NAB spoke with FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey Thursday on “the appropriate scope” of possible foreign-sponsored content disclosure rules, said a filing posted in docket 20-199 Tuesday. The group discussed “tightening the focus of any such requirements” and “the standard of reasonable diligence that broadcasters may be required to meet.”

The FCC Media Bureau Video Division seeks comment on Gray Television’s request to shift KSNB-TV Superior, Nebraska, to channel 24 in York, Nebraska, said a Monday public notice. “Because Gray’s proposal that the Division allot channel 24 to York is not mutually exclusive with its existing channel 4 allotment at Superior, and would result in removal of Superior’s sole local transmission outlet,” the request would require a waiver, the PN said. Another PN sought comments, also with forthcoming deadlines, on Gray's request to swap the channel of KCBD Lubbock, Texas, from 11 to 36.

The FCC-proposed rule on content sponsored by foreign governments “threatens to interfere with public radio’s core First Amendment activities and public service mission,” NPR told Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey last week, per a filing posted in docket 20-299 Monday. Rules should be tailored to the specific areas that raised concerns, such as foreign governments leasing stations or buying airtime to air foreign-sponsored content, NPR said: “The proposed remedy is too broad.”

Don't adopt rules intended to curb foreign propaganda that end up affecting “innocuous content,” America’s Public Television Stations and PBS asked FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and staff, per a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-299. The rules proposed in the NPRM (see 2101260065) could capture B-roll footage from foreign tourism boards, programming produced using common tax incentives, and archival footage filmed abroad and used in noncommercial educational programming, the public broadcasting backers said. “Provide flexibility for NCE licensees in implementation of any new rules.”

NAB’s Sales and Management Television Exchange and Radio Show events will take place in conjunction with October's NAB Show in Las Vegas, said the association Thursday. The 2021 NAB Show is Oct. 9-13, SMTE Oct. 8-9 and the Radio Show Oct. 13-14. SMTE is aimed at small- and medium-market TV station managers, and the Radio Show is co-produced with the Radio Advertising Bureau. The cancellation of NAB’s events in 2020 led the association to ask members for extra payments last year (see 2010290064).

The ATSC 3.0 Evoca TV service in Boise has been “exercising flash channels a fair amount in our system” since debuting in September (see 2011010001), CEO Todd Achilles told the virtual Streaming Media 2021 Connect conference Thursday. “We set up a flash 4K channel for a sporting event, and we’re actually standing up a flash channel today for the Mars rover landing.” It landed around 4 p.m. EST. The channel capability is in the 3.0 suite to “spin up an extra channel” over-the-air “on demand and dynamically, and spin it down again,” said ATSC President Madeleine Noland: “A flash channel is a channel that pops up for a particular purpose and comes back down again.” Such protocols are in ATSC’s A/351 recommended practice document for 3.0 signaling, delivery and synchronization techniques, said Noland through a spokesperson. An app per the A/344 standards on 3.0 interactive content is used, she said. Achilles thinks 3.0 is superior to 5G for content delivery into the home. “There’s lots of conversations” about how 5G will become “the new technology to deliver video into the home,” he said. “When you look at the numbers on that, it’s still a really expensive way to deliver bits to a stationary end user.”

IHeartMedia will buy digital advertising and audience measurement company Triton Digital from E.W. Scripps for $230 million, iHeart announced Wednesday: IHeart "will now be able to provide audio content to producers and advertisers with an industry-leading full ad service package for streaming and podcasting." The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

This year is proving to be "very difficult" for local ad revenue, said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb in a teleconference Friday with acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, per a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-349. Retransmission consent revenue is increasingly important for stations to provide local content such as news, the company said. With more consumers streaming and traditional MVPD subscribers declining, revenue from “virtual MVPDs” has risen in importance, the filing said: “vMVPDs are generally unwilling to carry independent stations to the disadvantage of local viewers.”

The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on several requests for channel substitutions, said NPRMs in Friday’s Daily Digest. Many of the proceedings concern stations owned by Gray Television. Gray wants to change WTOC-TV Savannah channel 11 to 23; WRDW-TV, Augusta, Georgia, channel 12 to 27; KAIT Jonesboro, Arkansas, channel 8 to 27; and KCRG-TV Cedar Rapids channel 9 to 32. Gray also wants to swap KFVS-TV Cape Girardeau, Missouri, channel 11 to 32. KUTV Licensee seeks to switch KMYU St. George, Utah, channel 9 to 21; KHGI Licensee wants to swap KHGI-TV Kearney, Nebraska, channel 13 to 18, and KVII Licensee wants to switch KVII-TV Amarillo, Texas, channel 7 to 20. Four Seasons Peoria wants to delete WAOE Peoria, Illinois, channel 10 and move the station to channel 10 in Oswego, Illinois, changing the community of license.

An administrative law judge will decide whether imprisoned radio chain owner Michael Hubbard and his Auburn Network should keep their FCC broadcast authorizations, the Media Bureau said in a hearing designation order Thursday. Noting Hubbard's felony convictions under Alabama's Ethics Act, the bureau said there are "substantial and material questions [whether he and Auburn] possess the basic character qualifications to hold Commission authorizations." Hubbard is serving a four-year sentence for corrupt acts while he was speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, it said. A pending application to assign Auburn authorizations to Frank Lee Perryman, "a Commission licensee with no known qualifications issues," will be held in abeyance pending the proceeding's resolution, it said.