Broadcasters must think about what’s needed in their retransmission consent negotiations as they send in their must carry/retrans election letters to cable and satellite providers in their markets, said a broadcast attorney. The deadline for sending the carriage election letters to multichannel video distribution providers is Oct. 1. This will be the first set of election letters that stations must immediately upload to their online public inspection file, said Pillsbury Winthrop TV station lawyer Scott Flick Thursday in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1txZclk). The impact of these elections is becoming more significant, he said. Retrans revenue must be considered as essential to both short-term and long-term survival, he said. Economic forces “are driving consolidation in the TV industry,” he said. Single stations and small station groups “have to punch well above their weight by employing smart executives and counsel with deep experience in retrans negotiations to survive in this increasingly harsh environment,” wrote Flick. Under the FCC prohibition on joint retrans negotiations, a station that fails to sell to a larger broadcaster possessing the skill and mass necessary to effectively negotiate retrans agreements “risks losing its network affiliation to just such a station group, precisely because that group can frequently deliver better retrans results,” he said.

The FCC’s focus on restricting who can bid on spectrum caused “consternation” to the anonymous broadcasters comprising Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, said a May email (http://bit.ly/1mmCJ9P) sent to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and members of the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force by coalition Executive Director Preston Padden. The email was posted online only Friday, after Office of the General Counsel staff noticed it while processing a Freedom of Information Act request, said a U.S. government memorandum posted along with the email. “Real friends tell friends things they don’t want to hear,” said Padden at the start of the email. Since the email, the FCC has been more receptive to some of the coalition’s concerns, Padden told us Friday. “I don’t think that’s because of the email.” The email complained of the FCC focus on dividing spectrum it does not yet have, and not providing enough pricing guidance to broadcasters. “Instead we get Stanford economist designed ’scoring/adjustment’ schemes to limit payments to willing seller stations,” Padden said. Bidding restrictions “retard auction revenue,” he said in the email. “Please help us to continue to be cheerleaders."

Sinclair petitioned for review of the FCC’s incentive auction order, in documents filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Sinclair’s court challenge joins one filed last month by NAB (CD Sept 10 p1) and numerous petitions for reconsideration of the order filed this week at the FCC (CD Sept 17 p7). The auction order was adopted “in excess” of FCC authority and violates the Spectrum Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, Sinclair said. The court should hold the order unlawful or enjoin it, Sinclair said. The commission declined to comment.

Public misunderstanding and “unintended consequences” are likely to follow repeal of FCC sports blackout rules, said NAB officials in meetings with Commissioner Ajit Pai and an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 12-3 Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1yi0F3o). Other exclusivity rules, such as network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity, could “substantially undermine the economic foundation that supports localism” if repealed, NAB said. Eliminating exclusivity rules beyond the sports blackout rule “would not be in the public interest,” NAB said. A draft FCC order would eliminate the blackout rule (CD Sept 11 p2).

GAO found it difficult to assess the disclosure rules and practices of TV and radio stations airing content intended to influence Congress, said a report released Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1qZpZ97). “Information is not available for a comprehensive assessment of relevant content aired from 2007 through 2012.” GAO said 2012 data was the most current available to it at the time of the review. Since broadcasters are required to keep political advertising information in public files for only two years, “it precludes using public file records to conduct research on the number or fair market value of these advertisements beyond a 2-year period,” GAO said. “Few private data sources have archival data on these types of advertisements.” One private contractor that did have such data on specific issues showed broadcasters had aired sponsored ads on issues affecting broadcaster interests “at least 2,646 times, ranging in estimated cost from $6 to over $15,000 per airing,” said GAO. “These are estimates and do not represent what was actually paid for these airings and therefore may not reflect other factors that could affect costs.” The GAO report did not include any recommendations on broadcaster disclosure.

Gray Television completed its buy of WJRT-TV Flint, Michigan, and WTVG Toledo, Ohio, from SJL Holdings, the acquirer said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1ARoivK). Both stations are ABC affiliates and “lead their local markets in all-day ratings and in most, if not all, local newscasts,” Gray said.

CBS and Media General signed a deal renewing all of Media General’s existing station affiliation agreements. The long-term agreement covers 12 markets nationwide, CBS said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/XnYXwA). The agreement includes renewals for WRBL Columbus, Georgia, WNCT Greenville, N.C., WHLT Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and WKRG Mobile, Alabama, it said.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai urged the commission to repeal the sports blackout rule at its Sept. 30 meeting. The government shouldn’t intervene in the marketplace “to help sports leagues enforce their blackout policies,” he said in an op-ed on Gannett-owned Cincinnati.com (http://cin.ci/1uMG6q0). He rejected arguments from rule advocates that leagues might televise their games only on cable or satellite TV, saying the leagues’ contracts with over-the-air broadcasters are enduring. By moving games to pay-TV, “the NFL would be cutting off its nose to spite its face,” he said. While leagues would remain free to negotiate deals with broadcasters and pay distributors to enforce the blackout policy without the rule, “taking the government’s thumb off team owners’ side of the scale would create momentum for a more accessible sports experience,” he said. There’s broad support for lifting the sports blackout rule, “and the FCC appears ready to accommodate that wish,” said public interest attorney Andrew Jay Schwartzman. In proposing to repeal the rule, the FCC took the view that the goal of Congress in requiring the open video systems and direct broadcast satellite blackout rules was to achieve parity with cable, he said in a Benton Foundation blog post (http://bit.ly/1uBhmmg). If the commission were to repeal the cable rule, “it would fulfill the congressional goal of parity by repealing the other two rules as well,” he said.

Public TV organizations urged the FCC to revise its broadcast incentive auction rules to ensure that after the auction and repacking, “no community in the country will be left without noncommercial educational television service,” they said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1m98qU3). The request from the Association of Public Television Stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS alters a request made previously by APTS that the FCC create an algorithm alerting it to a bid made by the last remaining public TV station in a market, which the commission rejected in its spectrum auction order (CD June 9 p2). The petition asks the FCC to allow an NCE station operating on a reserved channel “to relinquish all of its spectrum usage rights provided that at least one such station remains on-air in the community,” or that at least one reserved channel is preserved during the repacking process, the reconsideration petition said. This approach allows any station to voluntarily participate in the auction by permitting even the last licensee on a reserved channel to voluntarily enter into a channel sharing arrangement, move from the UHF band to the VHF band, “or relinquish its license as long as the reserved channel is preserved in the repacking process and made available to a new entrant,” it said.

The FCC seeks comment on petitions on channel substitution. Initial comments are due Oct. 14, replies Oct. 27, on whether WPXS Mount Vernon, Illinois, should substitute Channel 11 for Channel 21, the commission said Friday in a Federal Register notice (http://1.usa.gov/1tQ0Q39). The commission set the same comment period for the petition of WPXA-TV Rome, Georgia, to substitute Channel 31 for Channel 51, and for the petition of KPXE-TV Kansas City, Missouri, to substitute Channel 30 for Channel 51, it said in other Federal Register notices (http://1.usa.gov/1uLMmOI) (http://1.usa.gov/ZjEgDk). The agency had previously released NPRMs on the channel change requests.