The FCC Media Bureau has approved another TV deal that involves a top-four duopoly, according to an order in Friday’s Daily Digest. The deal involves Marquee Broadcasting’s proposed purchase from Imagicomm of KIEM-TV Eureka, California (NBC), and low-power KVIQ-LD Eureka (CBS). “The evidence in the record demonstrates that splitting up the two top-four network affiliations would likely lead to a reduction in network programming and local news in the Eureka [designated market area], which would not serve the public interest,” the order said. Although the top-four prohibition historically hasn’t applied to LPTV stations, the FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review order extended it to those stations and multicast streams. Oral argument in the broadcaster legal challenge of that order was held in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month (see 2503190064). The bureau approved another top-four deal by Gray Media earlier this year (see 2503120066), and media brokers told us they expect to see an increase in such deals being proposed since the agency now seems more open to them.

The Las Vegas-based NAB Show 2025 saw 55,000 attendees, NAB said in a release Wednesday, the event’s last day. That's roughly 8,000 below NAB's projection of 63,000 and about 6,000 fewer than the 61,000 who attended the 2024 show. The 2023 show was the best attended since the pandemic forced the 2020 and 2021 shows to be canceled, drawing more than 65,000 attendees. The 2019 event, the last before the pandemic, attracted more than 91,000 people. This year, 26% of the attendees were international, and 53% were first-time attendees, NAB said.

A broadcaster accused by the FCC Enforcement Bureau of engaging in a 2010 sham transfer of stations to his niece was assisting her with the day-to-day operations of the stations after the sale in accordance with FCC rules, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-267 from broadcast station owner Antonio Cesar Guel (see 2502250064). “It was quite natural, and completely expected, that [Guel’s niece, Jennifer Juarez] often, and repeatedly, would rely upon Mr. Guel’s past experience in conjunction with the operation of the Stations,” the one filing said. That “does not equate” to impermissible control. In questioning witnesses in the case, the EB repeatedly confused being in charge of day-to-day operations, such as engineering matters, and being in charge of all operations, said Guel’s filing. All the testimony cited by the EB as proof that Guel remained in charge of the stations actually shows only that he was in charge of day-to-day operations -- “an involvement which specifically is permitted under FCC policies and which is not a matter under scrutiny in this proceeding,” the filing said.

The FCC is required by legal precedent to provide notice of redefined terms in regulations, even if that new definition is only in the preamble of the final rule, said NAB in a supplemental filing Wednesday in its case challenging the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content ID rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. During oral argument Monday, D.C. Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas questioned whether the FCC’s broadening of the definition of a “lease” of TV station airtime in the rule's preamble was bound by notice-and-comment requirements (see 2504070019). NAB’s challenge to the order is in part based on arguments that the FCC didn’t sufficiently provide notice of plans to widen the definition to include political issue ads and public service announcements. Even if the court deemed the preamble definition of "lease" exempt from notice and comment, it would still be subject to legal challenges because it's “final agency action representing the consummation of agency decision-making and [has] pragmatic legal consequences for licensees,” NAB said.

In an interview last week, Sinclair Senior Vice President-Advanced Technology Mark Aitken said 5G broadcast is misleading marketing because the technology is based on 4G LTE (see 2504030053).

Comments are due May 7, replies June 6, on NAB's February petition seeking a nationwide timeline for the ATSC 3.0 transition (see 2502260051), the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice posted Monday in docket 16-142. In its petition, NAB suggested a February 2028 deadline for stations in the top 55 markets -- covering 70% of the U.S. population -- shifting to 3.0-only broadcasts. It also asked the FCC to require that all TV broadcast receivers include 3.0 tuners.

Nexstar is reportedly having its local stations run segments that urge viewers to contact the FCC and call for broadcast deregulation. The Desk reported Monday that the segments -- about agency Chairman Brendan Carr's "Delete Delete Delete" deregulatory agenda (see 2503120024) -- began running last week. They finish with a mention of a link to a Nexstar website that includes prewritten social media posts urging deregulation of broadcast-related rules. A Nexstar spokesperson emailed that the agency "has asked for interested parties and the public to assist it in identifying regulations that should be updated or eliminated to address what Chairman Carr has called a 'break-glass moment for America’s broadcasters.'" He said "that initiative is an important news story for local broadcasters, worthy of mention by the very newscasts and outlets that are under threat from the outdated regulations at issue."

The FAA has authorized Sinclair to fly drones over people and moving vehicles for newsgathering without requiring a waiver, said a Sinclair release Wednesday. Sinclair said it's the first broadcast media company to receive such an authorization from the FAA. Scott Livingston, Sinclair's senior vice president-news, said that by “incorporating expanded drone footage,” the company enhances its news coverage of breaking news, weather and other events. Sinclair’s unmanned aerial systems program launched in 2016, operates “across 50 newsrooms nationwide and has completed over 40,000 logged flights to date,” the release said. The program includes 148 FAA-certified pilots and 540 trained visual observers, it said. The company’s drone pilots train at Virginia Tech. “The FAA’s authorization allows Sinclair to operate specially modified drones while adhering to strict safety protocols and procedures that meet federal requirements.”

The FCC should amend rules so broadcasters can use software in place of the physical emergency alert system (EAS) equipment currently required, said NAB in a petition for rulemaking Monday. The FCC put NAB's petition out for public comment Wednesday, and comments are due May 2. Under the NAB proposal, using the software in lieu of physical EAS boxes would be voluntary, and the software would need to be able to operate if internet or cloud connectivity is interrupted. The petition stems from a proposal NAB made in 2022 (see 2306020064), which the Federal Emergency Management Agency endorsed in 2024 (see 2407050021). “Given that our proposal has been pending now for over two years, NAB respectfully requests expedited consideration of this Petition,” NAB said.

The FCC should allow low-power TV (LPTV) broadcasters to use the 5G Broadcast transmission standard on a voluntary basis, said broadcaster HC2 in a petition for rulemaking Friday. The technology “allows an LPTV station to transmit a single 5G signal to its entire service area, which can be received by any compatible mobile device,” the petition said. “5G Broadcast thus provides both the spectrum efficiency of the one-to-many structure of broadcast operations and access to compatible mobile devices on existing 5G networks.” Currently, stations can only broadcast in the standard using an experimental license granted by the FCC, and only a few such stations exist.