NAB is gearing up to “go head-to-head with the record labels” at the Copyright Royalty Board over digital performance rights, said NAB CEO Gordon Smith at the opening of the 2014 NAB Radio Show Wednesday. NAB is working to convince the CRB “that they should set the rate at a level that encourages broadcasters to stream,” when the rates are reset in 2015, Smith said. NAB is also weighing in at the FCC on the possible expansion of online public file requirements, he said. “NAB has explained to the Commission that it is likely to be much more difficult, especially for small radio stations, to upload and continually update the public file.” Broadcasters should be “bullish” about the future of radio, Smith said. No other medium has broadcasting’s connection to local communities, Smith said. He said NAB’s support of an app that provides FM radio over smartphones -- called NextRadio -- is part of the association’s effort to provide a future for radio. NAB Labs is also testing the “all-digital mode of iBiquity’s AM digital radio system,” Smith said. “We have now conducted field tests of this system at seven different stations and are conducting lab testing as well.” The results are “encouraging,” Smith said Wednesday, according to prepared remarks released by the association (http://bit.ly/1lYwIjJ).

Six lawmakers praised the FCC for scheduling a vote on an order to eliminate the sports blackout rule. The notion that the fear of a blackout compels fans to attend games “is inconsistent with the experience in the communities we represent,” said Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and John McCain, R-Ariz., along with Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., in a letter dated Wednesday to Chairman Tom Wheeler (http://1.usa.gov/1rNKGRZ). Fans attend NFL games “because viewing at home is no substitute for the game day experience in and around the stadium,” they said. While the decision to end blackouts is ultimately up to the NFL and TV networks, federal rules shouldn’t encourage such an outdated and insulting policy, they said. The order is expected to get a unanimous approval by the commission this month (CD Sept 11 p2). But repeal of the rule would function like a regressive tax, “imposing the greatest burden on Americans who are most vulnerable to rising cable bills,” said Hal Singer, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute. Wheeler intimates that by rescinding the rule, local blackouts could be wiped out, Singer said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1ACTZst) in response to Wheeler’s USA Today op-ed (CD Sept 10 p19). Eliminating the rule would change the value of the package of Sunday daytime football telecasts for broadcasters, said Singer, who submitted economic testimony for the NFL in the proceeding. With exclusivity, “the telecast rights are worth a lot less to the broadcasters,” he said. It’s naive for policymakers to assume that the NFL, or any firm, will do anything but engage in profit-maximizing behavior, he said.

Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s application for review of the Sinclair/Allbritton Communications TV station deal doesn’t raise any new issues and is a “stale rehash” of “unfounded allegations,” said Sinclair in an opposition filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1BsM979). “Rainbow PUSH can’t take no for an answer.” Though Rainbow PUSH argued in its application (CD Aug 26 p16) that Sinclair improperly controls its partner in several sharing arrangements Cunningham Broadcasting, Rainbow PUSH’s arguments are “without any factual support,” Sinclair said. Cunningham wasn’t a party to Sinclair/Allbritton, and the executives named in the application no longer work there, Sinclair said. The Media Bureau “has previously concluded that all of the allegations made by Rainbow PUSH are without merit.” The application for review provides no new facts and is “nothing more than a waste of Commission resources,” Sinclair said. It should be dismissed, Sinclair said.

Two Los Angeles public TV stations agreed to enter into a channel sharing arrangement to participate in the incentive auction, said KCET Los Angeles parent public media organization KCETLink (http://bit.ly/1qGssWh). KCET will share spectrum with KLCS Los Angeles, one of the participants in the FCC channel sharing pilot program earlier this year. “We will certainly benefit from KLCS’ test program and appreciate the station’s leadership,” said Al Jerome, KCETLink’s CEO. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the arrangement “pleased” him, in a released statement. “It’s a compelling opportunity for broadcasters to continue their existing business on a shared channel, and take home a check for the spectrum they relinquish in the incentive auction,” he said. The stations will share a single broadcast channel and offer up 6 MHz of spectrum to be sold in the auction, the release said. Both KCET and KLCS will continue to operate under separate noncommercial, educational TV broadcast licenses, said the release. Other broadcasters should give channel sharing “careful consideration,” Wheeler said.

Rentrak added five more ABC-owned TV stations that will use its Advanced Demographics ratings information. Rentrak already has agreements with CBS, Fox and NBC, it said Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1uHoOus). Sixty-four percent of network-owned stations are Rentrak clients, it said. The new ABC stations are WABC-TV New York, KABC-TV Los Angeles, WLS-TV Chicago, WPVI-TV Philadelphia and WTVD Raleigh-Durham, Rentrak said.

NAB’s legal challenge of an FCC Media Bureau public notice announcing processing guidelines for deals involving TV broadcaster sharing arrangements was dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. NAB’s petition for review was dismissed because the PN was issued on delegated authority, and should have been challenged at the commission-level before being brought to the court, said a D.C. Circuit order. To obtain judicial review of an order issued by FCC staff pursuant to delegated authority, the association was required to fulfill the “condition precedent” of filing an application for review by the FCC of the bureau’s decision, and to wait until the FCC ruled on the application, the order said. The difficulty of obtaining judicial review of the processing guidelines was likely why they were issued under delegated authority, industry attorneys had told us (CD March 14 p9). Since the FCC has to vote to hear applications for review of bureau-level decisions, they can be indefinitely stalled, the attorneys said. NAB had argued that several letters filed with the FCC asking it to review the processing guidelines were a sufficient stand-in for an application for review (CD June 5 p16) but the court disagreed. Because of the dismissal, a motion from Prometheus Radio Project and other groups to consolidate the case with the other sharing arrangement proceedings was declared moot in the same order. Associated court challenges by the NAB to the FCC’s rules for attributing joint sales agreements and by Prometheus to the closing of the 2010 quadrennial review remain active, said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who represents Prometheus.

The National Urban League urged the FCC to maintain its sports blackout rule, saying it has worked as intended. As a result, all Americans, especially the 22 percent of black households, 23 percent of Asian households, and 25 percent of Latino households depending on broadcast-only TV, have access to valuable sports content, said NUL CEO Marc Morial in a filing posted Monday in docket 12-3 (http://bit.ly/1tnnvQh). Eliminating the rule may cost jobs and depress economic activity when too many Americans “continue to face high unemployment rates and economic inequality,” he said. But the Sports Fans Coalition filed a commentary by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., saying the rationale of the rule is no longer supported by the facts. Despite a completed comment period, “we are still waiting on the commission to cast a final vote,” they said on CNN.com (http://cnn.it/YqYV8q). Federal regulations shouldn’t favor multi-billion dollar sports leagues over consumers, they said. Some FCC members back nixing the rule, as an NPRM proposes (CD Aug 4 p6).

The FCC tentatively selected applicants in 111 groups of mutually exclusive applications for new low-power FM construction permits. The commission also initiated the 30-day period for filing petitions to deny the tentatively selected applicants, and a 90-day filing period for voluntary time-share proposals and major change amendments, it said Friday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1rIq40Z). Manchester Community College in Connecticut, Public Media Institute in Chicago, and Sabbath Inc. in Indianapolis are among the tentatively selected applicants, the FCC said (http://fcc.us/1pyjkgP). It also provided a list of second adjacent waiver requests (http://bit.ly/1wbR0GZ).

Common Cause said the FCC should review the Media Bureau’s decision to dismiss complaints against stations owned by Allbritton and Sander Media for allegedly identifying front groups incorrectly as the “true sponsors” of political advertisements. The commission is “shirking its responsibility to enforce the longstanding federal law requiring broadcasters to disclose the ’true identity’ of the sponsors of political advertising,” Common Cause said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1unNRU5). It’s one thing that the “congressional gridlock precludes passage of laws to right the many wrongs our special interest political culture faces,” former FCC commissioner and Common Cause special adviser Michael Copps said in the release. It’s infinitely worse “to ignore laws already on the books that enable us to tackle these problems,” he said. This year, Common Cause, the Campaign Legal Center and the Sunlight Foundation filed the complaints against Allbritton-owned ABC affiliate WJLA-TV Washington, D.C., (http://bit.ly/1oIOaDq) and Sander’s KGW-TV Portland, Oregon (http://bit.ly/1mlDLw8). The stations allegedly attributed political ads to political action committees (PACs) instead of identifying the true sponsors, the groups said (http://bit.ly/Z8JiCv). The complaints don’t provide a sufficient showing “that the stations had credible evidence casting into doubt that the identified sponsors of the advertisement were the true sponsors,” the bureau said in a letter to Andrew Schwartzman, the attorney for the groups (http://bit.ly/1waY6eM). The complainants’ theory is understandable, but “whether it is legally correct is another story,” a broadcast attorney said. While Section 317 of the Communications Act refers to “persons,” that term isn’t limited to individuals, but must also include legal entities, Fletcher Heald attorney Harry Cole said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1Abbtfm). As long as the PACs were properly identified, that arguably satisfied Section 317, he said. In tossing the complaints, the bureau didn’t address other concerns, like who is a “true sponsor” if it isn’t the entity signing the check, he said. It also isn’t clear in what cases the donors should be identified as the true sponsors “and when the PAC itself is properly identified as the sponsor,” Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1qAk2OC). The decision will likely be used as a tool to make broadcasters think twice about taking third-party political advertising money, he said.

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment in three proceedings on channel substitution. ION Media requested substitution of Channel 31 for Channel 51 in Rome, Georgia, for WPXA-TV Rome, and it requested substitution of Channel 30 for Channel 51 in Kansas City, Missouri, for its station KPXE-TV Kansas City, the bureau said in NPRMs released Thursday (http://bit.ly/Z8QTB5) and (http://bit.ly/1r9lgO8). WPXS-TV Mount Vernon, Illinois, seeks to substitute Channel 11 for Channel 21 in Mount Vernon, the bureau said in another NPRM (http://bit.ly/1o2AWC5). WPXS-TV also wants a waiver of the FCC’s freeze on the filing of petitions for rulemaking by TV stations seeking a channel substitution, it said. Initial comments in both proceedings will be due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, the bureau said.