ABC exposed children to graphic sex in the opening scene of the show Scandal by airing it immediately after It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, said Parents Television Council in a news release Monday. “In less than 26 seconds we were taken from the Peanuts pumpkin patch to a steamy Scandal sex scene,” said PTC President Tim Winter. ABC should apologize for juxtaposing the two shows, PTC said. ABC did not comment.

Broadcast engineers urged the FCC to focus AM revitalization efforts on making rule modifications that allow AM stations to have flexibility. Technical changes that are possible today shouldn’t be held up by consideration of replacement strategies “involving reallocation of other spectrum for relocation of AM stations or a Quixotic quest for FM translator frequencies for all AM stations,” engineers from du Treil Lundin and Hatfield and Dawson broadcast consulting firms said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-249. They asked the FCC to keep in mind that not all AM stations are viable as businesses. Stations that are viable can benefit from being able to increase their coverage areas “if the ones that aren’t were out of the way,” they said. The FCC could allow station owners to work that out by including changes in the contingent application rules as well as implementation of the form of tax incentive program “that was previously used to encourage minority ownership of broadcast stations,” they said. The rules that enforce stringent daytime and nighttime first-adjacent protection should be undone, they said. They also urged the FCC to publish rules allocating the expanded band stations “to overlay those that were assigned after the initial rulemaking was concluded,” they said.

The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) sold WDTW (AM) Detroit to entrepreneur Pedro Zamora Wednesday, MMTC said in a news release Thursday. The sale makes Zamora the “first full market Hispanic broadcaster serving all of Detroit and its suburbs,” MMTC said. MMTC also sold KFXN(AM) Minneapolis to Asian American Broadcasting, to create the area’s first Hmong station, and KZZD(AM) Salem, Oregon, to create that area’s first Hispanic station, MMTC said. “Transactions such as these are made possible by donations of stations by media companies to MMTC.”

The FCC Media Bureau approved the sale of six TV stations from the estate of Milton Grant to Nexstar, in a letter issued by the bureau Friday. The stations involved are WFXR(DT) Roanoke and WWCW(DT) Lynchburg, Virginia; WZDX(DT) Huntsville, Alabama; KGCW(DT) Burlington, Iowa; and WLAX(DT) La Crosse and WEUX(DT) Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The bureau also approved a failing station waiver for KGCW, and satellite exemptions for WEUX and WWCW.

The FCC Media Bureau granted requests for channel substitutions at three TV stations. WPXS Mount Vernon, Illinois, was granted a substitution of Channel 11, the bureau said in an order. Two Ion Media stations also were granted substitutions. WPXA-TV Rome, Georgia, can substitute Channel 31 for Channel 51, a bureau order said, and KPXE-TV Kansas City, Missouri, can substitute Channel 30 for Channel 51, the bureau said in another order.

The Department of Justice will require Media General to divest seven stations as part of a proposed settlement to allow it to proceed with its proposed $1.5 billion buy of LIN Media, DOJ said in a news release Thursday. “Without the required divestitures, prices for broadcast television spot advertising would likely increase to advertisers” in the designated market areas involved, which include Birmingham, Alabama; Providence, Rhode Island; Pensacola, Florida; and Green Bay, Wisconsin, DOJ said. “Media General’s stations and LIN’s stations compete head-to-head in the sale of broadcast television spot advertising in several markets around the country.” The divestitures were planned by Media General and LIN when the transaction was announced (see 1408210055), and the stations would go to Hearst, Meredith and Sinclair under the terms of the proposed settlement, the release said. The FCC is expected to approve the deal on the heels of the DOJ settlement, said Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker in an email to investors.

Parties to attributable TV joint sales agreements must file copies of them with the FCC by Nov. 28, the Media Bureau said in a Public Notice Tuesday. The Office of Management and the Budget Tuesday approved the commission’s new filing requirements for JSAs, which are part of its new rules (see 1404010037) making any same-market TV JSA where one station accounts for more than 15 percent of the other’s weekly advertising time attributable under ownership rules. Along with the Nov. 28 filing deadline for existing attributable JSAs, parties that enter into JSAs in the future must file with the FCC 30 days after doing so, the PN said. The rule change gives existing JSAs until June 19, 2016, to be unwound before the new attribution rules take effect.

SNL Kagan updated its projections for retransmission consent fees from $4.9 billion this year to $9.3 billion by 2020. SNL Kagan projects rising rates based on recent deals, “leading to a higher percentage of retrans fees flowing back to the broadcast networks,” its said Monday in a news release. The projections still indicate net retrans income growth for affiliated stations, “albeit at lower rates than last year,” it said. “It’s sad that broadcasters forcing consumers to pay $9 billion per year for ‘free’ TV is now just business as usual,” said the American Television Alliance in a statement. Broadcasters fight any effort to let consumers choose their own broadcast channels and “then they turn around and double the fees year after year after year,” ATVA said. The networks are “driving this crazy retrans train,” it said. NAB pointed to SNL projections this year that broadcast retrans fees are lower than cable network fees, and that cable network affiliate license fees will reach about $53.3 billion by 2020.

Elimination of the sports blackout rule is effective Nov. 24. To the extent that the NFL or any other sports league chooses to continue its private blackout policy, it no longer will be entitled to the protections of the sports blackout rule, the FCC said Friday in a Federal Register notice (http://1.usa.gov/1yueyI3). The notice follows the FCC’s unanimous vote to get rid of the rule last month (see 1410010048). The NFL and its network partners may begin more aggressive pursuit of contractual protection of their blackout rights, a broadcast attorney said. Network affiliates may see more pressure from networks not to grant any retransmission rights outside their designated market areas, the lawyer, Fletcher Heald's Dan Kirkpatrick, said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1rtp8KB). "More far-reaching impacts could be felt if cable and satellite operators are successful in their ongoing battle to modify how the entire retransmission consent regime works."

NAB again urged the FCC to dismiss Mediacom’s petition for a rulemaking to modify FCC rules for video programming vendors. The proposals aren’t supported by any evidence, legal rationale or public interest justification, NAB said in reply comments in RM-11728 posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/1oxLcs9). Broadcasters and other video content providers agree with NAB that Mediacom’s proposals are beyond the scope of the FCC’s authority “and would only serve to benefit multichannel video programming distributors ... at the expense of consumers and the public interest,” it said. Limiting the ability of broadcasters and MVPDs to reach retransmission consent agreements that suit the unique circumstances of the parties, subscribers, content and other considerations “will impede the development and distribution of programming to consumers,” it said.