Monty Tayloe

AT&T's decision that 2016 and future specifications for Android smartphones will include activated FM chips is a boon to radio broadcasters, said NAB and broadcast attorneys Tuesday. AT&T's agreement to activate the chips is “a tipping point” in the effort to get the chips activated in all smart phones, Emmis Communications CEO Jeff Smulyan said. Emmis and NAB are behind NextRadio, an app designed to take advantage of activated FM chips by allowing smartphones to display interactive content and targeted ads that are tied to broadcast radio content. AT&T's move to activate the chips “marks a new beginning in mobile technology,” NAB President Gordon Smith said in a statement.

Broadcasters planning to take advantage of the capabilities of the upcoming ATSC 3.0 technological shift to lease spectrum to wireless carriers would be better served by participating in the TV incentive auction, said Incentive Auction Task Force Vice Chairman Howard Symons during a webinar Thursday. Largely about the incentive auction, the webinar, hosted by Broadcasting and Cable, also touched on the new broadcast standard and repacking.

The Copyright Royalty Board should reduce the rates noncommercial broadcasters pay in online music royalties, said the National Religious Broadcasters Noncommercial Music License Committee during closing argument Tuesday in the CRB proceeding on streaming music royalty rates (14-CRB-0001-WR [2016-2020]). SoundExchange, which represents artists and record labels, has argued that the noncommercial streaming rates shouldn't change. In June filings, Wiley Rein attorney Karyn Ablin pointed to superior deals made by College Broadcasters Inc. and NPR as evidence that the rate should change.

A ruling on the rates streaming music services will pay for music licensing is expected in December, after closing arguments in the case (14-CRB-0001-WR (2016-2020)) were held before the Copyright Royalty Board Tuesday. The hearing included long stretches of closed session, where the room was shut to outside parties because confidential information was under discussion, according to CRB staff.

A judge’s ruling that streaming TV service FilmOn is eligible for a compulsory copyright license could potentially lead to a circuit split and an eventual cert petition to the Supreme Court, attorneys told us Friday.

Network affiliation agreements could make it difficult for some stations to participate in channel sharing deals with stations they aren’t commonly owned with, broadcast attorneys, industry officials and an engineer told us. FCC officials have stressed the complexity of channel sharing deals in recent public appearances (see 1506160057 and 1506250060). The commission is holding a July 22 webinar on channel sharing and network affiliation agreements. The pacts are expected to inject additional complexity into the process because they often include specific bandwidth requirements, which could leave little bandwidth for potential sharing partners, said industry officials.

The Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee remained divided over the characteristics of a possible downloadable security system, at their meeting Tuesday, despite a Congressional requirement that their work be complete by Sept. 4. Entities such as TiVo and Public Knowledge that recently formally banded together as the Consumer Video Choice Coalition (see 1507010064) want a solution that will allow third party retail set top boxes with their own proprietary user interfaces (UIs) to view multichannel video programming distributor content. MVPD representatives said their UIs and set-top box features are an integral part of the service their customers pay for, and are pushing for a solution that won't interfere with those offerings.

A change to the way the FCC counts the population served for one New York station could mean reduced prices for every broadcaster in the incentive auction, said the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition in filings in docket 12-268 posted online Monday. “The Commission must account for a market anomaly that, if left unchanged, will slash $8.3 billion from broadcaster opening prices nationwide,” said the EOBC filing. The price drop is a result of a change to how the FCC counts the population served by station WABC-TV in New York City. Pricing estimates in the FCC-issued Greenhill auction information book list WABC-TV as possessing the most valuable spectrum in the incentive auction at $900 million dollars, and WABC's price was used to calculate the value of all the other broadcast stations eligible for the auction, according to FCC officials. Since the price calculation is based in part on population served, altering that figure for WABC-TV trickles down to every station, resulting in a 2.3 percent drop for each station, EOBC said.

FCC anti-collusion rules for the incentive auction may create particular complications for noncommercial educational TV stations, said NCE officials in interviews last week. Collusion rules place restrictions on stations communicating with any other station about their auction plans. Lawyers representing broadcasters of all types are affected by the rules, with some attorneys saying the impact will be major (see 1505180056 and 1409290022) and the FCC preparing to respond to concerns (see 1506160060). Not much discussed yet has been the impact on NCEs.

The divisions between pay-TV companies and the other entities on the Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee were formalized Wednesday when many of the non-multichannel video programming distributor groups on DSTAC said they are forming the Consumer Video Choice Coalition. With membership that includes DSTAC members Public Knowledge, Google, Hauppauge and TiVo Inc., plus non-DSTAC members such as Computer and Communications Industry Association, Comptel and Writers Guild of America, West, the group “will demonstrate to policymakers at the FCC and on Capitol Hill that there is broad support to promote competition and innovation by making video networks more available to third-party devices,” said a news release.