letters in "Gannett" and dropping the double letters, a spokesman told us. “TEGNA is a nod to the more than 100 year-old history of Gannett,” said the release. The publishing business and its affiliated digital assets will retain the Gannett name once the spinoff is completed in mid-2015, Gannett said. It said Tegna will include 46 TV stations and be “the largest independent station group of major network affiliates in the top 25 markets.”

The FM chip listening option has expanded to additional mobile devices, said Clip Interactive, a technology company, in a news release Tuesday. Consumers with the HTC One M8, HTC One M9, HTC Desire 610, LG G3 and Sharp Aquos Crystal can now listen to local FM radio without using data minutes on the Clip Interactive platform, it said. The platform allows consumers to listen to local stations without streaming, which "depletes data allowances and consumes more battery life," Clip Interactive said.

REC Networks filed a petition seeking an FCC rulemaking to improve low-power FM station (LPFM) coverage. The FCC should place the petition, which REC is calling LP-250, on a docket so LPFM can expand localism and protect existing broadcast service, REC said Monday. Larger service contours would allow LPFM stations to remain hyperlocal and improve signal quality within their current contours, REC said. LPFM stations face trouble with penetrating buildings in their 5.6 km area -- and increasing overall field strength can help, it said. REC proposed rules to ensure upgraded LP-250 stations won't face contour overlapping with full-service FM stations. REC also proposed to level the playing field of minor LPFM moves to moves with FM translators. This policy should eliminate the need for waivers, it said. "We need to eliminate the loophole that allows FM translators to easily come in on a LPFM’s second adjacent channel but a LPFM station must get a waiver to come in on the second adjacent channel of a translator," REC said. Rules that require co-owned LPFM translators to be located within a 20-mile localism zone and requirements that translators receive an LPFM signal over the air will ensure that LPFM stations remain local, REC said. REC said it will work with the LPFM community, NAB, National Public Radio, the National Translator Association and others on this petition.