Pandora’s request for the FCC to waive foreign ownership rules so it can buy its first terrestrial radio station to get lower royalty rates could lead to further commission relaxation of such rules, said industry lawyers in interviews this and last week. The FCC should update its rules for foreign broadcast ownership to make it easier for “widely-traded, public entities” to comply, said NAB in response (http://bit.ly/1rLcegy) to Pandora’s petition for a declaratory ruling that it can buy KXMZ(FM) Box Elder, South Dakota, despite being unable to determine how many of its many shareholders are U.S. citizens. Comments were posted Thursday in docket 14-109 in response to Pandora’s petition to be allowed 100 percent foreign ownership (CD July 2 p6). The current rules are slanted to make it more likely that publicly traded companies will be treated as foreign owned, and changing them would be in line with the FCC’s relaxation of foreign ownership restrictions last year, said Minority Media and Telecommunications Council President David Honig, who supported relaxing the rules.
Monty Tayloe
Monty Tayloe, Associate Editor, covers broadcasting and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2013, after spending 10 years covering crime and local politics for Virginia regional newspapers and a turn in television as a communications assistant for the PBS NewsHour. He’s a Virginia native who graduated Fork Union Military Academy and the College of William and Mary. You can follow Tayloe on Twitter: @MontyTayloe .
The FCC wants NAB’s petition for review of the incentive auction order expedited, the agency told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday. It “would be in the public interest” to resolve NAB’s petition “as promptly as possible,” said the commission. The NAB filed an emergency motion Wednesday (CD Aug 28 p14) seeking a quick resolution. Though industry observers have told us they expect the case to be resolved through negotiations outside court (CD Aug 18 p6), it’s still in both the FCC’s and NAB’s interests to have the court proceeding go as quickly as possible, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Jazzo in an interview. He represents NAB members, but is not involved in the challenge of the auction order.
Gray Television will transfer six TV stations to new minority and female owners through deals brokered by MMTC Media and Telecom Brokers, the brokerage arm of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, said the broadcaster in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1vStuhY). The stations had been operated under shared service agreements, all of which were unwound as part of the transfers, Gray Senior Vice President-Business Affairs Kevin Latek told us. “This proves that Sinclair didn’t have to turn in its licenses” for stations involved in sharing arrangements that were part of its deal to buy Allbritton’s TV stations, Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman told us. In working to sell the stations, MMTC was allowed to market them to “socially disadvantaged enterprises, such as businesses controlled by women, minorities, or innovative new entrants, or non-profit entities such as a school or religious institutions,” Gray said. The company said its KXJB-TV Fargo, North Dakota, will be transferred to Major Market Broadcasting, which airs programming from Diya TV, “America’s first South Asian broadcast television network.” KJCT-TV Grand Junction, Colorado, will be transferred to Jeff Chang and his wife Gabriela Gomez-Chang, and broadcast programming targeted toward the Hispanic population, said Gray. Female owned Legacy Broadcasting, a new company, will buy KHAS-TV Hastings, Nebraska, KAQY-TV Monroe, Louisiana, and North Dakota’s KNDX-TV Bismarck and KXND-TV Minot, said Gray. It’s “shown how a corporation can deploy its assets creatively for the great benefit of the industry and the public,” said MMTC President David Honig. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he applauds Gray and MMTC’s “commitment” to finding buyers that increase diversity of ownership and programming. “Such actions demonstrate how our rules can actively promote both competition and diversity, keep stations on the air, and serve the public interest,” Wheeler said in a statement (http://fcc.us/1vStX3R
Those wanting the FCC to deny Comcast’s planned buy of Time Warner Cable are likely to be disappointed when the agency likely approves it with conditions, cable operator and programmer officials told us Wednesday. Though several powerful commenters, including Dish Network, asked the FCC to deny the transaction, many others suggested possible conditions, said an industry official. Many other influential entities, such as large content companies and NAB, didn’t weigh in for or against the deal. “It’s very dangerous to come out against this deal because of the amount of influence Comcast will have if it’s approved,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who filed comments opposing Comcast/TWC.
Critics of Comcast’s deal to buy Time Warner Cable are making “discredited arguments” that “don’t have any merit” said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen in a blog post responding (http://bit.ly/1p9Ffk7) to comments filed in docket 14-57 Monday (http://bit.ly/1wthpno). The deadline was 11:59 p.m. for comments on the transaction.
The FCC wants more information from Charter Communications, Comcast and Time Warner Cable on their cable systems, subscribers, dealings with other companies and many other details, said letters sent to the companies from Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake (http://bit.ly/1toXNNC). The bureau requires “additional information, documents and clarifications of certain matters” to decide whether Comcast’s (http://bit.ly/1njTwoH) plan to buy TWC (http://bit.ly/VIb1YD) and its companion divestiture to Charter (http://bit.ly/1q2W0wc) is in the public interest, Lake said Thursday. The companies have to Sept. 11 to provide the data. The initial comment period for the deal ends Monday, and more than 60,000 comments were filed in docket 14-57 (http://bit.ly/YKaXt7), said the FCC website.
NAB’s court challenge of the FCC incentive auction order is likely to delay the auction and unlikely to be the only such challenge, broadcast attorneys said in interviews Thursday. Though NAB, AT&T (see separate report below in this issue) and others have said the broadcast association’s petition for review (CD Aug 19 p1) was filed early enough in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it can be resolved without causing undue delays, few in the broadcast industry believe that’s the case, attorneys said. Increasing the likelihood of delay, the auction order is also going to be the focus “numerous separate and distinct” challenges from the low-power TV industry, said LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino.
Media General is divesting stations in five markets to get regulatory approval for its $2.59 billion buy of LIN Media (CD March 24 p6), said the companies in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1tqM8fr). The divestitures include Media General and LIN swapping three stations with Sinclair (http://bit.ly/1oSguJd), Media General and LIN each selling a station to Hearst Corp. (http://bit.ly/1tilKWU), and LIN selling a station to Meredith Corp. (http://bit.ly/1mmV69a), according to news releases from the companies involved. The deals are contingent on approval of the Media General/LIN deal, the releases said.
An FCC proposal to tighten rules on broadcasters swapping network affiliations within a market might lead to a rulemaking but is unlikely to result in a final policy banning the practice, said attorneys who oppose the proposed rule, in interviews. FCC ownership rules already prevent a single broadcaster from owning two Big Four-rated network affiliates in a market, but the 2014 quadrennial review Further NPRM tentatively concluded in favor of extending those rules to keep broadcasters from coming into ownership of two Big Four stations in the same market through network affiliation swaps. Initial comments were recently due on the FNPRM (CD Aug 8 p7).
NAB filed a court challenge on the use of auction software TVStudy in the FCC incentive auction order. “Broadcasters are effectively left with an auction that benefits everyone else while harming only them,” said NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan in a blog post (http://bit.ly/VA7RWM).