Monty Tayloe

A draft FCC NPRM on the UHF discount proposes grandfathering existing companies but applying a new nationwide ownership limit calculation to any deals pending between the rulemaking’s issuance and when an order is adopted, FCC officials told us Tuesday. Deals pending now with Tribune’s buying Local TV and Sinclair’s buying Allbritton’s TV stations could put those companies close to or over the 39 percent nationwide ownership cap on U.S. viewers reached by a broadcaster, said market research firm BIA/Kelsey. Tribune/Local TV would be at 42.7 percent, while Sinclair would be just under the cap at 38.2 percent, said BIA/Kelsey. If the rule is approved in the form proposed in the NPRM (CD Aug 6 p1), it could affect Tribune/Local TV and others coming down the pike, said SNL Kagan analyst Robin Flynn. “This sounds like changing the rules in midstream."

Industry interest is high in an NPRM on circulation that would end the UHF discount for broadcast ownership, but attempts to lobby the FCC on one side or the other haven’t yet begun, said agency and industry officials. Although the eighth floor has received many phone calls for information about the item, there hasn’t been any substantive advocacy, said an FCC official. If the discount is revoked, large broadcasters such as Sinclair could find themselves close to the 39 percent national ownership cap, and a pending purchase by Tribune of Local Broadcasting would leave the new company at 44 percent, public interest groups have said (CD July 2 p2). Large companies that could be affected by the deal are likely waiting for an NPRM to be issued with specific language, said a longtime industry official who lobbies the FCC. The status of existing broadcast operations and pending transactions is one of the questions asked in the NPRM (CD Aug 6 p1). Companies may be “keeping their powder dry” until they have something to respond to, said the lobbyist.

Petitions asking the FCC to reject a proposed $1.5 billion deal between Gannett and Belo because it depends on shared service agreements (SSAs) are an effort to “hijack” the transaction to “advance broader policy goals,” said Gannett in an opposition comment. It was filed alongside similar ones from Belo and affiliated companies Sander Operating Co. and Tucker Operating Co. in docket 13-189 Friday. Under the terms of the Belo’s purchase by Gannett, some of the stations involved in the transaction will be transferred to Sander and Tucker but still share services with Gannett under SSAs (CD July 26 p1). The American Cable Association, Time Warner Cable and DirecTV asked the commission to deny the deal to keep retransmission consent fees down, while a host of public interest groups filed a petition arguing that the FCC should stop companies from using SSAs to get around cross-ownership rules. The petitions are a “stale and overblown rehash of policy positions” from the 2010 Quadrennial Review and the retrans proceeding, said Belo’s filing.

Trade associations and consumer groups continued to argue over proposed accessibility rules for user interfaces and program guides, in filings in docket 12-108 Wednesday, the last day for reply comments to be filed in the rulemaking to implement section 204 and 205 of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).

A study on the impact of newspaper-broadcast cross ownership on minority and female media owners by the Minority & Media Telecommunications Council may be based on outdated and inaccurate information, said Free Press in filings submitted to the FCC Tuesday in response to a Media Bureau request for comment on the study (http://bit.ly/176c9oM). Using information on the study’s participants submitted to the commission by MMTC under a protective order to secure survey respondents’ identities (CD July 29 p11), Free Press found that MMTC may have “erroneously identified certain stations as female and/or minority owned” and could have had business relationships with some of the respondents. The council’s reply comment on its study included a footnote (http://bit.ly/1cw6bUg) that said Free Press’s new allegations are “false and frankly outrageous” and “have no merit.” MMTC had no further comment Wednesday.

The FCC should reform the way it receives and processes indecency complaints, said several broadcasters, associations and other groups in replies to the commission’s public notice on proposed changes to its indecency policy and in follow-up interviews. Using a “community standard” for indecency is “inherently unreliable” when organizations “can send out an e-blast resulting in several thousand of its base submitting an electronic complaint to the FCC,” said the Writers Guild of America. A group that encourages members to file indecency complaints said otherwise. Every indecency complaint “comes from the affirmative action and efforts of an individual American citizen who enjoys full ownership of the broadcast airwaves and thus has a right to a say in how they are used,” said the Parents Television Council (PTC).

A draft rulemaking notice that could lead to elimination of the UHF TV ownership discount listed as on circulation at the FCC may partially be a reaction to a recent spate of broadcasting mergers, said broadcast attorneys in interviews Monday. They said the change in the value of UHF stations since the DTV transition also could be a reason for the FCC to nix the discount. With the Sinclair/Allbritton and Tribune/Local TV deals brushing against or even exceeding the 39 percent ownership cap without the discount, according to Free Press, the commission may be trying to eliminate the UHF discount in advance of ruling on those mergers, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Peter Tannenwald.

CEA, cable operators, DBS providers and groups representing disabled consumers are clashing over how proposed accessibility rules for user interfaces and programming guides should be applied to set top boxes and other devices. The squabble played out in a series of ex parte filings in docket 12-108 related to the commission’s attempt to implement section 204 and 205 of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).

Dish Network refused Raycom’s offer of a temporary extension of their retransmission consent agreement that would have temporarily prevented a blackout, said Raycom Senior Vice President Jeff Rosser in an interview Thursday. Starting at just past midnight Thursday morning -- the end of the previous retrans agreement -- Raycom stopped allowing Dish to carry its broadcasts. Dish blamed Raycom for the blackout. “Unfortunately, the broadcaster has not been willing to pursue an agreement that would have avoided this disruption of service to our customers and Raycom viewers,” said Dish in a news release Thursday. Dish didn’t comment on the proposed extension.

Comcast’s focus on providing customers with the fastest Internet speeds is behind the company’s growth, said CEO Brian Roberts on its Q2 call Wednesday. Comcast’s combined subscribers increased by 189,000 in Q2 to 50.5 million, a 37 percent increase in net additions compared to 2012’s Q2. That was spurred by broadband customers and an increase in voice subscribers, Comcast said. Revenue from broadband also increased by 8 percent to $2.586 billion, which along with increases in business services and video led to a 5.8 percent increase in revenue from Comcast’s cable division to $10.5 billion. “The more the consumer desires speed, the better it is for our company,” said Roberts.