FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin extended the discovery period and other deadlines in Auburn Network’s hearing proceeding to provide more time to resolve conflicts between Auburn and the Enforcement Bureau over what documents must be produced, said an order in docket 21-20 (see 2108020046). Discovery was to conclude Aug. 16 but is extended to Oct. 15. The affirmative case is now due Nov. 30, the responsive case Jan. 18, and the deadline to request oral hearing has moved to Feb. 22. “Additional extension of these deadlines is not anticipated absent a showing of extraordinary circumstances,” the order said. The additional time is partly to allow Auburn to recast its interrogatories to comply with Halprin’s ruling that confidential documents the broadcaster seeks about interactions between the EB and Media Bureau can be requested only via the Freedom of Information Act. Auburn seeks to argue that the process leading to the hearing designation order was improper, the order said. Halprin “does not have authority to rule on what appears to effectively be an application for review of the Hearing Designation Order,” the order said. Wednesday’s order is intended to “re-focus” remaining discovery requests on information relevant to the impact of Auburn owner Michael Hubbard’s felonies on the company’s fitness to hold a license, the order said. Halprin denied EB’s request for a status conference as no longer necessary.

The FCC, to “create and preserve racial justice,” should act quickly on seven initiatives for social diversity, said the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council in a letter to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s office filed Wednesday in docket 17-105. “There is no better time than now to give effect to this moral imperative,” said the letter, signed by new MMTC President Robert Branson. MMTC wants the agency to give minorities more access to FM station ownership through geotargeting and a C4 class, improve the radio incubator program, require equal opportunity in procurement, press Congress on the minority tax certificate, include diversity impact statements in FCC orders, vigorously enforce equal employment opportunity rules, and pursue multilingual emergency alert system messages, the letter said. The FCC “carries the enormous responsibility of overseeing one-sixth of our national economy, including some of America’s fastest-growing industries and greatest exports,” the letter said. The agency’s “long and malodorous history of minority exclusion should both haunt and motivate all of us,” MMTC said. “Hopefully, looking back on 2021, future students of history will recognize the FCC as an agency that seized the moment and swiftly affirmed its commitment to racial justice.”

King Kong Broadcasting’s opposition to E.W. Scripps' channel substitution request in Las Vegas “contravenes KGNG’s secondary regulatory status” as a low-power television station (see 2107270065) and asks the FCC to “apply a hierarchy of protection of low power television stations depending on the relative value of programming,” replied Scripps in docket 21-221. “In neither the Petition, nor its Comments, nor its Reply Comments, did Scripps provide any engineering explanation whatsoever for why it is seeking to move KTNV-TV to Channel 26,” said King Kong this week. “Scripps must be unnecessarily targeting KGNG-LD as a means of removing a strong competitor -- especially for ethnic minority audiences and advertisers.”

CEO Chris Ripley criticized the market’s valuation of Sinclair and touted its planned direct-to-consumer sports offering, but said little about ATSC 3.0 progress, on a Q2 call Wednesday. When Sinclair's assets beyond stations and regional sports networks are considered, the stock should be worth double the current price, said Ripley. “It is becoming painfully obvious the market doesn’t understand Sinclair.” Shares closed 4.1% higher Wednesday at $29.43. The additional assets include a stake in gambling company Bally’s and Sinclair’s licensed spectrum, which Ripley valued at $1.7 billion based on the prices from the broadcast incentive auction. Sinclair’s DTC sports service is to launch in the first half of 2022 and gives the company the opportunity to create a “metaverse” around sports, Ripley said. Sinclair is well-positioned for the service because it owns a panoply of sports rights and its many channels give it access to a large potential subscriber base, he said. The rise of DTC sports offerings and consolidation among the RSNs have “just massive industrial logic,” Ripley said. Sinclair is pursuing financing for the project. It expects any “cannibalization” of MVPD subs from the DTC offering will be “low,” said the CEO. The service is expected to appeal to “a younger cohort,” he said. It would allow targeted advertising and other revenue opportunities around sports gambling, Ripley said. If 5% of RSN customers also subscribe to the app, that's 4.4 million households -- a "very achievable” number, he said. Sinclair launched 3.0 through July in 17 cities, including Baltimore, Grand Rapids and Little Rock, said the company. Total ad revenue for Q2 was $491 million, up 109% from a year earlier, due to the general recovery of the ad market from the pandemic and the resumption of professional sports, said Chief Financial Officer Lucy Rutishauser.

Comments are due Sept. 2, replies Sept. 17, on a petition by the ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox network affiliate groups for clarification of new sponsorship Identification rules for programming from foreign governments, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 20-299. The FCC’s reference to “traditional short-form advertising” has “caused confusion” among broadcasters, the petition said. The affiliate groups want clarification the rules “do not apply when a station ‘sells time to advertisers in the normal course of business,' in contrast to when it leases airtime on the station,” the PN said. Commenters should provide “objective criteria” on how to differentiate between those situations, the PN said. “Commenters are encouraged to articulate specific characteristics that might distinguish what they consider to be advertising from a lease of airtime."

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $4,500 forfeiture for Autaugaville Radio over late-filed renewal applications for WXKD(AM) Brantley, Alabama, and translator W292HL Troy, Alabama, but renewed their licenses, said a notice of apparent liability and order released Monday. The applications were due April 1 and filed June 18. Autaugaville didn’t provide an explanation to the bureau and didn’t comment to us.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau called for a status conference to decide discovery questions and “focus on what matters” in the hearing proceeding against broadcaster Auburn Network, said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-20. “Auburn’s attempts to turn the focus of this proceeding to the Bureau, Animal Farm, agency procedures, or, indeed, anything other than the facts and law central to this hearing are delaying the proceeding,” EB said. Auburn doesn’t oppose the motion for a status conference and called the request “yet another invective soaked broadside." Staff has objected to interrogatories by Auburn that it says are redundant or outside the scope of the case, while Auburn said the EB was flouting rules by saying it will wait for a ruling by Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin.

Gray Television completed its $925 million purchase of Quincy Media and related divestiture to Allen Media, Gray said Monday. DOJ signed off last week (see 2107280060), and the FCC Media Bureau OK'd the transaction Friday. Similar to a Scripps purchase also approved with little fanfare earlier this year, Gray/Quincy didn’t draw petitions to deny. The deal gets Gray into eight new markets and adds 12 stations. If Gray's purchase of Meredith's 17 TV stations is approved later in 2021 (see 2107150003), Gray will become the No. 2 U.S. TV broadcaster behind Nexstar.

Comcast's NBCUniversal Local will buy four full-power TV stations, one Class A and three low-powers in the Albuquerque market from Ramar Communications, NBCU announced Friday. This takes Ramar out of the TV business: “It will continue to operate 8 radio stations and several digital media products,” the release said. “We are pleased to expand on Ramar Communications’ work with the Latino community in the market and look forward to serving Albuquerque’s Spanish-speaking audiences with the launch of our own Telemundo local news operation,” said Valari Staab, NBCU Local president. The deal requires FCC and other federal approvals, NBCU said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau got 20,000 pages from Auburn Network but hasn’t turned over any discovery, said the broadcaster's opposition to a motion to quash. It's the latest salvo in discovery (see 2107210041) that has made up the bulk so far of the proceedings on the fitness of Auburn principal Michael Hubbard to hold an FCC license. Hubbard is serving a four-year prison sentence in Alabama on ethics charges for his time as speaker of the Alabama House, and his earliest possible release is in 2023, said the Alabama Department of Corrections. Auburn argued EB violated ex parte rules by discussing the case with Media Bureau staff and planning FCC litigation strategy. “The Enforcement Bureau has set itself up as the more equal party, exempt from the FCC’s rules,” Auburn said. “The Presiding Judge should order the Enforcement Bureau to respond to Auburn’s interrogatories completely, fully and without further delay.”