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.

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 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."

The FCC Media Bureau assigned PMCM TV’s WJLP-TV Middletown Township, New Jersey, virtual channel 33 to use “on an interim basis” while it decides whether to allow the channel to share a Program and System Information Protocol with Meredith Corp.’s WFSB Hartford (see 1410200057), the bureau said in a letter to the parties involved, posted online Thursday (http://bit.ly/1sUty0d). WJLP had been broadcasting on virtual channel 3.10 in the New York designated market area, even though WFSB uses virtual channel 3 in that market. The subchannels attached to a radio frequency channel are commonly understood to belong to the broadcaster that holds that RF channel, several broadcast attorneys have said. “PMCM has no inherent right to use virtual channel 3 at this time,” the bureau letter said. The interim channel assignment is not prejudicial to PMCM’s case, and 33 is the channel WJLP would have been assigned under PSIP rules, the bureau said. PMCM’s proposal will be considered after the pleading cycle closes, the bureau said. Replies are due in docket 14-150 Oct. 29.

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.

Oral argument in the court challenge against the FCC incentive auction order by NAB and Sinclair could be heard as early as March, said the briefing schedule released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday. Final briefs are due Jan. 27, and oral argument is typically heard at least 45 days after the last briefs are filed, the order said. In an expedited case such as this one, oral argument is typically heard very soon after the final brief, an attorney experienced in such matters told us. The court’s schedule is very close to the one requested by all three parties to the case in a joint filing (see 1410060045), designed to allow the case to wrap up before the mid-2015 incentive auction. NAB and Sinclair asked to brief their cases separately, since their objections are focused on different sections of the auction order. NAB raised issues about the commission’s use of updated OET-69 software, while Sinclair argued that the FCC violated the law by requiring displaced licensees to cease operating on their old channels within 39 months of the auction even if their replacement facilities aren’t usable. The D.C. Circuit said petitioners will file their briefs jointly, limiting the amount of space each argument will have. Their initial brief is due Nov. 7.

The deadline for comments on the draft TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund Reimbursement Form was extended to Nov. 26, the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice Monday (http://bit.ly/1zjz2aG). The extension was requested by NAB, which said it needed the time to “include the input of broadcast engineers with experience replacing and altering broadcast transmission equipment, many of whom have other professional obligations in October,” the PN said.