The National Religious Broadcasters approved a resolution opposing "a power grab of the Internet" by the FCC, NRB said in an email Tuesday. NRB urged the commission to reject Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband. The commission's net neutrality and Title II plan will "send a poor signal to nations that have or are considering more state governance of the Internet," encouraging "repressive regimes that would like an international body like the International Telecommunications Union to have increased authority over the Internet," said the association.
The FCC Media Bureau’s rejection of the pending quadrennial review order as a reason to grant a waiver of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule requested by a Fredericksburg, Virginia, newspaper owner is inconsistent with a previous waiver granted to Fox and shows why the Fox waiver should be reversed, said the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and United Church of Christ in an ex parte filing posted in docket 07-260 Wednesday. The bureau said the pending media ownership proceeding didn’t constitute justification for a waiver to let Free Lance-Star License own a paper and a radio station in the same city, UCC and RPC said. The licensee was granted a temporary 12-month waiver that the bureau said would likely not be renewed, UCC and RPC said. The bureau has said the Fox request has unique circumstances that don’t apply in the Fredericksburg case, but UCC and RPC disagreed. “Fox’s permanent waiver request had been pending through ten years and two court remands of the relevant standard,” the bureau said in the order on the Fredricksburg waiver request. “The Bureau has applied post-hoc justifications for treating Fox differently that do not appear anywhere in the order granting Fox’s indefinite waiver,” said the ex parte filing. “We ask that the Commission act promptly to reverse the Media Bureau’s decision.”
The Federal Aviation Administration dropped its proposal of the regulation of FM stations, said a letter posted at the FCC Jan. 28 in docket 12-338. The FAA is no longer pursuing its proposed frequency notification requirements for FM stations operating in the 88.0 to 108 MHz band, it said. The Fletcher Heald law firm blogged about the letter Wednesday.
The FCC Media Bureau Video Division issued several admonitions Tuesday to KMCB, Coos Bay, Oregon; KMTR, Eugene, Oregon; and KOGG, Wailuku, Hawaii, for failing to comply with the commercial limits in children’s programming, in dockets 15-246, 15-248 and 15-250. The stations showed URLs during advertisements for several seconds or less, violating the commercial limits, the bureau said. The Children’s Television Act of 1990 limited the amount of commercial matter that commercial TV stations can air during children's programming to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays, the bureau said. The commission also restricts showing web addresses during children’s programming, it said.
The repacking process for the FCC incentive auction will potentially affect stations in every designated market area, since the commission expects to repurpose channels 51 and below, said Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake in a low-power TV LEARN webinar Tuesday. The commission is on schedule to hold the auction in early 2016, he said. Other officials have said similar in recent days (see 1502240035). "The reorganization of the broadcast band will have a significant impact on translators and LPTV stations, especially in urban areas," said Lake. Replacement translators aren't protected in the repacking, but will have a priority in the post-auction displacement window, he said. Class A stations and full-power stations are entitled to protection under the Spectrum Act, he said. The pre-auction licensing deadline is May 29, relevant only to Class A and full-power TV stations, he said. A proposal to extend the Sept. 1 deadline for LPTV and TV translator stations to transition to digital avoids requiring stations to double-build, he said. Channel sharing will add more broadcast hours and broaden a user base, Lake said. Commenters urged the commission to allow more than two partners to share a single channel, like some full power stations, he said. Another proposal is to have full-power stations replace digital service areas that will be lost after the repacking, a digital-to-digital replacement translator, he said. The commission wants to preserve one channel in the UHF band in all areas of the U.S. that aren't assigned to a TV station in the repacking process for shared use by white space devices and wireless mics, based on consumer need, Lake said. An alternative delivery method LPTV might consider is multicasting on digital stations, he said. LPTVs that are primary emergency alert system facilities are subjects of petitions for reconsideration and comments, which the commission will decide on, he said. A window for new stations might be opened after the repacking process and the displacement window, he said. “We hope very much that viewers in the heartland and elsewhere continue to receive the programming they need and want, and we will work with the low-power community to try to ensure that that happens."
The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment by March 10, replies by March 17, on Funai’s petition for a waiver of over-the-air tuner requirements, the bureau said in a public notice Tuesday in docket 15-42. Funai seeks a waiver in order to make, distribute and sell in the U.S. its hard disk drive/digital video disk recorders that do not include analog tuners.
KOMU-TV Columbia, Missouri, signed a long-term agreement with Rentrak for daily ratings and information on demographics, the company said in a news release Tuesday. It said the NBC affiliate is the only U.S. major network station that acts as a university-owned commercial TV broadcaster, with its newsroom a "working lab" for students. KOMU is licensed to the curators of the University of Missouri, FCC records show.
Panasonic in the U.K. will be the first manufacturer to launch TVs with the Freeview Play connected TV service, the company said Monday. Freeview, the U.K.’s subscription-free digital TV service, is being rebranded as Freeview Play “in preparation for a new product launch that will introduce a mass market connected TV offer,” said a recent announcement from DTV Services, the consortium of Arqiva, BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Sky that runs the service (see 1502120036). Panasonic will make Freeview Play available in its new 2015 lineup of Viera TVs, the company said.
The Department of Education is forming a partnership with the Association of Public Television Stations to build a national network of workforce and adult education development programs, said Johan Uvin, education acting assistant secretary for Career, Technical and Adult Education, at the APTS 2015 Summit Sunday. “You're reaching people that we cannot. You're in people's living rooms. We need you to work with us and help us bridge that message [of workforce education].” Tuesday, the department will release a Making Skills Everyone's Business report which rethinks the topic of infrastructure for adult learning, he said. The department is working on proposing a Workforce Opportunity Act, which would present a new vision for U.S. workforce development and adult learning, Uvin said. Public TV stations should file comments on the draft once it's released, he said. “I didn't see how we could develop a talent strategy without the help of public TV.” Also at the APTS event, channel sharing was discussed ahead of the FCC incentive auction (see <1502220002).
FCC approval of WLAJ-TV Lansing, Michigan's request to change channels from 51 to 23 took effect Monday, said a commission notice in that day's Federal Register. The station said the move cuts "potential interference to and from wireless operations in the adjacent Lower 700 MHz A Block," said the agency: That "will permit the wireless licensee to expand operations in service to subscribers." A Media Bureau order earlier this month OK'd the change (see 1502130050).