GAO found it difficult to assess the disclosure rules and practices of TV and radio stations airing content intended to influence Congress, said a report released Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1qZpZ97). “Information is not available for a comprehensive assessment of relevant content aired from 2007 through 2012.” GAO said 2012 data was the most current available to it at the time of the review. Since broadcasters are required to keep political advertising information in public files for only two years, “it precludes using public file records to conduct research on the number or fair market value of these advertisements beyond a 2-year period,” GAO said. “Few private data sources have archival data on these types of advertisements.” One private contractor that did have such data on specific issues showed broadcasters had aired sponsored ads on issues affecting broadcaster interests “at least 2,646 times, ranging in estimated cost from $6 to over $15,000 per airing,” said GAO. “These are estimates and do not represent what was actually paid for these airings and therefore may not reflect other factors that could affect costs.” The GAO report did not include any recommendations on broadcaster disclosure.

Gray Television completed its buy of WJRT-TV Flint, Michigan, and WTVG Toledo, Ohio, from SJL Holdings, the acquirer said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1ARoivK). Both stations are ABC affiliates and “lead their local markets in all-day ratings and in most, if not all, local newscasts,” Gray said.

CBS and Media General signed a deal renewing all of Media General’s existing station affiliation agreements. The long-term agreement covers 12 markets nationwide, CBS said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/XnYXwA). The agreement includes renewals for WRBL Columbus, Georgia, WNCT Greenville, N.C., WHLT Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and WKRG Mobile, Alabama, it said.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai urged the commission to repeal the sports blackout rule at its Sept. 30 meeting. The government shouldn’t intervene in the marketplace “to help sports leagues enforce their blackout policies,” he said in an op-ed on Gannett-owned Cincinnati.com (http://cin.ci/1uMG6q0). He rejected arguments from rule advocates that leagues might televise their games only on cable or satellite TV, saying the leagues’ contracts with over-the-air broadcasters are enduring. By moving games to pay-TV, “the NFL would be cutting off its nose to spite its face,” he said. While leagues would remain free to negotiate deals with broadcasters and pay distributors to enforce the blackout policy without the rule, “taking the government’s thumb off team owners’ side of the scale would create momentum for a more accessible sports experience,” he said. There’s broad support for lifting the sports blackout rule, “and the FCC appears ready to accommodate that wish,” said public interest attorney Andrew Jay Schwartzman. In proposing to repeal the rule, the FCC took the view that the goal of Congress in requiring the open video systems and direct broadcast satellite blackout rules was to achieve parity with cable, he said in a Benton Foundation blog post (http://bit.ly/1uBhmmg). If the commission were to repeal the cable rule, “it would fulfill the congressional goal of parity by repealing the other two rules as well,” he said.

Public TV organizations urged the FCC to revise its broadcast incentive auction rules to ensure that after the auction and repacking, “no community in the country will be left without noncommercial educational television service,” they said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1m98qU3). The request from the Association of Public Television Stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS alters a request made previously by APTS that the FCC create an algorithm alerting it to a bid made by the last remaining public TV station in a market, which the commission rejected in its spectrum auction order (CD June 9 p2). The petition asks the FCC to allow an NCE station operating on a reserved channel “to relinquish all of its spectrum usage rights provided that at least one such station remains on-air in the community,” or that at least one reserved channel is preserved during the repacking process, the reconsideration petition said. This approach allows any station to voluntarily participate in the auction by permitting even the last licensee on a reserved channel to voluntarily enter into a channel sharing arrangement, move from the UHF band to the VHF band, “or relinquish its license as long as the reserved channel is preserved in the repacking process and made available to a new entrant,” it said.

The FCC seeks comment on petitions on channel substitution. Initial comments are due Oct. 14, replies Oct. 27, on whether WPXS Mount Vernon, Illinois, should substitute Channel 11 for Channel 21, the commission said Friday in a Federal Register notice (http://1.usa.gov/1tQ0Q39). The commission set the same comment period for the petition of WPXA-TV Rome, Georgia, to substitute Channel 31 for Channel 51, and for the petition of KPXE-TV Kansas City, Missouri, to substitute Channel 30 for Channel 51, it said in other Federal Register notices (http://1.usa.gov/1uLMmOI) (http://1.usa.gov/ZjEgDk). The agency had previously released NPRMs on the channel change requests.

The FCC Media Bureau admonished two Texas TV stations for failing to comply with the limits on commercial matter in children’s programming. KRIS-TV Corpus Christi and KXAN-TV Austin displayed the website www.lazytown.com during the closing credits of the kids’ program, LazyTown, the bureau said Thursday in separate letters to the station licensees, KXAN and KVOA Communications (http://bit.ly/1rYmDps) (http://bit.ly/1CX00nZ). The violation described in the stations’ license renewal applications “appears to have been an isolated occurrence,” the bureau said.

NAB is gearing up to “go head-to-head with the record labels” at the Copyright Royalty Board over digital performance rights, said NAB CEO Gordon Smith at the opening of the 2014 NAB Radio Show Wednesday. NAB is working to convince the CRB “that they should set the rate at a level that encourages broadcasters to stream,” when the rates are reset in 2015, Smith said. NAB is also weighing in at the FCC on the possible expansion of online public file requirements, he said. “NAB has explained to the Commission that it is likely to be much more difficult, especially for small radio stations, to upload and continually update the public file.” Broadcasters should be “bullish” about the future of radio, Smith said. No other medium has broadcasting’s connection to local communities, Smith said. He said NAB’s support of an app that provides FM radio over smartphones -- called NextRadio -- is part of the association’s effort to provide a future for radio. NAB Labs is also testing the “all-digital mode of iBiquity’s AM digital radio system,” Smith said. “We have now conducted field tests of this system at seven different stations and are conducting lab testing as well.” The results are “encouraging,” Smith said Wednesday, according to prepared remarks released by the association (http://bit.ly/1lYwIjJ).

Six lawmakers praised the FCC for scheduling a vote on an order to eliminate the sports blackout rule. The notion that the fear of a blackout compels fans to attend games “is inconsistent with the experience in the communities we represent,” said Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and John McCain, R-Ariz., along with Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., in a letter dated Wednesday to Chairman Tom Wheeler (http://1.usa.gov/1rNKGRZ). Fans attend NFL games “because viewing at home is no substitute for the game day experience in and around the stadium,” they said. While the decision to end blackouts is ultimately up to the NFL and TV networks, federal rules shouldn’t encourage such an outdated and insulting policy, they said. The order is expected to get a unanimous approval by the commission this month (CD Sept 11 p2). But repeal of the rule would function like a regressive tax, “imposing the greatest burden on Americans who are most vulnerable to rising cable bills,” said Hal Singer, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute. Wheeler intimates that by rescinding the rule, local blackouts could be wiped out, Singer said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1ACTZst) in response to Wheeler’s USA Today op-ed (CD Sept 10 p19). Eliminating the rule would change the value of the package of Sunday daytime football telecasts for broadcasters, said Singer, who submitted economic testimony for the NFL in the proceeding. With exclusivity, “the telecast rights are worth a lot less to the broadcasters,” he said. It’s naive for policymakers to assume that the NFL, or any firm, will do anything but engage in profit-maximizing behavior, he said.

Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s application for review of the Sinclair/Allbritton Communications TV station deal doesn’t raise any new issues and is a “stale rehash” of “unfounded allegations,” said Sinclair in an opposition filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1BsM979). “Rainbow PUSH can’t take no for an answer.” Though Rainbow PUSH argued in its application (CD Aug 26 p16) that Sinclair improperly controls its partner in several sharing arrangements Cunningham Broadcasting, Rainbow PUSH’s arguments are “without any factual support,” Sinclair said. Cunningham wasn’t a party to Sinclair/Allbritton, and the executives named in the application no longer work there, Sinclair said. The Media Bureau “has previously concluded that all of the allegations made by Rainbow PUSH are without merit.” The application for review provides no new facts and is “nothing more than a waste of Commission resources,” Sinclair said. It should be dismissed, Sinclair said.