Recent music licensing lawsuits against three broadcasters by Global Music Rights indicate the music licensing entity “has lost patience with stations that have not entered into agreements to play their music,” wrote Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford posted Oct. 7. According to legal filings in U.S. District Court, GMR sued Red Wolf in Connecticut, Southern Stone Communications and Black Crowe Media Group in the Middle District of Florida, and One Putt Broadcasting in the Eastern District of California. The courts could potentially lower the damages requested, but “even the threat of such damages has been enough to put many of the original file-sharing music sites out of business,” Oxenford said. Radio stations avoiding playing GMR-licensed music “is a difficult if not impossible task given the songwriters that GMR has signed who have full or partial copyrights in a wide variety of popular music," the blog post said. Commercial radio stations that haven’t reached a licensing agreement with GMR “or otherwise taken action to avoid the need for that license should discuss this issue with their attorneys now to see what actions they can take to avoid potential liability later,” Oxenford said.

Standard General and Tegna “have not provided information sufficient to establish even a prima facie case that grant of the applications would be in the public interest,” said the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians sectors, in a call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Brandon Carr, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 22-162. “The unusually complex arrangements in this docket merit further scrutiny,” the filing said. “Undisclosed or excessive foreign ownership and investment implicates other public interest issues, including localism, diversity and maintaining a robust market for news,” the unions said. The transaction “reaches the Commission in the context of a changing geopolitical environment,” said the filing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought additional scrutiny of the acquisition Thursday (see 2210060033).

The FCC unanimously approved an NPRM seeking comment on proposed updates to the foreign-sponsored content rules, as expected (see 2209260063). The item is intended to update the rules to account for the July U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision against some of the original requirements. “This proposal will help strengthen the process for identifying foreign governments broadcasting in the United States and fill in the gaps left in the wake of the D.C. Circuit’s recent ruling,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a release. “The bottom line is that this is about supporting transparency and democratic values -- full stop.” The NPRM proposes standardized certifications from broadcasters and program lessees on whether a lessee is a foreign governmental entity, and seeks comment on an earlier petition from broadcasters seeking clarification on how the foreign-sponsored content rules apply to advertising and whether content less than two minutes in length should be exempt from the rules. It also seeks comment on an alternative first suggested by a D.C. Circuit judge that would require lessees to submit screenshots of federal databases showing their companies aren’t listed. “We look forward to working with the FCC to clarify some of its rules to ensure that broadcasters are airing the correct identifications,” said an NAB spokesperson. “We share the Commission’s goal of ensuring that the public understands when it is watching or listening to foreign propaganda.”

A proposal to modify FM booster rules to allow geotargeted radio broadcasts “could have negative implications” for rural communities, said a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel from Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., and 12 other members of the House Commerce Committee posted in docket 20-401 Wednesday. The tech could allow broadcasters to exclude rural areas, the letter said. “We urge the FCC to consider the implications the ZoneCasting proposal could have on rural communities and the risks it especially poses for people in areas with little access to broadband,” said Duncan in a release about the letter shared by NAB, a vocal opponent of the booster proposal, which is backed by geotargeted radio company GeoBroadcast Solutions. “As we have seen from Hurricane Ian, broadcast radio is essential for many rural communities that rely heavily on local radio, and the FCC’s proposal to selectively target certain geographic areas could inhibit these communities from receiving essential information and having access to broadcast radio.” GBS said the proposal is designed to make targeted ads more affordable, and adoption of geotargeted radio would be entirely voluntary.

Broadcasters need flexibility in hosting arrangements for their ATSC 1.0 multicast channels to preserve service during the ATSC 3.0 transition, said NAB, Fox, NBCUniversal and Paramount in a call with FCC Media Bureau staff Thursday, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 16-142 Tuesday. The broadcasters and content companies emphasized the need for the agency to allow “lateral hosting,” where a station broadcasting in 1.0 hosts some multicast channels on another 1.0 station in the market during a transition to 3.0. An FCC proposal to clarify 3.0 multicasting rules didn’t include provisions for lateral hosting, but such arrangements would be vital for launching the new standard in the New York market, the filing said. “While such arrangements are unlikely to be any broadcaster’s first choice, broadcasters engaged in channel mapping and planning for market launches have emphasized that lateral hosting will likely be essential in some markets,” the filing said. Permitting lateral hosting won’t make things more difficult for viewers, and broadcasters would use the arrangement sparingly because of its complexity, the filing said. “Absent a specific and concrete reason to believe there is an urgent countervailing public interest consideration, the Commission’s approach with respect to the ATSC 3.0 transition should be to provide broadcasters with as much flexibility as possible,” the filing said.

The Standard/Tegna record still has unanswered questions about transferee Standard General's qualifications to be an FCC licensee, so the agency shouldn't start discussing deal conditions until the threshold qualifications issue is resolved, the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians told an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Media Bureau Deputy Chief Sarah Whitesell, per a docket 22-162 filing Friday. The workers' groups urged the commission to suspend its deal review shot clock until the record is also supplemented on whether the purchase is in the public interest. Standard's plans for cutting station-level jobs or not post-transaction still need clarification and if the companies have misrepresented those plans, the applications must be designated for hearing, the groups said. Standard outside counsel didn't comment.

NAB’s recent filing attacking GeoBroadcast Solutions CEO Chris Devine and broadcast attorney Aaron Shainis “lobs out-of-context personal allegations that have no bearing on the merits of the proposal before the Commission in a blatant attempt to change the subject and derail this rulemaking,” said GBS in a letter filed in docket 20-401 Tuesday (see 2209230070). A dismissed lawsuit against Devine over an allegedly fraudulent broadcasting deal referenced by NAB was “baseless” and “grew out of a sad, intra-family dispute and was voluntarily withdrawn by the plaintiff with prejudice,” GBS said. “The legal irrelevance to an FCC rulemaking of the lawsuit’s unsubstantiated allegations regurgitated in the letter underscores the letter’s purpose -- to create a sideshow.” Shainis and Pelztman attorney Aaron Shainis repeated in an interview Tuesday that all of his clients on whose behalf he submitted endorsements of the GBS proposal had given their permission, either verbally or in writing. Shainis also told us he has an ownership stake in GBS, but said he informed all of his clients of that connection. Though Q Media President Andrew DeVall told us he hadn’t agreed to his company’s endorsement of zonecasting, Shainis said permission was given by another official at the company. “Some of them may not remember, this was years ago,” Shainis said. Many of the endorsements from Shainis’s clients were filed in 2021. The FCC should allow broadcasters the discretion to choose Zonecasting for themselves, GBS said in its filing. “That is a business decision for broadcasters in their market, and is not a regulatory decision that -- bizarrely and contrary to five decades of advocacy -- NAB now thinks the FCC should be making.”

The FCC should consider the challenges the designated market area system imposes on public television stations, said America’s Public Television Stations and PBS in joint reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 22-239. The proceeding concerns updates to the Nielsen publication the FCC and broadcasters rely on to determine station DMAs, but the public media groups raised larger concerns about cable headend consolidation and DBS orphan counties squeezing out public media coverage. “While the triennial carriage cycle and its associated updates to DMA assignments are inapplicable to the cable carriage of NCE stations, satellite carriage rights for NCE stations are based on DMA borders,” the filing said. That means public TV stations must subscribe to DMA data to keep their satellite carriage rights, the filing said. Cable headend consolidation can affect public TV stations when a headend is moved to a location “beyond a station’s contour and more than 50 miles from its community of license reference point” -- the boundary conditions that trigger “must-carry” rules. “This can result in cable subscribers losing access to their local public TV stations,” the filing said. The public media groups also renewed a call from 2015 for the FCC to “begin a dialogue with public television and DBS operators to explore creative and effective solutions to the unavailability of local public TV licensee statewide signals.” In their own reply comments, all four broadcast affiliate station groups seconded NAB’s proposal that the FCC “exercise prudence in relying solely on confidential Nielsen data when it comes to local television stations’ compliance with Commission rules.” The FCC should “consider potential sources of market assignment data other than Nielsen should such alternative assignment data become available in the future,” the groups said.

Standard General “has no intention, and has not had any intention, of reducing news or news staff” at Tegna stations after its proposed buy of the company, said Standard in a call with the FCC Media Bureau Thursday, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 22-162 responding to an earlier filing from the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians sectors (see: 2209220039). The union filing accused Standard of misrepresenting its intentions on staffing in filings submitted to the FCC, but Standard said the unions’ accusation “appeared to be based on a misunderstanding of the documents.” In mid-2021, Standard prepared estimates of Tegna’s future operating costs compared to the company’s current ones, and the future projections incorporated staff changes Tegna was then already planning to implement, Standard said. “Standard General understands that in the time since those meetings, TEGNA has implemented the staffing changes that were reflected in those projections, and Standard General does not intend to reduce station-level staffing following the Transaction,” the filing said. In a separate meeting with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, Standard General also said it has "no plans or interest in jointly negotiating retransmission consent with Apollo, which is merely one of seventeen (non-attributable) entities providing financing for Standard General’s acquisition of TEGNA," said another filing.

There's potential "material misrepresentation” by Standard General and Tegna in the proceeding over their proposed combination, said the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians sectors in a letter posted in docket 22-162 Thursday. “There is considerable information in the record indicating that if the applications are granted, Standard General intends to cut jobs at TEGNA,” the filing said. “These documents appear to directly contradict Applicants’ statements and explanations to the contrary made to the Commission.” The FCC's granting motions to require more information of the applicants could help determine if there was misrepresentation, the filing said. A recent White House executive order on national security and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States “underscores that we are living in unusual times when it comes to foreign investment issues,” the filing said. “The Commission should not assume that CFIUS alone is responsible for the implications of anonymous foreign investment.” "From the day the transaction was announced, Standard General and [CEO] Deb McDermott have made clear the importance of local news to the future of TEGNA," emailed a Standard spokesperson. "They have consistently confirmed that their plans for post-closing TEGNA do not involve station-level layoffs."