The FCC Media Bureau granted Pine Telephone special relief to add a Portland, Oregon, cable community to the TV markets of Boise, Idaho, stations KBOI-TV and KTVB. The bureau also denied special relief for Pine’s Nampa, Idaho, stations KIVI and KTRV, and KNIN-TV Caldwell, Idaho, the bureau said Wednesday in an order (http://bit.ly/1qWY3oi). Because cable systems in the Halfway community have carried KBOI, KIVI and KTVB, for as long as there has been cable service there, “we find that these stations have demonstrable historic carriage, whereas KNIN-TV and KTRV-TV do not,” it said.

Wanting “truly autonomous ownership for minority broadcasters,” Free Press likely would back a Nexstar TV station divestiture “if there are not any outsourcing agreements or contingent financial interests,” said the group’s policy counsel, Lauren Wilson. “We support deals and policies that lead to independence and wealth creation.” Without knowing for sure if the broadcaster will use outsourcing deals, she emailed us Tuesday, she can’t say if the group that often opposes media mergers and acquisitions would support divesting WEVV-TV Evansville, Indiana, to a group that includes a minority-owned company and that would be run by a minority executive. Nexstar didn’t reply to inquiries seeking details on the deal. The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters backs the divestiture that would be part of getting Justice Department approval for Nexstar to buy Communications Corporation of America. NABOB said the WEVV deal wouldn’t involve joint sales agreements or shared services agreements (CD Aug 6 p14), which Wilson said would be “good news."

Local TV broadcasters are expected to generate $3 billion in digital ad revenue, a Television Bureau of Advertising study found. The average station will bring in more than $1 million in digital sales this year, the report said (http://bit.ly/1s8UbjD). Online ad revenue for TV grew 15 percent last year, it said. TV-based sellers closed $2.7 billion in local online ads in 2013, it said. “We're forecasting slower growth this year” at 7.4 percent, it said. Ad buys on mobile and tablets are growing rapidly, it said. The data are derived from local business ad spending estimates, and media ad revenue for 9,894 local online operations in the U.S. and Canada, including 815 TV stations, it said. It also relied on another group’s online survey conducted in January and February of 190 managers representing 3,699 local media properties, it said. The report was done by Borrell.

The Communications Workers of America urged the FCC to immediately direct broadcasters to disclose all radio and TV shared services agreements. CWA also asked the FCC to decide that SSAs “create attributable ownership interests that must be counted in evaluating compliance with the FCC’s local broadcast ownership limits,” Tuesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1saQTZK) on its comments in the quadrennial regulatory review proceeding in docket 14-50. SSAs are pervasive and damaging to the commission’s goals to promote localism, diversity, competition, “and to prevent undue concentration of economic power in the media,” it said. SSAs destroy good jobs and affect diversity in programming, it said.

Nexstar agreed to sell WEVV-TV (CBS) Evansville, Indiana, to a company run by and partly owned by an African American, as part of Department of Justice-required divestitures. Bayou City Broadcasting Evansville (BCBE) would pay $18.6 million for WEVV, and the FCC must approve the deal, said Nexstar in a news release. BCBE is a owned by affiliates of Alta Communications, Bayou City Broadcasting (BCB) and Sankaty Advisors, and BCB owner DuJuan McCoy will run BCBE. (See separate report below in this issue.) It’s “the second time in the last two months that Nexstar has structured an agreement that furthers the FCC’s goal of increasing minority television ownership diversity,” said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook Monday (http://bit.ly/1lwIVWS). Another recently disclosed Nexstar sale agreement is of three Fox affiliates to Marshall Broadcasting Group, a newly formed minority-owned firm, as Nexstar is buying Communications Corporation of America. Nexstar said it expects to complete all pending deals this year. Selling WEVV “brings the overall CCA transaction into compliance” with DOJ “requirements for approval and will release the pending transaction from hold pending divestiture,” said Nexstar. Marshall’s deal to buy the three Nexstar stations was seen as a template of sorts for other broadcasters to get M&A through an FCC perceived as hostile to such deals (CD June 11 p9). The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, which supported the recent station sale to Marshall, also backed the WVEE divestiture, while public interest lawyer Andrew Schwartzman had questions about it. The WVEE deal “is the first independent purchase of a television station by an African American owned company in several years,” said a news release from NABOB, which has BCB as a member. “Unlike several recent transactions in which African American owners have purchased stations connected with larger media companies through joint sales agreements (JSAs) and/or shared services agreements (SSAs), the Bayou transaction is a completely independent transaction.” There are no JSA or SSA pacts, said the association. Nexstar’s news release gives few details, emailed Schwartzman, senior counselor at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation. A Nexstar lawyer didn’t comment. “A number of questions are left unanswered,” Schwartzman told us.

Tribune Co. spun off its publishing business and will now operate under the name Tribune Media Co., Tribune Media said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1p5yUVA). The spinoff of Tribune’s publishing assets into Tribune Publishing Co. was disclosed last year, shortly after it agreed to buy Local TV’s TV stations (CD July 11/2013 p 7). That deal was approved by the FCC just before Christmas (CD Dec 23 p1). The broadcast assets acquired in that deal are now part of Tribune Media, which includes Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Digital Ventures, Tribune Studios, WGN America and WGN Radio in Chicago, the company said.

Enthusiasm was high for the NextRadio FM reception smartphone app among 801 smartphone owners ages 18-49 canvassed online after watching a 90-second promotional video extolling NextRadio’s virtues, said NAB, which helped fund the study, and Emmis Communications, which developed and is promoting NextRadio to broadcasters and wireless carriers. NextRadio’s “growth of listening with users is quite good,” Emmis Chief Technology Officer Paul Brenner emailed us Monday. Until recently, only about two dozen models of Sprint smartphones supported the Next Radio app, a limitation still on display at the NextRadio website Monday. “We are working to update our website this week to more accurately reflect the multiple carriers with a NextRadio phone,” Brenner told us. “Our new matrix will make it easier for you and consumers to reference available phones.” For example, the HTC One M8 smartphone supports NextRadio on Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, in addition to Sprint, plus “regionals” like Cellcom, he said. Other phones supported on other major carriers are the HTC Remix on Verizon and the HTC Desire on AT&T, he said. FM reception chips already are embedded in many of today’s smartphones and need only be unlocked by the major carriers to support the NextRadio app. Only last Friday, for example, Sony landed FCC equipment authorizations on two models of smartphones, the PM-0382-BV and PM-0381-BV, and 20 model derivatives, all with GSM, Wi-Fi and near-field communication support, plus FM reception capability built into its Bluetooth chipset, FCC documents show. Sony has requested 180 days of confidentiality through Jan. 27 on the smartphones, which Sony Mobile Communications, of Lund, Sweden, is sourcing from Arima Communications, a Taiwanese original equipment manufacturer supplier, the documents show. As for the NextRadio survey results, 88 percent of those canvassed had a positive reaction, including 56 percent who described their initial reactions as “very positive,” and 45 percent who said they “definitely” would use NextRadio if it were available on their smartphones, the survey takers said. They found that 92 percent of those asked agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “The NextRadio app is really cool,” they said. The study was done by Coleman Insights, which released the results Thursday (http://bit.ly/1mfIeBl).

The FCC dismissed an application for review by Access on the Media Bureau’s dismissal of its low-power FM station application in San Diego. Access acknowledged that the dismissal was valid under existing law and policy, but argued “that the international third-channel spacing requirements have proven to be unnecessary,” the FCC said in a memorandum opinion and order (http://bit.ly/1xM5j4h). Access asked the agency to refrain from dismissing the application, to let the FCC encourage Mexico to change its spacing requirements, the commission said. Access never presented to the bureau its argument that the application should be held pending a possible revision of the spacing requirement rule, the FCC said.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed fines for TV stations in Texas for allegedly failing to publicize the existence and location of the stations’ children’s TV programming reports, it said in notices of apparent liability. The bureau proposed a $3,000 fine for NBC Telemundo’s KVDA-TV San Antonio (http://bit.ly/1kp7Qkq), and $1,000 for Centex’s KXXV-TV Waco, Texas, (http://bit.ly/1o9XuE6), it said. The bureau also proposed a $6,000 fine to Midessa Television for failing to timely file the children’s TV programming reports for Texas stations KWAB-TV Big Spring, and KWES-TV Odessa, it said (http://bit.ly/1qtQr7W).

"The time is right” for the FCC to end the newspaper/radio cross-ownership ban, said Delmarva Broadcasting, Lancaster Newspapers (LNP) and Steinman Stations, in a comment posted Wednesday in docket 14-50 responding to the FCC 2014 quadrennial review (http://bit.ly/1tusZMK). Comments are due Aug. 6, after an extension, said an FCC public notice (http://bit.ly/1qLzjPC). Delmarva, a subsidiary of Steinman, operates radio stations in Delaware and northern Maryland but not in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where affiliated company LNP publishes a newspaper, the comment said. The prohibition on cross-ownership “does nothing to provide access to a diversity of viewpoints in this digital age,” said the filing. “Instead, the prohibition inhibits the ability of trained communications professionals from deploying their skills and expertise across multiple distribution channels to the detriment of the public.” The Steinman companies working in concert “create a productive synergy between broadcast and print reporting that provides robust content and useful audience-focused interaction,” the filing said: That “creates considerably more community benefit for a newspaper-radio collaboration, not less."