The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment by March 10, replies by March 17, on Funai’s petition for a waiver of over-the-air tuner requirements, the bureau said in a public notice Tuesday in docket 15-42. Funai seeks a waiver in order to make, distribute and sell in the U.S. its hard disk drive/digital video disk recorders that do not include analog tuners.

The repacking process for the FCC incentive auction will potentially affect stations in every designated market area, since the commission expects to repurpose channels 51 and below, said Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake in a low-power TV LEARN webinar Tuesday. The commission is on schedule to hold the auction in early 2016, he said. Other officials have said similar in recent days (see 1502240035). "The reorganization of the broadcast band will have a significant impact on translators and LPTV stations, especially in urban areas," said Lake. Replacement translators aren't protected in the repacking, but will have a priority in the post-auction displacement window, he said. Class A stations and full-power stations are entitled to protection under the Spectrum Act, he said. The pre-auction licensing deadline is May 29, relevant only to Class A and full-power TV stations, he said. A proposal to extend the Sept. 1 deadline for LPTV and TV translator stations to transition to digital avoids requiring stations to double-build, he said. Channel sharing will add more broadcast hours and broaden a user base, Lake said. Commenters urged the commission to allow more than two partners to share a single channel, like some full power stations, he said. Another proposal is to have full-power stations replace digital service areas that will be lost after the repacking, a digital-to-digital replacement translator, he said. The commission wants to preserve one channel in the UHF band in all areas of the U.S. that aren't assigned to a TV station in the repacking process for shared use by white space devices and wireless mics, based on consumer need, Lake said. An alternative delivery method LPTV might consider is multicasting on digital stations, he said. LPTVs that are primary emergency alert system facilities are subjects of petitions for reconsideration and comments, which the commission will decide on, he said. A window for new stations might be opened after the repacking process and the displacement window, he said. “We hope very much that viewers in the heartland and elsewhere continue to receive the programming they need and want, and we will work with the low-power community to try to ensure that that happens."

FCC approval of WLAJ-TV Lansing, Michigan's request to change channels from 51 to 23 took effect Monday, said a commission notice in that day's Federal Register. The station said the move cuts "potential interference to and from wireless operations in the adjacent Lower 700 MHz A Block," said the agency: That "will permit the wireless licensee to expand operations in service to subscribers." A Media Bureau order earlier this month OK'd the change (see 1502130050).

Panasonic in the U.K. will be the first manufacturer to launch TVs with the Freeview Play connected TV service, the company said Monday. Freeview, the U.K.’s subscription-free digital TV service, is being rebranded as Freeview Play “in preparation for a new product launch that will introduce a mass market connected TV offer,” said a recent announcement from DTV Services, the consortium of Arqiva, BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Sky that runs the service (see 1502120036). Panasonic will make Freeview Play available in its new 2015 lineup of Viera TVs, the company said.

The Department of Education is forming a partnership with the Association of Public Television Stations to build a national network of workforce and adult education development programs, said Johan Uvin, education acting assistant secretary for Career, Technical and Adult Education, at the APTS 2015 Summit Sunday. “You're reaching people that we cannot. You're in people's living rooms. We need you to work with us and help us bridge that message [of workforce education].” Tuesday, the department will release a Making Skills Everyone's Business report which rethinks the topic of infrastructure for adult learning, he said. The department is working on proposing a Workforce Opportunity Act, which would present a new vision for U.S. workforce development and adult learning, Uvin said. Public TV stations should file comments on the draft once it's released, he said. “I didn't see how we could develop a talent strategy without the help of public TV.” Also at the APTS event, channel sharing was discussed ahead of the FCC incentive auction (see <1502220002).

Broadcasters should carry spots to educate Americans about the availability of FM radio on mobile devices, Gordon Smith, NAB president, said in a letter emailed to radio stations Thursday. On Monday, NextRadio, an app that provides a "hybrid FM experience" on smartphones, will launch a national marketing campaign promoting FM radio on mobile devices, he said. Thursday, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai supported activating FM chips in cellphones (see 1502190057). NextRadio uses "over-the-air radio receivers in conjunction with online connectivity in smartphones to enhance the listener experience," Smith said. "With more than 1.8 million downloads of NextRadio thus far, listeners are learning that they don't have to stream or incur data charges to get the local music, sports and talk stations they love." Emmis Communications, which has been the prime mover behind promoting adoption of NextRadio, has encountered a diversity of resistance among wireless carriers in getting them to adopt the NextRadio FM reception app in smartphones, Paul Brenner, chief technology officer at Emmis, told us last summer (see 1408060043). “It seems that the varying carrier strategies have an equally varying effect on acceptance,” Brenner said.

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force announced new dates and locations starting March 9 for its incentive auction "road show," in a public notice Thursday. After the March 9 presentation in Buffalo, the outreach effort will visit Detroit and Lansing, Michigan, and Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Initial briefs are due April 13 for Prometheus Radio Project's petition for review of the FCC’s closing of the 2010 quadrennial review and for NAB's of the FCC’s rules for attributing joint sales agreements to ownership statistics, and their final briefs Aug. 20, said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The cases are consolidated into one proceeding. The order assigns the two petitioners a limit of 9,000 words each, less than half the 19,000 each that they had requested. Cox Media Group, the International Center for Law and Economics, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and Mission Broadcasting will file amicus and intervenor briefs in the case, the order said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will speak at the 2015 NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 15 at 9 a.m., NAB said in a news release Thursday. Wheeler will discuss the commission's policies on broadcasting, technology and communications law, NAB said. The NAB Show is April 11-16.

The ATSC formed a new “implementation team” for advanced emergency alerting as a "key element" of the next-gen ATSC 3.0 DTV standard, the group said Thursday. “Advanced emergency alerting promises to create new significant value for viewers, consumer electronics manufacturers, broadcasters and the public safety community," ATSC President Mark Richer said. "The addition of advanced emergency alerting capability and the accompanying rich-media warning information represents a compelling ATSC 3.0 application.” The implementation team, chaired by Jay Adrick, a technology adviser to Gates Air, won't develop standards or recommended practices, but may make recommendations to ATSC and other standards development organizations "as appropriate," the group said.