NTIA has “no recommendation" and "no objection" to the FCC approving the application and granting Estrella Broadcasting’s request for a declaratory ruling allowing it to be over 25% foreign owned, said a filing posted in docket 19-386 Monday. Estrella, formerly Liberman, requested the ruling in 2019 as part of a bankruptcy reorganization. NTIA reviewed the request under the new process jump-started by a White House executive order earlier this year (see 2009290063).

Create a waiver process for broadcasters to use ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission systems, rather than loosening rules to allow them, said Microsoft in calls with aides to FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Geoffrey Starks last week, per a filing in docket 20-74. A draft order on proposed DTS changes has been circulated to eighth-floor offices (see 2010260051). “Given the technical complexity of the issue, it is difficult in a conversation, to discern the full impact of the rule changes,” Microsoft said. Extending a station’s DTS signal beyond its protected contour “would adversely and unnecessarily impact the availability of television white spaces spectrum,” the company said. “Instead couple the current standard with a waiver process to permit coverage of communities located just beyond the protected contour.”

Pearl TV and its Phoenix Model Market partners scheduled a Jan. 7 livestreamed briefing to provide an update on NextGenTV plans for 2021. Next year “will bring more markets, more TV models, and more services,” said a media alert Friday. The event is four days before CES 2021 opens as an all-virtual show, where additional ATSC 3.0-enabled TV models are expected to be introduced.

Don't close off options on how to calculate broadcaster ATSC 3.0 datacasting ancillary service fees until such services start being used “and the arrangements between broadcasters and other parties become clearer,” NCTA this week told aides to all FCC commissioners except Chairman Ajit Pai, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 20-145 Thursday. The FCC should "decline at this time to exclude from gross revenue the value of in-kind facility improvements and should refrain from determining how the fee should be calculated in instances where a broadcaster leases spectrum to a third party,” NCTA said. It's “premature” to make any adjustments to the basis for calculating the fee, it said. America’s Public Television Stations “strongly” urges the FCC "to adopt its proposed Broadcast Internet Order to promote innovation, experimentation, and greater use of broadcast television spectrum, including spectrum licensed to public television stations,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler in a news release Thursday: “The critical importance of Broadcast Internet services has never been clearer than during the pandemic.”

Comscore and MediaMath announced a connected TV ad technology Thursday that uses frame-by-frame visual recognition and second-by-second audio processing to provide contextualization of the full content for connected TV (CTV), video and livestreaming. Advertisers can use it to target relevant and “brand safe” CTV and video content programmatically to take advantage of connected viewing from consumers in a “safe and relevant way.” Brands and agencies are looking for ways to connect with consumers within CTV and livestreaming while prioritizing privacy and brand safety, said the companies. They gave the example of an automotive advertiser targeting relevant sections of a news program while avoiding content on car accidents and violent crime.

Florida radio group Magic Broadcasting agreed to a $125,000 settlement with the FCC Enforcement Bureau over violations of the agency’s antenna lighting and broadcast contest rules, said an order and consent decree Thursday. Magic admitted it didn’t perform required inspections of its tower, alert the FAA that the tower lights had gone out or tell the FCC it acquired the tower, the consent decree said. The contest violations were connected with a scavenger hunt, which complaints said wasn’t run according to the announced rules, and a call-in contest, which allegedly aired prerecorded fake callers, the order and consent decree said. “Although queried repeatedly on these matters, Magic Broadcasting would neither confirm nor deny the veracity of the allegations” made in the complaints and “maintains that it has no information’” about the prerecorded programming, the filings said. Under the consent decree, Magic has to institute a compliance plan, report future violations and send regular compliance reports to the FCC for five years. Magic didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Public TV stations need regulatory certainty and flexibility to provide “impactful Broadcast Internet services,” said America’s Public Television Stations and PBS in calls with aides to FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. That's per a filing posted in docket 20-145 Wednesday.

Comments were due on Fox's newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule waiver request Dec. 1 (see 2011240063).

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $6,000 forfeiture for Jimmy Dale Media for failing to file license renewal applications for two Alabama AM stations on time, said an order and notice of apparent liability Wednesday. The broadcaster said he wasn’t aware of the deadline, the NAL said. “Violations resulting from a failure to become familiar with the Commission’s requirements are willful violations,” the bureau said. The violations don’t show a pattern of abuse, and the bureau will grant the stations’ renewal application after the forfeiture proceeding concludes, the order said. Jimmy Dale Media didn’t comment.

The FCC Media Bureau approved three Tegna NBC affiliate channel change requests, said orders posted Wednesday. KPNX Mesa, Arizona, will shift from channel 12 to channel 18; KGW Portland, Oregon, from channel 8 to 26; and KARE Minneapolis from channel 11 to 31.