The FCC Media Bureau fined NPG of Idaho, licensee of KIFI-TV Idaho Falls, $6,000 for failing to file children’s TV programming reports in a timely manner for five quarters, the bureau said in a notice of apparent liability Thursday. KIFI failed to report late filings in its renewal application, the bureau said. A commercial TV licensee is required to file reports “reflecting the efforts that it made during that quarter to serve the educational and informational needs of children” in public inspection files for each calendar quarter, the bureau said. Payment is due within 30 days, the bureau said. NPG didn’t comment.

The FCC seeks comment on proposed improvements to the way it issues some FCC Registration Numbers (FRNs) that will allow users to be uniquely identified without using their Social Security numbers, said a Further NPRM released Thursday and approved by commissioners. The proposal is intended to address privacy and data security concerns while still letting the FCC “obtain data reflecting a more useful, accurate, and thorough assessment of minority and female broadcast station ownership in the United States and reduce certain filing burdens,” the FNPRM said. “Ultimately, such changes to the Commission’s system could assist future initiatives promoting diverse ownership.” The new FRNs would be used only for the collection of data on broadcast ownership reports, and would be called Restricted Use FRNs. Under the proposed system, users would obtain a RUFRN by submitting alternate ID information “including full name, residential address, date of birth, and last four digits of the individual’s SSN,” the NPRM said. The FCC’s registration system (CORES) “will be programmed to verify that the submitted information is complete and does not duplicate any information that is already associated with an RUFRN in CORES,” the NPRM said. The new FRN’s aren’t proposed to be required, the NPRM said. “Individuals who already have a CORES FRN need not obtain an RUFRN and may continue to use the existing number,” it said. “Any individual that wishes to obtain a CORES FRN instead of an RUFRN will be able to do so.” The NPRM seeks comment on the proposal and whether it addresses privacy concerns.

Discovery Communications renewed its long-term distribution agreement with Cablevision Systems, it said in a news release Wednesday. Cablevision subscribers can access Discovery’s 13 networks and TV Everywhere rights through subscriber authentication, it said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau denied R.J.'s Late Night Entertainment's (RJLNE) petition for reconsideration of a forfeiture order of $22,000, the bureau said in an order Monday. The bureau fined RJLNE for failing to maintain operational emergency alert system equipment, for its FM transmitter from its authorized location and make its public inspection file available, in violation of FCC rule sections 11.35, 73.1690 and 73.3527, the bureau said. Payment is due within 30 days of the order's release. RJLNE didn't comment.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a $17,000 fine against Birach Broadcasting for not fixing a gap in the fence enclosing the antenna for WCXI(AM) Fenton, Michigan, and failing to maintain and make available required program lists, a forfeiture order issued Tuesday said. Birach had argued that since it doesn't own the tower, it is not responsible for the fence, but the bureau disagreed. The fencing requirements apply to “AM licensees, not antenna structure owners,” the order said.

The FCC Media Bureau Video Division approved KCEB License's request to substitute Channel 26 for Channel 51 in Longview, Texas, the bureau said in an order Monday in docket 14-245. The substitution will expand KCEB’s coverage area and eliminate potential interference with wireless operations in the adjacent lower 700 MHz A-block, said KCEB License, licensee of KCEB Longview. The substitution complies with the principal community coverage requirements of Section 73.625 of the rules and technical requirements of sections 73.616 and 73.623, the bureau said. KCEB must electronically submit a minor change application for a construction permit with Form 2100, Schedule A within 30 days, the bureau said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau denied Pacific Empire Radio's petition for reconsideration and upheld its forfeiture order of $25,000 for multiple violations of the public inspection file requirements, the bureau said in an opinion and order included in Monday's Daily Digest. Pacific Empire Radio “willfully and repeatedly” violated Section 73.3526 of the rules, the bureau said. The commission indicated the importance of the public file rules by recently requiring the online posting of TV broadcast licensees’ public files (see 1502060061) “to ensure greater access by the public” and proposing the extension of this requirement to broadcast radio licensees, cable and satellite-TV operators and satellite radio licensees, the bureau said. Pacific Empire Radio didn't comment.

It’s “still too early” for the U.K. government to start the countdown toward a hard switchover from analog to digital radio, Ed Vaizey, the U.K. minister for culture and the digital economy, told the annual Drive to Digital conference Friday at BBC headquarters in London. “It might be right in a couple of years,” Vaizey said. “We are making really good progress, and 2017 now looks very likely for a time when whatever government is in power can take stock and set a timetable.” In late 2013, Vaizey laid out his conditions for starting a countdown toward a digital switchover, saying most radio listening in the U.K. needs to be digital, and that digital transmitter coverage has to match that of FM. Digital listening now stands at 38 percent and both the BBC and commercial radio stations are building more transmitters, partly with funding from the government and partly by the broadcasters, Vaizey said. “It’s a difficult and complex process,” Vaizey said of building digital transmitter coverage. The BBC is now at 95 percent coverage and should be at 97 percent by the end of this year, he said. However, the commercial and local networks still offer significantly less coverage, he said. Two-thirds of all new cars in the U.K. now come with a factory-installed digital radio, compared with 4 percent only five years ago, Vaizey said. “So we are now closer to the goal of radio switchover. But converting the existing ‘park’ of analog cars and trucks remains a challenge.” On the thorny issue of continuing to allow the sale of analog-only radios, Vaizey said: “It’s controversial and retailers who know their customers don’t want to push them away from products they want to buy. I want this to be driven by the customers. If radios can get both analogue and digital I want it to seem ridiculous not to buy a radio with digital.”

The FCC should extend the comment deadlines for its proceeding on expanding the definition of a multichannel video programming distributor to include some over-the-top video services, NAB said. Comments are due Feb. 17, replies March 4, but NAB wants comments due March 19, replies April 3. NAB “will need more than the currently allotted time” to analyze “a variety of complex public policy, legal and regulatory matters” connected with the proceeding, the association said Friday in docket 14-261.

With the end of the AWS-3 auction, the upcoming incentive auction will be costlier, panelists at a spectrum conference sponsored by PwC said Thursday. It’s unclear how that will affect broadcasters on the reverse side of the upcoming incentive auction, said Eric Wolf, vice president of technology strategy and management at the Public Broadcasting Service. “There will be a lot more demand for spectrum,” said John Hane, a Pillsbury communications lawyer. “Another view is the AWS-3 auction is fundamentally different from the 600 MHz auction. AWS was a fairly straightforward auction -- people knew what they were bidding on. The 600 auction is very complex, even on the forward side of the auction.” The industry has “essentially forced consumers to stitch together the services that they want,” Wolf said. It can disaggregate and break up service from infrastructure, Hane said. He said he’s optimistic that ATSC 3.0 will be adopted. The “3.0 will make it a lot easier,” said John Lawson, principal of Convergence Services. “It seems like it’s happening, but there’s no structure to make these devices interoperable. We’re still in this scenario with silos.” Wolf said, “Don’t think about it as how many dollars per hertz or bits you can extract. Think about it as how can you help the consumer?” The FCC should be thinking of the consumer, too, and beyond the dollars, he said. “By 2025, I see the FCC trying to auction the T-band,” said Mike Gravino, director of the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition. “I see a constant struggle between the wireless industry and broadcast industry, even though we want to be the same, a struggle over this bandwidth.”