The FCC’s use of optimization in the incentive auction repacking process “is likely to prove fruitless,” NAB told Commissioner Ajit Pai’s aide Matthew Berry in a meeting Thursday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 12-268. In conducting optimization after the auction, the FCC will have “already backed itself into a sub-optimal corner,” NAB said. “The Commission has unfortunately refused to consider optimization between rounds,” NAB said, saying such a solution would be more effective. “Even the best optimization techniques can do little to help” by the end of the auction, NAB said.

Journal Broadcast will pay $115,000 for airing commercials paid for by local car dealerships as “Special Reports," said the FCC Enforcement Bureau in a news release Friday. KTNV-TV Las Vegas didn’t disclose that the segments were paid commercials, violating the FCC sponsorship identification rule, the release said. "Broadcasters are not allowed to deceive the public by presenting commercial announcements or other paid programming in the guise of news or editorial content," said Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc. An advertising agency paid KTNV in 2009 to produce and air "Special Reports" about “liquidation sales” at car dealerships in Las Vegas, the release said. “KTNV formatted the commercials in the style of news reports, which featured a KTNV staff person on location at the dealerships posing as a journalist.” The staff person “identified herself as reporting on behalf of channel 13," the release said. The announcements aired “adjacent to the local weekend news,” the release said. Under the settlement, Journal admitted the violation and will begin a three-year compliance plan, the release said.

Clarification: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn co-authored with Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday's commission blog post on recent Media Bureau transaction approvals (see 1412040037).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler assured Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., that the Media Bureau staff is working diligently to help revitalize the AM band as quickly as possible. Because the review process is ongoing, the FCC was unable to take up an item at the commission meeting last month, Wheeler said in a letter to Kind posted Thursday. The letter was in response to Kind's request last month for the FCC to take up an NPRM last month. Wheeler said he's very supportive of swift action by the FCC to resolve pending proceedings, "but I also want to ensure that we get it right, especially when it comes to dealing with interference and technical issues."

The FCC Media Bureau approved Nexstar’s uncontested $270 million deal to buy Communications Corporation of America, said a Media Bureau letter posted online Thursday. The deal would transfer eight stations in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi from CCA to Nexstar, the letter said. As part of an agreement announced in August (see 1408060049) and formalized last week in a consent decree with the Department of Justice, Nexstar will divest one station. WEVV-TV (CBS and Fox) Evansville, Indiana, will be sold to African American-owned Bayou City Broadcasting. Along with approving the license transfers, the bureau granted Nexstar’s request to continue operating KYLE-TV Bryan, Texas, as a satellite of KWKT-TV Waco, Texas, the letter said. Along with the Nexstar deal, the bureau also approved other transactions related to African-American-owned stations, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a blog post Thursday. Several Sinclair stations that had been slated to go dark to comply with ownership rules (see 1407250053) will instead be sold to Howard Stirk Holdings, the chairman said. Howard Stirk Holdings will obtain programming by “producing original local public affairs programs aired during prime time,” the chairman sold. Wheeler also pointed in the blog post to the transfer of two stations from Nexstar to Marshall Broadcasting (see 1411030056) and Gray Television’s recent sales to diverse owners brokered by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (see 1408280050). “What we have done in a very short time is foster clear-eyed market-based solutions to the longstanding challenge of low minority broadcast ownership,” Wheeler said.

Copyright Royalty judges announced a “cost of living adjustment” of 2 percent for the royalty rates colleges and universities pay for the use of “nondramatic musical compositions” in the SESAC repertory, said a Copyright Royalty Board Federal Registernotice Tuesday. Those royalty rates are for statutory licenses under the Copyright Act for noncommercial broadcasting, it said. The decision applies to those institutions not affiliated with NPR and will become effective Jan. 2.

The FCC Media Bureau extended the comment period for the proceeding on facilitating the final conversion of low-power TV and TV translator stations to digital service. The bureau extended the period by two weeks, with initial comments due Jan. 12, replies Jan. 26, the bureau said in an order released Monday. The extension is in the public interest because the original comment dates fall after a major holiday, it said.

A consent decree between the FCC Enforcement Bureau and Newport Television is couched in terms of privacy regulation, indicating privacy issues are now a high priority for the commission, a broadcast attorney said. Newport Television was ordered to pay $35,000 for broadcasting a phone conversation without informing one of the parties the call would be televised (see 1411280044). Privacy is a subject of interest to other government agencies, and the FCC's interest “promises one more place where businesses can look for trouble should they [not] respect the privacy of those with whom they interact,” said Wilkinson Barker attorney David Oxenford in a blog post. Print reporters routinely call sources for information about issues that they're investigating, and then write reports based on those calls, he said. The station could use the statements made by the person who is called "just as would a print journalist if the call’s contents were reported by the station’s own staff rather than played from a recording," he said. “But the FCC seems to be saying that there is an extra level of privacy expectation in the use of the other party’s voice itself.” The FCC phone call rule applies to TV and radio, but it seems to apply more forcefully to TV, said a Fletcher Heald attorney. The TV licensee was fined $35,000, while historically violations on the radio side tend to draw penalties of about $4,000, said broadcast attorney Harry Cole in a blog post. Cole also said an application to sell the station was pending when the complaint was submitted: “Even if you have stopped being a licensee, the FCC will likely hold you responsible for transgressions that occurred while you were still a licensee.”

Newport Television will pay a $35,000 civil penalty for broadcasting a phone conversation without informing one of the parties that the call would be on TV, the FCC said in a news release Friday. The penalty is part of the terms of a consent decree between Newport and the Enforcement Bureau, the release said. It's based on a 2012 incident involving Newport's KTVX Salt Lake City, the consent decree said. “Broadcasts of telephone conversations without such notice are prohibited by the FCC's Telephone Broadcast Rule and threaten the privacy and reputation of consumers whose telephone conversations are broadcast to the public without their knowledge or consent,” the news release said. Newport also “hampered” the FCC investigation by “failing to fully respond to communications from Bureau staff,” the consent decree said. Under the terms of the settlement, Newport admits the violations, the release said.

The Department of Justice reached a settlement agreement with Nexstar Wednesday that will allow the broadcaster to complete its proposed buy of Communications Corporation of America, pending FCC approval, according to a DOJ news release. As part of an agreement first announced in August (see 1408060049), Nexstar will sell WEVV-TV (CBS and Fox) Evansville, Indiana, to African American-owned Bayou City Broadcasting. Without the divestiture, Nexstar “would have gained a dominant position in broadcast television spot advertising in the Evansville, Indiana area, resulting in higher prices to advertisers,” DOJ said. The Nexstar-CCA transaction is valued at around $270 million according to DOJ, while WEVV will sell for $18.6 million, Nexstar said in August.