With pay-TV subscribers who pay retransmission consent fees in slow decline, broadcast network owners are forced to become far more aggressive financially, a BTIG Research analyst said. Some networks are taking over their affiliates in NFL cities, analyst Richard Greenfield said Tuesday in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1pbHL4S). Fox now captures 100 percent of retrans dollars and “can use its owned and operated heft and power in National Football Conference markets to drive retrans to new highs” as it negotiates with multichannel video programming distributors, he said. Fox bought CW and MyNetworkTV stations in Charlotte and didn’t renew its affiliation agreement with WCCB Charlotte, owned by Bahakel (CD April 19/13 p21). Bahakel was left to take the CW affiliation in Charlotte, Greenfield said. Bahakel has to squeeze whatever little retrans it can out of an affiliation “that comes with no major sports rights or meaningful programming leverage,” he said. Fox reportedly is looking to transform the Tribune-affiliated Seattle station into a Fox-owned and operated station, he said. Like Charlotte, Seattle is an NFC market, he said. It’s a reminder that all the power in broadcast TV resides with the network, and that “networks are increasingly taking the economics of broadcast TV back from the affiliates,” Greenfield said. “The affiliates are helpless, left to settle for whatever economics their broadcast parents are willing to allow them to have (for now).” Fox had no comment.

The Prometheus Radio Project asked that its petition for a ruling requiring the FCC follow the diversity requirements of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals be uncoupled from other court challenges to the FCC 2014 quadrennial review Further NPRM, said a motion filed in the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday. Such rulings, called Writs of Mandamus, are sometimes used to compel agencies to take specific actions. The D.C. Circuit is already considering a motion from Prometheus to move the consolidated court challenges to the quadrennial review and the commission’s joint sales agreement attribution rule to the 3rd Circuit (CD Sept 10 p22), but the mandamus request should be considered separately, said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who represents Prometheus. That venue change is under consideration by a D.C. Circuit merits panel, but the order shifting the matter to the panel was silent on the mandamus issue, Schwartzman said. The mandamus request should be shifted to the 3rd Circuit regardless of what happens to the other parts of the case since it concerns that circuit’s remand to the FCC that “the Commission failed to collect the data or conduct the studies necessary” to meet the Third Circuit’s requirements, said Prometheus’s filing

The FCC rule change making stations involved in joint sales agreements attributable for ownership limit calculation purposes will damage broadcasters’ ability to serve the public and doesn’t take the current media market into account, said FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai in a Broadcasting & Cable op-ed Monday (http://bit.ly/1uegLbA), co-authored with House Commerce Committee member Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo. “States such as Missouri stand to lose the most” as a result of the new joint sales agreement (JSA) rules, said the op-ed. Long and Pai cited stations owned by Sinclair that are “going dark” under the new rules, and said the same is possible for similar stations in Missouri. “Without those JSAs, the end result will be fewer television stations and less news and weather programming for residents of Southwest Missouri -- especially during emergencies,” said Long and Pai. “That’s why it’s time for the FCC to reverse course on JSAs."

Fox and the creators of Family Guy and The Simpsons should remove a joke about rape from the shows’ upcoming crossover special, said Parents Television Council in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/ZadJbO). “It is simply indefensible for a broadcaster to use the publicly-owned airwaves to make tasteless and senseless jokes about rape,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “Never. But, particularly in light of our nation’s growing concern for high-profile cases of domestic abuse.” PTC will be taking steps to oppose the jokes’ inclusion, including contacting the sponsors of the crossover special set to air Sunday, warning families not to watch it and contacting Fox affiliates to ask how broadcasting rape jokes “can possibly serve the public interest as required by their FCC-issued broadcast licenses,” PTC said. There was no immediate comment from 21st Century Fox.

WPXS Mount Vernon, Illinois, again said it will apply for Channel 11 if it’s allotted, in comments in docket 14-139 (http://bit.ly/1uMeiny). WPXS petitioned the FCC to authorize it to substitute Channel 11 for Channel 21 (CD July 23 p19). If authorized, WPXS will build the station promptly, it said. Initial comments are due Oct. 14.

Broadcasters must think about what’s needed in their retransmission consent negotiations as they send in their must carry/retrans election letters to cable and satellite providers in their markets, said a broadcast attorney. The deadline for sending the carriage election letters to multichannel video distribution providers is Oct. 1. This will be the first set of election letters that stations must immediately upload to their online public inspection file, said Pillsbury Winthrop TV station lawyer Scott Flick Thursday in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1txZclk). The impact of these elections is becoming more significant, he said. Retrans revenue must be considered as essential to both short-term and long-term survival, he said. Economic forces “are driving consolidation in the TV industry,” he said. Single stations and small station groups “have to punch well above their weight by employing smart executives and counsel with deep experience in retrans negotiations to survive in this increasingly harsh environment,” wrote Flick. Under the FCC prohibition on joint retrans negotiations, a station that fails to sell to a larger broadcaster possessing the skill and mass necessary to effectively negotiate retrans agreements “risks losing its network affiliation to just such a station group, precisely because that group can frequently deliver better retrans results,” he said.

The FCC’s focus on restricting who can bid on spectrum caused “consternation” to the anonymous broadcasters comprising Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, said a May email (http://bit.ly/1mmCJ9P) sent to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and members of the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force by coalition Executive Director Preston Padden. The email was posted online only Friday, after Office of the General Counsel staff noticed it while processing a Freedom of Information Act request, said a U.S. government memorandum posted along with the email. “Real friends tell friends things they don’t want to hear,” said Padden at the start of the email. Since the email, the FCC has been more receptive to some of the coalition’s concerns, Padden told us Friday. “I don’t think that’s because of the email.” The email complained of the FCC focus on dividing spectrum it does not yet have, and not providing enough pricing guidance to broadcasters. “Instead we get Stanford economist designed ’scoring/adjustment’ schemes to limit payments to willing seller stations,” Padden said. Bidding restrictions “retard auction revenue,” he said in the email. “Please help us to continue to be cheerleaders."

The FCC Media Bureau denied a waiver request from Way Media in Colorado for a minor change to FM translator station W218CR, Central City, Kentucky. The bureau won’t let Way Media change the station’s frequency from Channel 218 to Channel 279, or move its transmitter to a new site in Tell City, Indiana, it said Friday in a letter to Way Media (http://bit.ly/1qS8SaD). The bureau also dismissed a request filed by Way Media and Hancock Communications for consent to assign WTCJ(AM) Tell City from Way to Hancock, so the translator station could rebroadcast WTCJ’s signal. The parties fail to identify any special circumstances in this case “that would warrant a deviation from the general rule,” it said. Commissioner Ajit Pai said he’s disappointed in the bureau’s decision. Granting the waiver would have made it easier for AM stations to obtain FM translators, he said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1uMnOaq). “Today’s decision highlights the need for the Commission to take immediate action to help AM radio."

Sinclair petitioned for review of the FCC’s incentive auction order, in documents filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Sinclair’s court challenge joins one filed last month by NAB (CD Sept 10 p1) and numerous petitions for reconsideration of the order filed this week at the FCC (CD Sept 17 p7). The auction order was adopted “in excess” of FCC authority and violates the Spectrum Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, Sinclair said. The court should hold the order unlawful or enjoin it, Sinclair said. The commission declined to comment.

Public misunderstanding and “unintended consequences” are likely to follow repeal of FCC sports blackout rules, said NAB officials in meetings with Commissioner Ajit Pai and an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 12-3 Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1yi0F3o). Other exclusivity rules, such as network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity, could “substantially undermine the economic foundation that supports localism” if repealed, NAB said. Eliminating exclusivity rules beyond the sports blackout rule “would not be in the public interest,” NAB said. A draft FCC order would eliminate the blackout rule (CD Sept 11 p2).