The unpredictability of breaking news means there is no safe way to have TV stations and wireless mics coexist in the same slice of spectrum, broadcast TV networks and affiliates said in a filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 14-252. While the FCC plans to limit the number of markets in which this repacking occurs, keeping reserved spectrum for wireless mics "is critical," said the Big Four network owners, their affiliate associations and Univision. "Our stations' news gathering teams need the ability to operate nimbly in response to unpredictable local events and weather. We ourselves cannot predict which television stations in which markets will need to operationalize at a moment's notice." The broadcasters asked the agency to reject the repacking of stations or investigate more the effect of such a move on newsgathering.

The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters filed in support of an Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition proposal to offer broadcasters higher prices for their spectrum in the TV incentive auction (see 1505060035). Giving greater weight to a station’s “preclusive impact” can “lead to greater broadcaster participation in the Reverse Auction,” NABOB said in a filing in docket 12-268 reporting on a series of meetings at the FCC.

The Media Bureau has reassigned the TV broadcast licenses of three Hawaii stations from Hearst Stations to KITV, Honolulu, and given it the authority to operate KHVO, Hilo, and KMAU, Wailuku, as satellites. The two had operated as satellites as KITV long before the sale by Hearst, the Media Bureau said Wednesday.

Entercom is trading four Denver-area radio stations to Bonneville International in exchange for one in Los Angeles and $5 million, to satisfy Department of Justice conditions on Entercom's purchase of Lincoln Financial Media. Being traded to Bonneville are Entercom's KOSI(FM) Denver and Lincoln Financial's KYGO(FM) Denver, KKFN(FM) Longmont and KEPN(AM) Lakewood. Entercom will pick up KSWD(FM) Los Angeles from Bonneville. The stations will change hands once the Lincoln Financial acquisition closes, Entercom said in a Tuesday news release. That swap will end DOJ Hart-Scott-Rodino Act review of the acquisition -- a review that had focused on how the deal would affect the Denver radio market. The stations currently owned there by Entercom and Lincoln have among the highest ratings in the market, and the Lincoln sale would have meant higher radio advertising prices and lower quality service there, DOJ said. Its Antitrust Division sued Entercom Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington to block the Lincoln sale, while simultaneously filing a proposed settlement. The $105 million Lincoln acquisition and the Entercom/Bonneville trades are expected to take place within days, Entercom said.

Closed-TV captioning for public access and governmental programming will be the focus of an FCC-organized forum to be held Nov. 10. Topics to be covered include captioning obligations of programmers and stations, as well as various captioning solutions. The forum will be 1-5 p.m. at FCC headquarters, 445 12th St. NW.

Comments on possible TV channel sharing rule changes are due Aug. 13, the FCC said in a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. The FCC is leaning toward allowing channel sharing by full-power and Class A stations outside of the incentive auction, including sharing by entities that previously had a channel sharing agreement that since expired or has been terminated. The aim "is to encourage voluntary participation by broadcasters" in the upcoming broadcast incentive auction, the FCC said. Replies in docket 15-137 are due Aug. 28.

Expect to see more clashes between pay TV and broadcasters over retransmission consent, thanks to a pay-TV industry strategy of manufacturing disputes, the NAB said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in FCC docket 10-71. The meeting with FCC staff was to highlight the importance of the regulator's syndicated exclusivity and nonduplication rules, the NAB said. With "some in the pay TV industry" trying to get more government regulation in retrans, the FCC "should not be surprised by an uptick in pay TV-manufactured disputes" as the agency has begun rulemaking for the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization's Section 103, which covers retrans, the broadcasters association said. "Bad actors should not be rewarded with government assistance, especially when those actions come, yet again, at consumers' expenses." Broadcasters, not pay-TV, bears responsibility for blackouts, which are "wreaking havoc for consumers," American Television Alliance spokesman Trent Duffy said. "The suggestion that pay-TV providers are manufacturing this blackout crisis is laughable," Duffy said. "Broadcasters abuse old laws to gouge consumers for what is supposed to be free over the air programming. It’s not fair and it’s not pretty, but sadly, it is legal because Congress hasn’t fixed the laws. It’s time for Congress to end broadcaster special interest giveaways so TV fans get their shows instead of a black screen.”

U.S. TV broadcasters are facing “growing secular pressure” from online video and other alternatives, Standard & Poor’s said in a report Monday. U.S. media companies need to have “strong, well-defined brands that translate across both traditional TV and online alternatives” and decreased dependence on full-size video bundles, Standard & Poor's credit analyst Naveen Sarma said in a news release. "Successful media companies must, in our view, move away from their bundle strategies and focus on their key brands and networks." CBS, Comcast, Disney, Time Warner and Twenty-First Century Fox have these attributes, while AMC Networks and Viacom possess “fewer of these qualities,” S&P said.

The FCC is seeking comment on adding three new event codes “covering extreme wind and storm surges” to the EAS system based on a request from the National Weather Service (NWS), said an NPRM issued Friday. The NWS has requested codes for Extreme Wind Warning (EWW), Storm Surge Watch (SSA) and Storm Surge Warning (SSW), the NPRM said. No existing EAS event code “is adequate or acceptable to activate the EAS for an extreme wind warning,” the NPRM said. Although there are codes for hurricanes, they apply to the storm event itself and “are not specifically tailored to warn of extreme sustained surface winds,” the NPRM said. Storm Surge watches and warnings would be issued when there's “a significant risk of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland from the ocean,” the NPRM said. A storm surge watch would be issued 48 hours before the event might take place and a warning would be issued 36 hours before. Storm surge is “the leading cause of death in tropical cyclones,” the notice said. “Absent a revision of our EAS rules to allow the NWS to warn the public of these events, we risk unnecessary harm to the public,” the NPRM said. The Media Bureau said it “tentatively concludes” that the new event codes could promote public safety by saving lives. It seeks comment on that conclusion and on whether the new codes would help minimize public confusion, and on the cost of adding them. The NPRM also seeks comment on revising “the territorial boundaries of the geographic location codes for two offshore marine areas,” the item said. The NWS has changed the way it defines two offshore marine areas along the east coast and Gulf of Mexico for the purpose of generating weather alerts, and wants the EAS system to incorporate that change. EAS location code 75 covering “Western North Atlantic Ocean, and along U.S. East Coast, south of Currituck Beach Light, N.C., following the coastline into Gulf of Mexico to Bonita Beach, FL, including the Caribbean,” would become “Western North Atlantic Ocean, and along U.S. East Coast, south of Currituck Beach Light, NC, following the coastline to Ocean Reef, FL, including the Caribbean,” and location code 77 covering “Gulf of Mexico, and along the U.S. Gulf Coast from the Mexican border to Bonita Beach, FL,” would become “Gulf of Mexico, and along the U.S. Gulf Coast from the Mexican border to Ocean Reef, FL,” under the change.

The FCC should continue requiring broadcasters to make information available in their public inspection files and online, said The Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and Sunlight Foundation in joint comments filed Wednesday. The commission should also take steps to make the data more searchable, the groups said. The FCC should “adopt the use of a standardized, machine-readable format for submitting political file data," the groups said. “While online public files provide essential information needed to ensure that television stations serve the public interest, the FCC should adopt its proposal to extend the filing requirements to other media and should require the filing of shared services and other agreements that may confer influence,” the groups said.