FCC Chairman Ajit Pai instituted a small process tweak, avoided questions on net neutrality and got an item unanimously approved and as expected (see 1701240071) at his first commissioners’ meeting in charge of the agency Tuesday. Pai indicated Tuesday’s item removing requirements that gave the public access to broadcast and cable facilities is part of a concerted plan to remove or update older regulations, and discussed his plans to tackle the digital divide (see 1701310033). He released few details of the FCC’s position on other issues, including set-top boxes, media ownership and net neutrality. Staff is still reviewing 23 pending items from the Tom Wheeler administration as part of the process of deciding how the FCC will handle them going forward, Pai said.
The FCC should update its dated equal employment opportunity rules to allow jobs posted on the internet to be considered “widely disseminated,” said a host of broadcast commenters in docket 16-410 in time for Monday’s comment deadline. “Requiring broadcasters to continue to promote jobs through outdated mediums such as classified ads is an unnecessary burden, and one which should be revisited in the digital age,” said Sinclair. “Punishing broadcasters for focusing their recruitment efforts online in lieu of less popular methods is counter-productive.” So many sources for job postings have moved online that it’s now difficult to comply with rules that require job postings be widely disseminated outside the Internet, Nexstar said. “Newspaper employment ads often produce no responses and are far more costly than available internet sources,” said the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. The current rule perpetuates a “false dichotomy” between online-only sources and the online presence of brick and mortar businesses, Raycom and Meredith said. The Multicultural Media, Internet & Telecom Council agreed that the rules should be updated but added some caveats. The FCC needs to make sure the job notices are widely available and don’t use too much insider jargon, said MMTC. ”The online postings must use common natural search terms like ‘broadcast jobs’, so they will not be hidden in the all-too-common online ‘echo chambers’ that now separate us from one another online.” The agency also should take steps to make sure job postings stay open for a sufficient amount of time, and continue to encourage broadcaster relationships with “resources that are likely to include diverse candidates,” said the group.
FCC suggestions Friday of upcoming relief for broadcasters of incentive auction prohibited communications rules aren't enough, according to interviews with their lawyers and filings in docket 12-268. Attorneys told us Friday that they welcomed the release of more information about the repacking (see 1701270064). There were few surprises in the transition scheduling plan and accompanying post-auction procedures public notice, many lawyers said.
“Some relief” for broadcasters from the incentive auction's prohibited communications rules “may be appropriate” when the confidential letters containing broadcaster channel assignments are sent out, said the Incentive Auction Task Force in the transition plan public notice Friday. Though the IATF made some concessions to broadcasters on matters such as temporary channel sharing and the effect of the weather on the repacking schedule, the agency will proceed with the expected phased transition plan (see 1611160033) that prioritizes clearing wireless spectrum, the PN said.
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and FCC Republicans aren’t likely to agree all the time but she looks forward to the new “trio” making the most of its opportunities, she said in Q&A at NAB Wednesday. In the speech, Clyburn said industry and Congress should do more to promote ownership diversity, and backed the return of the minority tax credit. “The status quo is not working,” Clyburn said. “None of us is satisfied.” Though she hasn’t met with Chairman Ajit Pai to discuss the FCC's new direction, she expects such a meeting to occur soon, she said.
The FCC acted arbitrarily in eliminating the UHF discount and should reinstate it, said NAB and numerous broadcasters in replies posted in docket 13-236 Tuesday in response to a reconsideration petition by Ion Media and Trinity Christian Center. “The FCC’s decision to artificially separate the UHF Discount from the national audience reach cap and eliminate it without considering the effect on the overall cap was the worst kind of results-driven decision-making,” said those two jointly. Broadcasters criticized the argument the UHF discount is no longer technically merited, and that the FCC doesn’t have the authority to reverse the decision to eliminate it. Bringing back the discount is seen as an early goal of the new agency, industry officials said (see 1701110067).
The end of the incentive auction is expected to bring a flurry of broadcast dealmaking, from licensees that didn't get what they wanted from the auction, pent-up demand, and the likelihood of ownership deregulation, said broadcast attorneys, analysts, broadcasters and brokers in interviews. “A confluence of events” will drive the coming rush of broadcast M&A, said Patrick Communications broadcast broker Gregory Guy Friday. When that dealmaking occurs likely will depend on when the auction and the accompanying anti-collusion quiet period end, said Wiley Rein broadcast attorney Ari Meltzer. The quiet period could potentially be partially or fully relaxed before the auction is complete, attorneys and FCC officials suggested (see 1701190041).
With the final stage rule satisfied and the incentive auction's end in sight, broadcasters need to start getting ready for the repacking, and a relaxation of anti-collusion rules and accompanying quiet period would be a big help, said broadcasters and their lawyers in interviews Thursday. Though the FCC already may be calculating optimized new channel assignments and letters announcing them are expected to go out in weeks, the assignment amounts to “an empty suggestion if you can't talk to anyone,” said broadcast attorney Jack Goodman. Broadcasters also are waiting on the FCC to issue its transition plan, which went through the notice and comment process in the fall (see 1610170063).
Commissioners are seen as likely to approve an industry-supported FCC draft item at their Jan. 31 meeting, the first under a President Donald Trump, that would eliminate the requirement that broadcasters keep hard copy correspondence files accessible to the public in their stations, said industry and agency officials. The action is opposed by public interest groups Free Press and the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC). They said (see 1611180060) eliminating the required hard copy will prevent segments of the public that don't have broadband access from seeing the files of viewer correspondence with broadcasters. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and broadcasters said eliminating the correspondence file will remove the last FCC-mandated requirement that broadcasters allow the public into their stations, allowing them increased security. The draft item would also eliminate a similar requirement for cable headend information.
The reverse auction portion of Stage 4 of the FCC incentive auction concluded Friday, as expected (see 1701100060), at a cost of $10.05 billion to clear 84 MHz, said the agency's Public Reporting System. That's a more precipitous drop from Stage 3's approximately $40 billion clearing costs than many analysts had predicted, they told us, and could indicate the auction may reach its final stage during the upcoming forward auction.With the cost of the repacking reimbursement fund and the auction added, the forward auction will need to raise a total of $12,011,676,822, according to the Incentive Auction Task Force. "I would expect that there will be enough interest among wireless bidders to close the incentive auction," said BIA/Kelsey Chief Economist Mark Fratrik, saying he was only “cautiously” optimistic. “If there is a God, Stage 4 closes,” said Preston Padden, an auction consultant to broadcasters.