Pearl TV developed the FastTrack program to accelerate development and retail availability of low-cost upgrade accessory receivers for NextGen TV, it said at NAB Show New York Tuesday. The goal is to create a “diverse market of accessories” that will help bring NextGen TV features to 91% of households, Pearl TV said. Noting the ATSC standard “is not backward compatible,” Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle said, “This program helps solve that." The streamlined process enabled by the FastTrack program will allow for lower accessory price points, “making it more affordable and easier" for consumers to experience NextGen TV "even without an enabled television,” Schelle said. Some viewers with TVs bought before 2020 “have yet to enjoy the rich features of the standard,” said Rob Folliard, senior vice president-government relations and distribution, Grey Television. "Device makers can now address this issue with full support and guidance to manufacture and market compatible products that consumers need and want to enjoy over-the-air television service for free,” Folliard said. The program supports manufacturers interested in making devices that support the full NextGen TV feature set, including enhanced video, audio and interactive features, Pearl said. Device requirements will be updated continuously to help manufacturers as NextGen TV evolves, it said. NextGen TV is broadcasting in more than 50 markets, reaching 55% of U.S. households. It's expected to reach 75% of households by the end of 2023; by 2024, Pearl expects over 75% of all TVs sold to be dual HDTV/NextGen TV models. Having an affordable alternative to buying a new NextGen TV receiver without a built-in display "is essential to meet the portion of the potential viewing audience that does not have television sets that support the standard," Pearl said.

A news release condemning attacks on the Standard/Tegna deal as racist was issued by Standard General (see 2210170051).

Geotargeted radio runs the risk of "upend[ing] the FCC’s broadcast licensing regime, impose[ing] additional costs on broadcasters, harm[ing] local media, and undermine[ing] efforts to support an informed public connected to their community," Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ben Cardin of Maryland wrote FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Monday. They said smaller broadcasters would bear a particular financial burden as advertisers encourage them to adopt such technologies, "shifting scarce funds away from newsrooms and community resources." They said a result of geotargeted radio might be some neighborhoods not receiving ads for employment, educational and economic opportunities. The agency didn't comment.

Comments are due Dec. 8, replies Dec. 23, on Western Radio Group's petition seeking the allotment of FM Channel 272A in Dennison, Ohio, as the community's first local service, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice in Monday's Daily Digest.

For all but the largest stations, geotargeting radio broadcasts would slice up the audience into pieces too small to attract enough ad revenue to offset the costs of the service, said Connoisseur CEO Jeff Warshaw in a letter to the FCC Monday. Comparisons of geotargeted radio ads to the digital ads aimed at consumers based on knowledge of their interests gleaned from their online activity “simply do not withstand scrutiny,” Warshaw said. With geotargeting, radio stations will still reach the same audience they always have, but chopped into “ever-smaller” pieces for any targeted ad, reducing their revenue. Geotargeted radio supporters’ argument that the service would be voluntary doesn’t ameliorate the problem, Warshaw said. “Once even one station deploys geocasting technology in a market, advertisers will pressure competing stations into doing the same, fragmenting the market. Larger broadcasters -- with bigger audience chunks to slice up -- could benefit from geotargeting by using it to target specific sections of their markets, but only at the expense of smaller more local broadcasters in those areas," Warshaw said. “Any big regional FM station could use geocasting to target businesses in the smaller communities in their service areas,” Warshaw said. “Presumably this crippling of local radio is not what the Commission wants to achieve here.” "We remain puzzled as to why some broadcasters want the FCC to micromanage the economics of the radio broadcast industry when it’s very clear that the record shows that geo-targeting promotes localism, raises no technical issues, and our proposed rule change is voluntary, with many small broadcasters welcoming the innovation," emailed geotargeting proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions.

Standard General founder Soo Kim said filings from the Communications Workers of America’s NewsGuild sector’s attorneys David Goodfriend and Andrew Schwartzman and CEO Jon Schleuss opposing the Standard/Tegna deal were "sexist and racially charged ad hominem attacks.” A Standard General news release Monday highlighted statements in NewsGuild filings warning of “anonymous foreign investment” in newsrooms and questioning whether the deal increases ownership diversity since Kim “is not barred by his race from becoming a successful entrepreneur” and Standard CEO Deb McDermott “is not barred by her gender to be selected to run a large corporation.” “To be clear, I am ethnically Korean. And I am a proud American citizen,” said Kim in the release. “These three men are attempting to define what constitutes a minority or what is the right kind of diversity -- this is offensive and inappropriate.” It's “beyond the pale for Schleuss, Goodfriend, and Schwartzman to use my ethnicity to postulate theories of my being an agent of foreign ownership,” Kim said, noting he already owns multiple radio and TV stations. “Whatever we have to say will be in what we file with the Commission,” emailed Schwartzman, who's also senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, when asked for comment. Standard is “confident” the deal complies with all regulations, the release said. “We have submitted 3 million documents and over 12 million pages of records and have nothing but respect for the regulatory process,” the release said. “We are confident that the public statements from these three men will be seen for what they are -- sentiments that have no place in America today.”

The Nielsen Company will begin providing designated market area maps to broadcasters that don’t subscribe to Nielsen’s service “at a reasonable charge” to address broadcaster concerns (see 2208300050) about the ways Nielsen data is required to comply with FCC rules, Nielsen said in an ex parte letter posted Thursday in docket 22-239. “The broadcasters’ assertions are not entirely correct factually,” Nielsen said. “They do, however, raise a valid policy point: if non-clients need our information to comply with FCC rules, they need a way to obtain this information reasonably and quickly.” Nielsen said it has always informed stations of their designated market area assignments -- which are based on Nielsen data -- for free, and it will provide customer service representatives “information to help them distinguish between non-clients solely seeking DMA information and those seeking to become clients.” Nielsen will also continue to offer ratings information to non-clients “at special prices for the limited use of preparing for assignments and transfers of control,” the letter said.

Calls for the FCC to apply Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. rules, and repeated requests for more information on the Standard/Tegna deal are a “red herring” and a “fishing expedition” said Crossings TV CEO Frank Washington in a letter to the agency posted in docket 22-162 Thursday. Washington is a former FCC deputy bureau chief who was involved in the minority tax certificate’s creation and the Viacom deal that led to Congress repealing the program. Washington said the information requests are intended to delay the deal. “This matters because transactions are ephemeral,” and have many potential failure points, Washington said. “If timing isn’t everything, it certainly can have outcome determinitive consequences.” Calls to look at the deal through a foreign-ownership lens are “troubling,” Washington said. Standard General founder Soo Kim “and countless other Asian-American business leaders like him, are naturalized citizens who love this country and are just as committed to our laws,” Washington said. “If expanding minority ownership is something the FCC truly values, then Standard General’s acquisition of TEGNA must be had forthwith.”

“Well under 0.1%” of broadcasters air news and public affairs content sponsored by foreign governments, said NAB in a meeting last week with FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Media Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 20-299 (see 2210060068). “Our advocacy is designed to limit the burdens on stations that do not air this content,” NAB said. The trade group said it wants to work with the agency to “develop a commonsense approach to ensuring that all foreign propaganda aired on FCC-licensed stations is properly identified as such.”

Radio broadcasters represented by broadcast attorney Aaron Shainis wrote the FCC to say they were unaware that comments had been filed on their behalf in support of the geotargeted radio proposal backed by GeoBroadcast Solutions, according to filings posted Wednesday in docket 20-401. Shainis has an ownership stake in GBS (see 2209270064). “The undersigned local radio broadcasters were entirely unaware of our participation in this proceeding and did not knowingly consent to having our name included on such filings,” said a letter signed by the presidents of Falls Media and Q-Media Group. Two other radio broadcasters, Pikes Peak State College and Ranchland Broadcasting, asked the FCC to disregard the pro-Zonecasting filings in their name “because they do not accurately reflect our views.” Shainis said in an interview that officials at all four broadcasters had given their permission for the comments filed on their behalf either verbally or in writing, and that he disclosed his ownership interest. Shainis said his firm sent out letters years ago to many of their clients asking for their support, explaining the GBS technology, and disclosing Shainis’ stake. “They probably don’t remember, it was years ago,” Shainis said. In some cases, permission was obtained from predecessors and different company officials from those who wrote the FCC Wednesday, he said. He said several clients contacted him in recent weeks to say they no longer support geotargeted radio. Shainis said the local broadcasters are under “tremendous pressure” from NAB and their state broadcast associations to oppose GBS. The letters Wednesday were filed by the Texas and Colorado state broadcast associations rather than the individual broadcasters. Shainis said Wednesday he doesn’t believe the withdrawals of support will lead to the FCC rejecting geotargeted radio. “The technology should speak for itself,” he said. 'It is shameful how low the NAB, through its Chief Legal Officer and Executive Vice President, Rick Kaplan has sunk," said Shainis in a letter to the FCC filed Wednesday in response to the broadcaster filings: "All comments filed were done with the full authorization of all parties." The FCC should vote on the geotargeted radio rulemaking "and not be distracted by the erroneous assertions of a desperate NAB and the state broadcast associations it is unduly influencing," Shainis wrote. The NAB didn't comment. The FCC didn't comment.