Monty Tayloe

Broadcasters disagreed on loosening local ownership rules for radio and targeted MVPDs and public interest groups, in replies posted in docket 18-349 through Monday. Allen Media opposed United Church of Christ and Free Press calls for FCC studies of demographic data. “Absent concrete Commission action, not further study, the number of broadcast stations owned by racial minorities will remain disproportionately small,” Allen Media said. “The time for Commission action is now -- not another decade.” There’s “an urgent need” for the FCC “to improve its data collection by analyzing and publicly releasing data in a more timely fashion (closer to real time),” said the National Hispanic Media Coalition. The FCC “has no authority to skip the 2018 review and roll that quadrennial into the upcoming 2022 review” to provide more time for studies, NAB said. IHeartMedia said the FCC should try to do no harm to broadcasters, and eliminating AM subcaps and preserving FM caps would be in the public interest. “Deregulation of the existing ownership rule could very well cause further setbacks in AM radio,” said Salem Media. “Local radio simply cannot compete effectively in today’s market without the ability to expand locally to offer a broader array of formats and services,” said Alpha Media. Midsized radio firms including Connoisseur and Townsquare said jointly that relaxing the caps would aid diversity. “If an industry promises declining revenues as global giants suck revenue out of the market, new entrants (and their investors) will turn to other industries to invest their time and financial resources,” said the radio companies. Nexstar and Gray Television urged eliminating local TV ownership limits and the top four prohibition. “Repealing the Duopoly Rule -- or at least the Top 4 Restriction -- will free broadcasters to do what they do best,” said Gray. All four broadcast network affiliate associations agreed and urged the agency to retain the dual network rule. “It protects against an unfair and counterproductive tilt in favor of the national broadcast networks,” said those groups. The American Television Alliance urged closing “loopholes” -- such as using multicasting to control multiple top four feeds -- that let stations own duopolies. Gray called ATVA’s arguments “deeply misleading.”

The FCC should have timed release of Form 323 broadcast ownership data to coincide with its call for refreshing the record of the 2018 quadrennial review, said the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in replies posted in docket 18-349 Friday. The FCC “instead waited until the middle of the comment cycle to produce two-year-old data,” said the filing. “Given the current low numbers, the FCC must not take any action that will harm race and gender ownership diversity.” Radio ownership caps are a “hindrance” to agency goals and should be eliminated, said broadcaster Summit Media. “Market sub-caps do not promote localism or diversity in broadcast ownership.” If the FCC doesn’t eliminate ownership caps, at a minimum take up NAB’s proposal to reduce limits on FM stations and do away with AM caps, Summit said. Merge 2018's QR into 2022's and take the time to gather data, reiterated (see 2108270047) University of Minnesota assistant professor-media law Christopher Terry and Seattle University associate professor-communication Caitlin Ring Carlson. They offered up a new study of 1990 to 2010 radio content as evidence of declining diversity. Large radio combinations don’t lead to increased programming diversity, the filing said. “Black and women’s specialty programming both decreased.” Add two “Public Interest Commissioners,” said Sue Wilson, director of Media Action Center. Wilson urged the FCC to do empirical studies, and to tighten radio subcaps.

Commenters on FCC-proposed collection of equal employment opportunity data agreed the agency should gather broadcast ownership information but disagreed on how that should be collected, in filings posted in docket 98-204 by Thursday’s deadline.

NAB's November FCC petition for clarification of ATSC 3.0 multicast rules is seen as making slow progress (see 2105280035), broadcast industry officials told us. A workaround developed by broadcasters and the Media Bureau requires some 3.0 stations to request special temporary authority every six months, and the bureau has granted 34 STA requests, said Media Bureau Legal Adviser Evan Morris on an FCBA webinar Tuesday.

ViacomCBS and its streaming service Pluto TV agreed to a $3.5 million settlement with the Enforcement Bureau over violations of FCC IP closed-captioning rules, said a consent decree Wednesday. Pluto didn’t provide timely accurate information, “wast[ing] valuable Commission resources and delay[ing] the resolution of the accessibility issues,” the decree said. This stems from consumer complaints about nonfunctional captions on Pluto TV in 2018, the decree said. An agency investigation found that despite being in contact with the FCC about captioning issues, petitioning for a waiver and receiving a letter of inquiry about possible violations, “Pluto continued to offer Pluto TV on existing Platforms and initiated Pluto TV on several new Platforms without being in compliance.” The business “failed to provide timely and accurate information,” the decree said. It includes an elaborate compliance plan, with consultations with disability groups, creation of a consumer information website, testing procedures to ensure functional captions on all platforms, training, and a three-year reporting requirement. A Media Bureau order lets Pluto withdraw its waiver petition. ViacomCBS didn't comment. It's “the first consent decree and first enforcement action related to” IP captioning rules “since their adoption in 2012,” said an FCC release.

Big TV groups remain interested in buying other ones, but opportunities are rare and purchases of individual stations in full-power TV and radio are at a crawl, said analysts, broadcasters and brokers in recent interviews. “All the low-hanging fruit has been picked,” said S&P Global analyst Volker Moerbitz. With the industry consolidated and ownership rules unlikely to loosen, that likely won’t change soon, said BIA Advisory Services Chief Economist Mark Fratrik: “It’s a natural evolution.”

The FCC “missed” by not defining streaming services as MVPDs and should correct that, said Hearst TV President Jordan Wertlieb at TV2025 on a virtual panel Thursday with Fox TV Stations CEO Jack Abernethy and Gray Television President Pat LaPlatney. “If we want to be intellectually honest, anyone distributing our signal is an MVPD,” Wertlieb said. The executives discussed their own streaming offerings but said broadcasting still delivers a larger audience than the alternatives. The “biggest indication” of broadcasting’s primacy is the NFL’s commitment to be on Fox into the 2030s, said Abernethy. Skyrocketing political advertising dollars demonstrate the same thing, he said. ATSC 3.0 will eventually allow stations to take full advantage of digital ads, Wertlieb said. Targetable ads will allow broadcasters to charge more, LaPlatney said. Abernethy and Wertlieb believe the most successful streaming operations will be those that focus on a niche, such as Fox’s upcoming weather channel. Hearst’s offering focuses on hyperlocal content for each station’s specific city, Wertlieb said. E.W. Scripps announced a foray into exports Thursday (see 2109230077). Asked about the future of retrans and declining cable subscribership, Wertlieb said the definition of retrans needs to be broadened, and LaPlatney said current rates don’t accurately reflect the audience broadcasters deliver. There might be ways stations could work with MVPDs to address or slow their subscribership declines, said Abernethy. “I do see those two ecosystems working together down the road,” said Wertlieb, saying broadcasters are working closely with MVPDs on ATSC 3.0. The execs expect auto ads to rebound sometime in 2022. Gambling ads are on rising but depend on jurisdiction, said Wertlieb. Betting is “a great category” for stations because it can’t be nationally advertised, Abernethy said.

Measuring TV viewers is expected to get more competitive following Nielsen’s accreditation troubles, and advertising targeting is considered the best way to monetize ATSC 3.0, said panelists at the virtual TV2025 Conference Wednesday. “I could see a time in the future where we start to rethink the value of third-party measurement,” said Publicis Media Senior Vice President-Global Research, Data Sciences Eric Cavanaugh.

An FCC draft order that would create questions for licensees seeking permission to be owned by foreign nationals is expected to change little from its draft version and to be approved unanimously at the agency’s Sept. 30 meeting, said industry experts in recent interviews. “The industry is getting a narrow set of questions,” said Vinson & Elkins' Richard Sofield. “Are they as narrow as they’d like? No, but there is certainty.” DOD, DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security make up Team Telecom, which Sofield used to chair.

The 2021 NAB Show is shifting to a virtual event, and won't convene in-person at the Las Vegas Convention Center Oct. 9-13, the association announced Wednesday. The 2022 NAB Show, set for April 23-27, is still planned to be in-person, NAB said. See our earlier news bulletin here.