Monty Tayloe

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler phoned CEOs of content companies to try to win their support for the set-top rulemaking days before the Copyright Office issued a letter slamming the FCC plan, content company officials told us. CO opinion undermines Wheeler's efforts and backs up criticisms of the FCC plan from content companies and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1607120078), content company officials told us. Advocates of the FCC plan urged the commission to reject CO's position, but Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a statement Thursday that the critique should be “the final nail in the coffin” for the FCC proposal. Wheeler said Thursday in a news conference after commissioners' meeting that the FCC plan wouldn't violate copyright law, and many of the suggestions in the pay-TV backed apps proposal would be “adopted" in the final order.

The FCC Media Bureau received more than 243 applications July 29 from AM stations looking to relocate FM translators within a 250-mile radius, a Media Bureau spokeswoman told us. That's down from the 412 applications received on the first day of the window for smaller Class C and D stations in January, though the applications for Class A and B stations represent bigger stations with larger coverage areas and heftier budgets, said Patrick Communications Media Broker Gregory Guy. “It's got less quantity and more quality, in the sense these are bigger stations.” The windows come amid FCC efforts to revitalize AM.

Industry discussions around proposed FCC rules for set-top boxes are focused on apps-based proposals, though pay-TV carriers and proponents of the NPRM disagree what that proposal should be. “It is possible for there to be an app-oriented approach that would achieve the Commission’s goals,” said Public Knowledge in an ex parte filing in docket 16-42 Friday. “The current iteration of the MVPD app proposal is not it.” Meanwhile, multichannel video programming distributor officials have told us the apps-based proposals from PK and Incompas would create the same problems for content security as the NPRM.

Some eighth-floor Democrats may be open to a compromise on media ownership that would change or eliminate newspaper cross-ownership rules, and discussion of changing the draft media ownership order to reflect that means it's unlikely the order will be released Wednesday on its must-vote deadline, former FCC officials told us. The deadline was triggered by the item having received votes from all three Democratic commissioners two weeks ago, but lifting newspaper cross-ownership would be a change from the version of the item that was voted, and Chairman Tom Wheeler is expected to extend the deadline, the officials said. Rolling back newspaper/cross-ownership could pave the way for a partial approval of the media ownership order by all five commissioners, which Wheeler's office would prefer, the former FCC officials told us. An FCC spokesperson declined comment.

Public interest groups support the FCC plan to leave media ownership rules largely intact but are “disappointed” in the FCC's failure to study broadcast ownership diversity, said a joint filing Monday by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Free Press, Common Cause, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the United Church of Christ Communications Office (UCC). The public interest advocates and NAB are battling via ex parte filings over proposed changes to the newspaper/broadcast ownership rule, though a majority of commissioners already voted on the draft quadrennial review order and the final order is expected to be released by next week (see 1607140069). “Eliminating the newspaper broadcast rule will aid neither small broadcasters or newspapers, nor such outlets owned by women and people of color,” said the public interest groups' filing. “Retaining a rule that deters investment by broadcasters in the struggling print newspaper industry certainly cannot serve the public interest,” NAB said in a filing Tuesday.

Broadcasters and cable associations support an FCC plan to reduce their obligations to make their facilities open to the public, but the National Hispanic Media Coalition said the FCC proposal would eliminate a “vital resource” for the public interest. The FCC NPRM proposed eliminating requirements that broadcasters keep a publicly accessible file of correspondence in their station and that cable providers keep on file the physical address of their transmission facilities. “The correspondence folder is often the most informative folder in a station’s entire public file,” NHMC said of the broadcast side of the FCC plan. “The requirement is outdated,” NAB said. “Stations receive feedback from the public in myriad ways; many of which are online, already available to the public, and not captured in the paper inspection file.” Comments were filed in docket 16-161 Friday.

The FCC asked some follow-up questions of proponents of the pay-TV backed set-top-box proposal, pay-TV officials and an agency official told us. The questions are part of a recent spate of meetings and calls with stakeholders about the proposal, the officials said. Proponents of the pay-TV plan are expected to provide answers to the questions before the end of this week, officials said. The list of questions included queries about whether the licensing agreement for pay-TV apps would allow programmer apps to be included in the universal search function on an equal basis, and whether the pay-TV apps involved would be able to be used on different devices and operating systems. Microsoft visited the FCC and met with Chief Technologist Scott Jordan and Media Bureau staff July 18 on set-top matters connected with licensing agreements, said an ex parte filing. Some of the language in the FCC Unlock the Box set-top plan would interfere with Microsoft's Play Ready content licensing system, said the filing posted Thursday in docket 16-42. Earlier questions from the FCC on the pay-TV plan had led officials on both sides of the issue to say the alternative, the Ditch the Box plan, had momentum (see 1607110042).

The FCC draft media ownership order contains a grandfathering policy on joint sales agreements that's more in line with statements from Congress on the issue and is less restrictive to broadcasters than the previous version of the rules, FCC officials said in interviews. Under the draft (see 1606270083) JSAs wouldn't have to be unwound until 2025, and companies wouldn't be required to dissolve existing JSAs to get transactions approved that take place before that deadline, they said. The draft order also will allow some dissolved JSAs to be reinstated, FCC officials said. In a fact sheet released by the FCC on the media ownership rules, it said the new JSA grandfathering policy would be “consistent with Congress’s guidance.”

Nexstar's planned $4.6 billion buy of Media General is on hold until the completion of the TV incentive auction, industry lawyers said in interviews Tuesday. With the auction likely proceeding to at least a second stage, it’s likely Nexstar will push the FCC to approve a waiver request (see 1606130052) that would allow the deal to be approved before the end of the auction, broadcast attorneys said. It's unclear whether the FCC would be amenable to such a request, these attorneys said. Nexstar and the agency declined to comment.

A nationwide test of the emergency alert system planned for Sept. 28 is expected to show that problems revealed by the 2011 test have been addressed, said broadcast, EAS and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials in interviews Monday. The FCC Public Safety Bureau and FEMA announced the test in a public notice Monday. Planning for it has been going on for years, officials told us.