Monty Tayloe

Multiple stages of the incentive auction are seen as a near certainty and the process could last into 2017, broadcast attorneys, analysts and broadcasters told us after the release of the $86.42 billion clearing cost of the reverse phase of the auction after it ended at round 52 Wednesday. With auction costs and the $1.75 billion relocation reimbursement fund added on, forward auction bidders would have to more than $88 billion to prevent the auction from going to a second stage.

The FCC should launch a rulemaking on the ATSC 3.0 transition by Oct. 1, said numerous broadcasters in reply comments posted Monday and Tuesday in docket 16-142. “Time is of the essence,” said a joint filing from petitioners NAB, CTA, America's Public Television Systems and the AWARN Alliance. “Broadcasters, the consumer electronics industry and broadcast equipment manufacturers are ready to move forward if the Commission will just let them.” Initial comments included a cable focus on carriage burdens from 3.0 (see 1605270054).

FCC draft media ownership rules are likely destined for a fourth go-round at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, attorneys on the broadcast and public interest sides of the issue told us Tuesday. Industry officials are divided on whether to describe the rules (see 1606270083) as maintaining the status quo or increasing regulation. Lawyers in both camps said they believe there's time to move the FCC in one direction or another through lobbying, since rules are in the circulation phase and both Republican commissioners are expected to oppose them. “I support eliminating the current cross-ownership bans that are keeping broadcasters and newspapers from potentially forming multi-platform entities that could better serve consumer demands,” said Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in a speech that was released shortly before the draft rules were reported to be circulating.

A draft media ownership quadrennial review order and a draft item that would eliminate the ownership UHF discount were circulated on the eighth floor Monday, FCC officials told us. As expected (see 1606140052), the media ownership draft order would uphold most existing rules, sticking relatively close to an NPRM, and brings back the joint sales agreement attribution rule that was knocked down by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to an FCC fact sheet. The UHF discount draft order also closely resembles its NPRM forebear, including a grandfathering clause that would apply only to arrangements or applications that were in existence when the 2013 notice was approved (see 1309270045), FCC officials told us.

An FCC draft order on creating new emergency alert system codes was withdrawn from the commissioner meeting agenda Friday morning. An agency spokesman told us it’s expected to be adopted “soon.” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he hadn't voted on the item when it was unexpectedly pulled because of its “horrible” cost-benefit analysis. The item, which would create specific EAS codes for high winds and storm surges, wasn't expected to be controversial (see 1606220063).

His office will “sit down with all the players” this week to discuss the pay-TV backed compromise set-top proposal (see 1606160059), Chairman Tom Wheeler said Friday at a news conference after commissioners' meeting. The commission needs to understand the pay-TV proposal before it can decide how to react, Wheeler said. In a later news conference by the Republican FCC commissioners, Mike O’Rielly said “there was a lot to like” about the pay-TV proposal, and he hoped this week’s meetings wouldn’t be a discussion of “how to mangle it.”

Pay-TV carriers didn't offer their compromise set-top proposal during the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee (DSTAC) process because the HTML5 standard it's based on wasn't complete, said AT&T Senior Vice President-Federal Regulatory Robert Quinn at a Phoenix Center event. “You can't really commit to build something that doesn't exist yet.” Recent acknowledgments of the pay-TV backed proposal by Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Google (see 1606210062) show the FCC-backed set-top plan “is on life support,” Quinn said Wednesday evening.

A draft order that would allow broadcasters to use three new emergency alert system codes to communicate specific storm threats is expected to be unanimously approved by the FCC Friday, said industry and agency officials in interviews this week. The EAS item is seen as uncontroversial, and though some broadcasters may not possess equipment capable of transmitting the new codes, their use is expected to be voluntary, industry officials told us. Historically, the use of new EAS codes has been up to broadcasters, said Monroe Electronics Senior Director-Strategy and Government Affairs Ed Czarnecki.

As a pay-TV backed alternative to the FCC set-top proposal gains steam (see 1606200048), the commission's plan may face an additional hurdle from Capitol Hill in the form of an appropriations rider that could delay new rules until after further study. The study would focus on the effects of set-top rule changes on diversity in programming. Supporters of the FCC set top proposal have characterized it as a delaying tactic by the pay-TV industry.

The FCC is viewed as farther away from approving its proposed changes to the set-top box market in the wake of comments from Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel that are seen to indicate interest in a pay-TV backed compromise offer, industry officials told us Monday. The FCC needs to find “another way forward” Rosenworcel told Reuters, in comments confirmed by her office. Rosenworcel was widely believed to be referring to the NCTA and AT&T backed compromise proposed at the FCC last week (see 1606160059). Pay-TV industry officials told us they see her comment as an indication that she won’t vote for the original proposal laid out in the NPRM.