Monty Tayloe

The FCC’s second request for information is “highly irregular” and fodder for “an endless fishing expedition,” said Standard General, Tegna and investor Apollo Global Management in their joint response to the Media Bureau’s questions, posted partially redacted Friday in docket 22-162. With just days left on the deal’s 180-day shot clock, the transaction isn’t expected to progress soon at the commission and could be in danger of being blocked, broadcast industry officials told us. Standard, Tegna and Apollo “are astonished that this Transaction, with all of the benefits that it offers to the public interest, is at the receiving end of unrelenting and baseless attacks and delay tactics from the petitioners,” said the information submissions.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a request from NetChoice and CCIA to keep a Texas social media law from taking effect while a U.S. Supreme Court hearing of the case is pending, said an order Wednesday in docket 21-51178. The 5th Circuit previously ruled that the law doesn’t violate the First Amendment (see 2209190080). “This ruling means Texas’s unconstitutional law will not be in force as the issue of government-compelled dissemination of speech makes its way to the Supreme Court,” said CCIA President Matt Schruers in a release. “We are confident these laws will not stand.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., raised concerns Thursday about the Standard General/Tegna deal amid the FCC's ongoing review of the proposed purchase (see 2209200057). "We are concerned that this transaction would violate the FCC’s mandate by restricting access to local news coverage, cutting jobs at local television stations, and raising prices on consumers," the House leaders said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The leaders' claims followed the FCC Media Bureau's request last week for additional information on Standard/Tegna, its second inquiry on the proposed transaction.

Advocates for blind and hearing-impaired individuals praised progress on making emergency information accessible but want further improvements, speaking during the FCC’s virtual Video Programming Accessibility forum Thursday. Viewers with significant hearing loss spend their days relying on closed captioning, and thus have high expectations for captions on emergency information, said Lise Hamlin, Hearing Loss Association of America director-public policy. Hamlin and other panelists said the ability to move captions around on the screen to avoid obscuring other information would greatly aid accessibility in emergencies. The graphic displays of emergency information used by newsrooms often originate as data, so it should be possible to incorporate that data into additional audio streams, said Anil Lewis, National Federation of the Blind executive director-blindness initiatives. Broadcasters have to balance screen real estate with the need to display graphics in ways their audience can understand, said ABC-owned stations Vice President-Technology Pat Stahl. ATSC 3.0 should provide additional options for offering accessible emergency information, said NAB Vice President-Engineering and Technology Policy Kelly Williams and Televisa Univision Senior Vice President-Local Media Engineering Javier Garcia. The new standard allows a multitude of additional audio streams and could allow notifications to warn viewers when alternative aural information is available, said Williams. The difficulty of switching between a primary audio stream and a secondary one is a common complaint among the visually impaired, said Kim Charlson, executive director-Perkins School for the Blind library. For consumers, there shouldn’t be any distinction between online and over-the-air content for accessible emergency information, Charlson said. "The consumer should have the same expectation," she said.

An FCC draft order on improving the accessibility of Emergency Alert System messages is expected to be unanimously improved at Thursday’s meeting, but it isn’t clear if proposed deadlines for updating MVPD set-top equipment will change before the item is adopted, said industry and FCC officials. NCTA and ACA Connects seek changes to the draft language. The agency is also expected to unanimously approve an uncontroversial draft NPRM on removing references to analog TV in the agency’s rules now that there are no more remaining analog TV services.

An item circulated to FCC commissioner offices last week involves possible updates to the foreign-sponsored content rules, according to broadcast industry officials. The item is expected to be an NPRM seeking comment on updates to the rules, following the July U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision striking down some of the requirements in July, officials said.

NAB took direct aim at geotargeted radio proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions founder and CEO Chris Devine, detailing in an ex parte filing “credible and public accusations” of “fraudulent and deceitful conduct” against Devine and alleging the company’s support among smaller broadcasters may not be as broad as it appears. The FCC should “take a close and exacting look at the record and proceed with extreme caution,” before authorizing the changes to FM booster rules called for by GBS and other geotargeted radio supporters, NAB said in the filing posted in docket 20-401 Friday.

To close the digital literacy gap and maximize federal dollars for increasing broadband access, programs and institutions need to focus on local solutions, existing community programs, and community anchor institutions like libraries, said numerous panelists at the FCC Communications Equity and Diversity Council’s virtual Digital Skills Gap Symposium and Town Hall Thursday. The symposium is intended to help inform the CEDC’s efforts to create a national plan and toolkit for digital upskilling in connection with the Digital Equity Act, said CEDC Chair Heather Gate.

Law professors and advocacy groups consider Friday’s 2-1 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding Texas social media law HB 20 in NetChoice v. Ken Paxton an outlier with uncertain effects on social media platforms, but they widely expect the matter to go to the Supreme Court. “This is far from over; there are a lot of hurdles between here and this law taking effect,” said Tech Freedom Internet Policy Counsel Corbin Barthold Monday during a livestreamed panel on the decision. “It is really unclear how platforms could continue to function,” said Blake Reid, director-University of Colorado Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic. Plaintiff NetChoice declined to comment on whether it will appeal the case.

No one has ever applied to participate in the FCC’s broadcast incubator program, according to an FCC spokesperson. Created in 2018, then tied up in the Prometheus court proceedings (see 2104010067) for years afterward, the program aimed at providing more access to capital for minority and female radio station owners was reinstated in 2021 but a year later is seen by some as dead. The agency hasn't received any applications and doesn't track informal inquiries, an FCC spokesperson told us. “I think those interested in promoting diversity in the industry have pretty much given up on this program,” said former FCC Commissioner Henry Rivera, a longtime participant in FCC diversity efforts. “NAB has been supportive of this program since its creation and encourages the FCC to promote this important initiative as it actively encourages greater diversity in broadcast ownership,” an NAB spokesperson emailed. “It is an incomplete success,” said David Honig, of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council.