The amount of local news produced by TV stations is “holding steady overall,” said the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) in a news release. An annual survey of newsrooms by RTDNA shows that medium market stations are adding the most newscasts and major markets are cutting the most, the release said. Weekday afternoons and weekend mornings saw the most expansion among stations adding newscasts, and midday newscasts were the most often cut, RTDNA said. “The average TV station offers 5.3 hours of local news every weekday, with some stations offering as much as 12.5 hours a day,” RTDNA said. In radio, local newscasts are showing a slight drop, the association said. “Country and adult contemporary stations are most likely to offer local news, slightly more so than stations branding themselves as news/talk,” said the survey. Radio stations offer on average 75.6 minutes of news every weekday, RTDNA said.

The FCC should postpone the “one-size-fits-all” consumer education requirements in the incentive auction order, said NAB in a conference call with Media Bureau staff Friday, according to an ex parte filing. The FCC should wait until after the auction to create the requirements, ”when more is known about how many stations, in which markets, will be moving to new channels,” NAB said.

The FCC modified channel sharing rules to allow broadcasters to sign channel sharing agreements (CSAs) after the TV incentive auction and determine the length of their own sharing agreements, as expected (see 1504290041), in a First Order on Reconsideration released Friday. Along with the order, the FCC released a companion NPRM tentatively concluding that channel sharing by full power and Class A stations should be allowed “outside the incentive auction context,” the order said. That would allow “second generation” agreements, in which parties to an auction-related channel sharing deal that has expired can make new deals. “By providing greater flexibility and certainty regarding CSAs, our objective is to encourage voluntary participation by broadcasters in the incentive auction,” the order said. “The new Rules will greatly increase the feasibility of broadcasters entering into sharing arrangements and increase the likelihood of a successful auction,” said Expanded Opportunities for Broadcasters Executive Director Preston Padden in an email.

The incentive auction order's provision of 4 MHz of spectrum in the duplex gap for wireless mic use would lessen newsgatherers' ability to cover breaking news, said representatives from NAB, the Radio Television Digital News Association, CBS, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox and Viacom in a meeting Monday with Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 12-268 Thursday. That spectrum provision is also endangered by plans to repack TV stations into the duplex gap, the TV and content representatives said. “As a result, the last vestige of dedicated UHF wireless microphone spectrum will disappear with no plan for a short- or long-term home.” The FCC needs to find new bands for wireless mics, and change any policies that would interfere with or impair wireless mic use in the duplex gap, the filing said.

No commenter on the FCC's proposed report on designated market areas has proposed a technologically or economically feasible alternative to DMAs, NAB said in a reply comment filing posted online in docket 15-43 Thursday. Though WTA-Advocates for Rural Broadband proposed changes to the DMA system, it also said it couldn't provide local service to markets not defined as DMAs, NAB said. WTA's proposals are “designed with the sole aim of enhancing the commercial interests of cable operators,” NAB said. “The Commission should once again decline to endorse alternatives to DMAs, as the DMA system remains the only 'technologically and economically feasible' method available for defining local markets,” NAB said.

Full-power and Class A TV stations have until July 9 to certify that the FCC’s listing of their facilities and technical information is correct, said a Media Bureau public notice Tuesday. The PN lists every station “eligible for protection in the repacking process and for relinquishment in the reverse auction,” but stations still have to verify the information is correct by submitting a pre-auction technical certification form by the deadline, it said. If the information on file is wrong, licensees have to attach an exhibit to the form providing the correct info, the PN said. “The Bureau will take such corrections into account for purposes of determining protection in the repacking process and the spectrum usage rights eligible for relinquishment in the reverse auction.” All TV stations on the eligible station list need to file the new form, “even if the licensee does not plan to participate in the auction or even though the licensee believes that its stations are far enough from any major city that it is unlikely that the auction will affect them,” said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post. “Stations should be gathering this information as soon as possible so that they can begin to complete the FCC form to make certain that it is on file by the July 9 deadline.”

The FCC adopted NAB and the American Cable Association’s compromise proposal on the HD carriage exemption, as was expected (see 1505190057), said in a sixth report and order Wednesday. “The compromise reached by ACA and NAB as reflected in the joint proposal reasonably balances the interest of broadcast stations in having their HD signals transmitted in HD and the interest of small cable operators in upgrading their systems to carry HD broadcast signals in a manner that is cost efficient,” the order said. “No industry commenter has lodged any objection to the joint proposal.” The compromise order exempts small cable systems not offering HD programming from the HD carriage requirement. Systems using the exemption stop being eligible once they offer HD programming, starting Dec. 12, 2016. After, systems using the exemption that start offering HD programming have to notify local broadcasters that they are doing so, the order said. The order also redefines “small” as cable systems serving 1,500 -- rather than 2,500 -- or fewer subscribers, and not affiliated with a cable operator serving more than 2 percent -- rather than 10 percent -- of all multichannel video programming distributor subscribers, or having an activated channel capacity of 552 MHz or less.

Five broadcast TV groups collaborated to create a live-streaming and on-demand service for local newscasts called NewsOn, Cox Media said in a release Tuesday. NewsOn is a joint venture formed by ABC, Cox, Hearst Television, Media General and Raycom. The free service will be a downloadable application and gives users the ability to watch newscasts from any of the 112 participating stations, Cox said. The current participating stations are in 17 of the top 25 national TV markets, it said. Cox said NewsOn is expected to be available to the public by fall.

The FCC Office of General Counsel decided an NAB ex parte that was the subject of a complaint from the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition was “adequate,” according to a letter from the OGC’s office reprinted by the coalition. NAB’s ex parte filing covered a meeting among FCC officials, NAB, public TV groups and wireless carriers, but didn’t fully explain the purpose of the meeting, coalition Director Mike Gravino said. “What advantage has now been given to NAB members and APTS [Association of Public Television] members? What do they know to do, to submit, to plan for, that the rest of us do not? Has the Incentive Auction proceeding been compromised?” asked Gravino in an email newsletter on the matter. According to the OGC letter received by Gravino, the meeting's purpose was “to encourage the private stakeholders present to confer among themselves (apart from the Commission) about the challenges associated with repacking and to see whether they could agree on measures that might address these challenges and serve the interests of both broadcasters and carriers,” the letter said. “Arguably, under these circumstances, there was no need to file an ex parte notice of the meeting at all,” the OGC letter said. The FCC and NAB declined to comment on Gravino’s complaints and the OGC letter. “What is the ‘secret deal’ which was struck between these sellers and buyers? Why are they the only ones to know about the secret deal, and party to the secret negotiations?” Gravino asked. “If the FCC suggested an ex parte needed to be filed, then that ex parte needed to have been done in the proper form of full disclosure, as we have pointed out in our complaint,” Gravino said. “It clearly was not, and now the Office of General Counsel is attempting to cover the tracks of the [Incentive Auction Task Force].”

The FCC 's Emergency Alert System (EAS) Sixth Report and Order puts improvements in the EAS system based on the 2011 nationwide EAS test into effect, said the order released Wednesday. “Our rules governing these alerts must continue to evolve as legacy networks and services transition to next generation technologies,” the order said. The order adopts “six zeroes” (000000) as the national location code “pertaining to every state and county in the United States,” and the order requires EAS participants to use equipment capable of processing the code. Participants must also use equipment “capable of processing a National Periodic Test (NPT) event code for future nationwide EAS tests” so future national, regional, state and local activations are consistent, the order said. Test data must now be filed in an Electronic Test Report System that was constructed to be “a practical, accessible, and minimally burdensome tool for recording EAS dissemination data,” the order said. The data will be used for developing an FCC Mapbook for illustrating how EAS alerts are propagated throughout the country. EAS participants are also required to ensure that EAS visual messages are “readable and accessible to all members of the public,” the order said.