Liberman Broadcasting has provided complete responses to initial questions from the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector, and the committee will complete its review within the 120-day deadline, said a letter in FCC docket 19-386 Thursday (see 1912230036). Liberman wants the ruling allowing it to be up to 100% foreign-owned because of an upcoming bankruptcy reorganization that will lead to its being controlled by SLA, a company ultimately controlled by other Cayman Islands-based entities whose owners who are U.K. residents. DOJ said the committee is “conducting an initial review to assess whether granting the Application will pose a risk to the national security or law enforcement interests” of the U.S. and the FCC will be notified “promptly” if the review is extended or there’s need for a secondary assessment.

The full FCC denied PMCM’s application for review (see 1906070074) appealing a Media Bureau approval of Connecticut Public Broadcasting Inc.’s move of WEDW Stamford, Connecticut, from Bridgeport, said a docket 18-126 order posted Tuesday. PMCM didn’t show the decision was improper, and CPBI’s filings were in compliance with an application freeze in effect at the time, the order said.

Delay implementation of proposed expanded audio description of video requirements to Oct. 1, 2021, because of COVID-19, said NAB in a call last week with staff from the FCC Media and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 11-43. “The COVID-19 national emergency is causing substantial economic harm to the broadcasting industry, and the requested delay would provide affected stations more time to pivot onto firmer financial ground once the emergency hopefully subsides,” NAB said. The extra time could help stations “to better accommodate the costs of audio description in their annual budgets,” the filing said.

FCC staff settled with another radio licensee over political file issues (see 2008050046). Christian Family Media Ministries' renewal applications for three Kentucky stations didn't certify such compliance, and Media Bureau Audio Division employees found problems, said a bureau order and consent decree Friday. Christian Family Media agreed to "implement a comprehensive compliance" that includes reporting to the bureau, and the regulator will continue processing its renewal requests, the document said. The "pandemic has caused a dramatic reduction in advertising revenues which, in turn, has placed the radio broadcast industry, including the Company, under significant financial stress," it said. "The Company’s disclosures in its license renewal applications combined with the exceptional circumstances brought about by the pandemic present a unique situation."

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ Prometheus rulings left the FCC with “no apparent path forward,” acting U.S. Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall told the Supreme Court Thursday in a reply brief urging the court take up the commission’s appeal of Prometheus IV (see 2007210058). The 3rd Circuit’s repeated rulings against the FCC’s quadrennial broadcast ownership review orders require empirical analysis of the effect of rule changes on ownership diversity while striking down any such rule change, he said. “Remitting the Commission to yet another round of administrative review” would “merely prolong the FCC’s inability to fulfill its obligations.” SCOTUS review is needed to undo “damage to the Nation’s broadcast markets” and allow the FCC to respond to market developments, said the solicitor general. The public interest groups that won before the 3rd Circuit argued the FCC didn’t have justification to roll back ownership rules, but the government said that's a mischaracterization: The agency concluded there were “compelling competitive justifications” for loosening the rules and no data showing it would hurt female and minority ownership, so “the bare possibility that loosening the rules would have that adverse effect was not a sufficient reason to forgo an otherwise beneficial regulatory change." NAB is also expected to file a reply brief, due Aug. 19. A decision on whether to grant cert is expected in late September or early October, attorneys said. If the high court takes the case, it likely wouldn’t be argued until after the election, they said.

Eagle Broadcasting is the latest radio group settle with the FCC Media Bureau over political file violations, said a consent decree posted in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. As with others, Eagle disclosed the violations in a license renewal application, and the agreement includes a compliance plan but no monetary penalty (see 2008040065).

The FCC Media Bureau settled with two more radio broadcasters over self-disclosed political file violations, said consent decrees posted in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. La Zeta 95.7 and Skytower Communications-Etown said in license renewal applications their stations hadn’t fully complied with agency political file requirements, the decrees said. As for many other broadcasters in recent weeks (see 2008030050), the bureau called COVID-19 and the self-disclosures mitigating circumstances in the settlements, which don’t include financial penalties. The broadcasters will have to follow a compliance plan to prevent future violations, and their renewals will be processed.

Two more radio broadcasters reached settlements with the FCC Media Bureau over self-disclosed political file violations, said consent decrees posted in Monday’s Daily Digest. Sumter Broadcasting and WHOC told the agency their stations hadn’t fully complied with the political file rules, the decrees said. Similar to a host of recent cases (see 2007300054), the bureau cited the pandemic and the broadcasters’ self-reporting in their license renewal applications as reasons for the settlements, which don’t include monetary penalties. The broadcasters will have to follow a compliance plan to prevent future violations, and their renewal applications will be processed.

Nielsen is “unable or unwilling to provide parties to significant viewership proceedings with cost-effective, reliable data demonstrating over-the-air viewership,” said Gray Television in a filing posted Friday in FCC docket 20-73. Nielsen’s arguments against changes to the rules for deciding a TV station is significantly viewed in a given area are intended to maintain Nielsen’s “virtual monopoly over lucrative local viewership studies, not to ensure that television stations’ local viewing areas are properly defined,” Gray said. The FCC has the authority to change the rules, and Gray’s proposal to allow using Longley-Rice data on the reach of a station’s signal wouldn’t remove any stations from the significantly viewed list or reverse prior significant viewing determinations, Gray said. Nielsen didn’t comment.

The FCC expects to open a new filing opportunity for full-power noncommercial educational FM stations later this year, Chairman Ajit Pai said in a letter posted Friday responding to an inquiry about a low-power FM window from Rep. Xochitl Torres-Small, D-N.M. Torres-Small requested a filing time for LPFM, but Pai said full-power NCE stations will get to go first because that service hasn’t had one since 2010. The last LPFM window was in 2013. Timing of the new NCE one will be determined by when revamped processing rules take effect (see 1912110057), Pai said. “Once the applications from the NCE FM filing window are processed, the Bureau will be in a position to open a filing window for new LPFM applications,” he said. “Public Notices that announce filing windows are generally released well in advance.”