Comments on possible TV channel sharing rule changes are due Aug. 13, the FCC said in a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. The FCC is leaning toward allowing channel sharing by full-power and Class A stations outside of the incentive auction, including sharing by entities that previously had a channel sharing agreement that since expired or has been terminated. The aim "is to encourage voluntary participation by broadcasters" in the upcoming broadcast incentive auction, the FCC said. Replies in docket 15-137 are due Aug. 28.

Expect to see more clashes between pay TV and broadcasters over retransmission consent, thanks to a pay-TV industry strategy of manufacturing disputes, the NAB said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in FCC docket 10-71. The meeting with FCC staff was to highlight the importance of the regulator's syndicated exclusivity and nonduplication rules, the NAB said. With "some in the pay TV industry" trying to get more government regulation in retrans, the FCC "should not be surprised by an uptick in pay TV-manufactured disputes" as the agency has begun rulemaking for the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization's Section 103, which covers retrans, the broadcasters association said. "Bad actors should not be rewarded with government assistance, especially when those actions come, yet again, at consumers' expenses." Broadcasters, not pay-TV, bears responsibility for blackouts, which are "wreaking havoc for consumers," American Television Alliance spokesman Trent Duffy said. "The suggestion that pay-TV providers are manufacturing this blackout crisis is laughable," Duffy said. "Broadcasters abuse old laws to gouge consumers for what is supposed to be free over the air programming. It’s not fair and it’s not pretty, but sadly, it is legal because Congress hasn’t fixed the laws. It’s time for Congress to end broadcaster special interest giveaways so TV fans get their shows instead of a black screen.”

U.S. TV broadcasters are facing “growing secular pressure” from online video and other alternatives, Standard & Poor’s said in a report Monday. U.S. media companies need to have “strong, well-defined brands that translate across both traditional TV and online alternatives” and decreased dependence on full-size video bundles, Standard & Poor's credit analyst Naveen Sarma said in a news release. "Successful media companies must, in our view, move away from their bundle strategies and focus on their key brands and networks." CBS, Comcast, Disney, Time Warner and Twenty-First Century Fox have these attributes, while AMC Networks and Viacom possess “fewer of these qualities,” S&P said.

The FCC is seeking comment on adding three new event codes “covering extreme wind and storm surges” to the EAS system based on a request from the National Weather Service (NWS), said an NPRM issued Friday. The NWS has requested codes for Extreme Wind Warning (EWW), Storm Surge Watch (SSA) and Storm Surge Warning (SSW), the NPRM said. No existing EAS event code “is adequate or acceptable to activate the EAS for an extreme wind warning,” the NPRM said. Although there are codes for hurricanes, they apply to the storm event itself and “are not specifically tailored to warn of extreme sustained surface winds,” the NPRM said. Storm Surge watches and warnings would be issued when there's “a significant risk of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland from the ocean,” the NPRM said. A storm surge watch would be issued 48 hours before the event might take place and a warning would be issued 36 hours before. Storm surge is “the leading cause of death in tropical cyclones,” the notice said. “Absent a revision of our EAS rules to allow the NWS to warn the public of these events, we risk unnecessary harm to the public,” the NPRM said. The Media Bureau said it “tentatively concludes” that the new event codes could promote public safety by saving lives. It seeks comment on that conclusion and on whether the new codes would help minimize public confusion, and on the cost of adding them. The NPRM also seeks comment on revising “the territorial boundaries of the geographic location codes for two offshore marine areas,” the item said. The NWS has changed the way it defines two offshore marine areas along the east coast and Gulf of Mexico for the purpose of generating weather alerts, and wants the EAS system to incorporate that change. EAS location code 75 covering “Western North Atlantic Ocean, and along U.S. East Coast, south of Currituck Beach Light, N.C., following the coastline into Gulf of Mexico to Bonita Beach, FL, including the Caribbean,” would become “Western North Atlantic Ocean, and along U.S. East Coast, south of Currituck Beach Light, NC, following the coastline to Ocean Reef, FL, including the Caribbean,” and location code 77 covering “Gulf of Mexico, and along the U.S. Gulf Coast from the Mexican border to Bonita Beach, FL,” would become “Gulf of Mexico, and along the U.S. Gulf Coast from the Mexican border to Ocean Reef, FL,” under the change.

The FCC should continue requiring broadcasters to make information available in their public inspection files and online, said The Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and Sunlight Foundation in joint comments filed Wednesday. The commission should also take steps to make the data more searchable, the groups said. The FCC should “adopt the use of a standardized, machine-readable format for submitting political file data," the groups said. “While online public files provide essential information needed to ensure that television stations serve the public interest, the FCC should adopt its proposal to extend the filing requirements to other media and should require the filing of shared services and other agreements that may confer influence,” the groups said.

Pay-TV technology supplier Motive Television developed what it’s calling the world’s first ATSC-format DVR for mobile devices. The new mobile DVR provides the ability to time-shift over-the-air programs on tablets and mobile devices, it said in a Thursday announcement. It works with the existing TabletTV app and TPod antenna that Motive developed jointly with Granite Broadcasting, it said. The DVR “uses an intuitive functionality and interface, similar to the functions consumers have used in the home for the past 20+ years,” it said. Users can schedule the DVR to record programs up to seven days in advance and then watch them for their personal use later, it said. TabletTV previously had a one-touch recording feature that permits pausing, playing and recording a current program, but the new DVR will extend that capability to recording future programs for later viewing, it said. Motive plans this month to introduce the DVR in a beta version to existing TabletTV users and will distribute the DVR to the larger “general market” in September, it said. Motive also later plans to license the DVR software to CE makers and app developers, it said.

Grupo Televisa and Univision signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen their strategic partnership, they said in a news release Thursday. The MOU extends the terms of Univision's exclusive U.S. broadcast and digital rights to Televisa’s programming from 2025 to “at least 2030,” they said. It changes the royalty agreements between the companies, raising the rate and making additional revenue subject to the royalty, said the media companies. The agreement converts $1.125 billion of Univision debentures into warrants that are exercisable for new classes of Univision’s common stock, decreasing Univision's annual interest payment. “By taking these steps and our pursuit of other related initiatives, Univision is in a stronger competitive position going forward," said Univision CEO Randy Falco, calling Televisa "the best Spanish-language content producer in the world.”

The FCC proposed $325,000 indecency forfeiture against Schurz Communications' WDBJ, Roanoke, Virginia, is based on “mistaken assumptions” and “misapplied standards,” the station said in a news release Wednesday. WDBJ filed an opposition to the notice of apparent liability (see 1503240038) Tuesday. In proposing the fine, the commission ignored court decisions that raise doubts about the constitutionality of the commission's indecency policies, WDBJ said. “Even if some penalty could properly be imposed, there was no justification for the FCC to impose a fine 46 times greater than its rules establish,” said the TV station. “We believe that the First Amendment does not allow the FCC to ‘throw the book’ at a station for unintentionally including a fleeting inappropriate image in a newscast about a legitimate story,” said President-General Manager Jeffrey Marks. The station said it has taken steps to prevent the incident from happening again, and asked the commission to withdraw the proposed forfeiture.

Virgin America flights will offer digital music curated by iHeartRadio, parent company iHeartMedia said in a news release Tuesday. The partnership will integrate iHeartRadio-branded stations into Virgin America's seatback in-flight entertainment, and will also allow iHeartRadio-using travelers to continue listening after landing using their own computer or mobile devices, the release said. The service will start with six stations in different genres, the release said. Virgin America and iHeartRadio will announce several promotions in 2015 to introduce the iHeartRadio branded stations to passengers, the release said.

The FCC’s new rules for the Emergency Alert System were published in the Federal Register Tuesday. The rules take effect July 30 and include a national location code for EAS alerts issued by the president, amend FCC rules for nationwide EAS tests, and set accessibility standards for EAS alerts (see 1506040056).