The FCC Media Bureau mailed the first batch of equal employment opportunity audit letters for 2019 on Thursday, said a public notice Friday. “Each year, approximately five percent of all radio and television stations are selected for EEO audits." Commissioners voted Thursday to eliminate midterm EEO reports and issue a further NPRM on EEO rules (see 1902140053).

An investment fund is buying a majority of Cox Enterprises' TV stations, Cox announced Friday. Cox will keep a minority stake and join funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management to form a new company headquartered in Atlanta to operate the stations. Apollo also will get majority ownership of Cox’s Ohio radio stations and papers including the Dayton Daily News. “Apollo intends to maintain the successful management and operating structure Cox Media Group’s TV business has created,” Cox said. Among the 13 TV stations in the deal are WSB-TV (ABC) Atlanta and KIRO-TV (CBS) Seattle. Cox's four FMs and one AM in Ohio are included, plus two other papers.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel's proposal for limits on electronic cigarettes advertising runs counter to the First Amendment, tweeted Commissioner Brendan Carr Thursday. “The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the ‘public interest,'" said Carr. In another tweet, Carr said he’s “a no” on Rosenworcel’s proposal, outlined in a column Wednesday in USA Today. Laws have limited TV ads for cigarettes for five decades, Rosenworcel responded during a news conference Thursday, noting the current rules have survived judicial scrutiny. Her column asks only for the FCC and FTC to study how electronic cigarettes are marketed, she said. “We do not need to sit idly by while the electronic equivalent of the Marlboro Man surfaces in new advertising that introduces the next generation to habit-forming tobacco products,” she wrote.

Direct-to-consumer services are the “future” of CBS, said acting CEO Joe Ianniello Thursday on a call summarizing Q4 results. “Where others are just announcing their ambitions, we’re hitting our stride, poised to take significant leaps ahead.” The CBS All Access and Showtime over-the-top streaming services have surpassed a combined 8 million subscribers, nearly two years ahead of the original goal of reaching the milestone by the end of 2020, said Ianniello. The new target is to more than triple combined subs for CBS All Access and Showtime OTT to 25 million by 2022, he said. The “rich data” gleaned from the rapid scaling of the two services “gives us valuable intelligence about the subscriber journey,” he said. “We are hearing loud and clear that in addition to watching our content on demand and outside the home, our subscribers love our premium content, and they want more.” CBS All Access will respond by offering a total of 11 original programs in 2019, more than quadruple what it had two years ago, said Ianniello. Showtime OTT will produce 30 percent more hours of original programming in 2019 than in 2018, he said.

The Media Bureau established a pleading cycle for Nexstar buying Tribune, and granted waiver of a rule that would prevent the FCC from considering it until the Sinclair/Tribune hearing designation order's final resolution, said an order and public notice Thursday (see 1901300054). Petitions to deny Nexstar/Tribune are due March 18, oppositions April 2 and replies April 9. The bureau had to issue a waiver for that pleading cycle to proceed because the dissolved Sinclair/Tribune involved some of the same stations at issue in Nexstar/Tribune. Rules prevent the agency from considering multiple transfers involving the same stations at once. Though Sinclair and Tribune are no longer pursuing a transaction, their applications remain pending until the FCC’s new administrative law judge rules on the HDO, Thursday’s waiver said. Allowing Nexstar/Tribune to proceed is “administratively efficient” in “these unique circumstances," it said.

The owner of a North Carolina AM station agreed to an $8,000 settlement with the FCC over multiple unauthorized license transfers and a failure to file biennial ownership reports, said a consent decree in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Attributable percentages of shares in WAGY Forest City were transferred without FCC permission multiple times among several people between 1989 and 2004, ending with station control willed to Marjorie Huskey by her husband. The station also didn’t file biennial ownership reports 1999-2015, the consent decree said. The violations came to light in April when Huskey, now in her 80s, realized the transfers were unauthorized and contacted the agency. “The individuals involved are now elderly, deceased, or no longer shareholders,” the consent decree said.

Entercom will give three Indianapolis radio stations to Cumulus in exchange for WNSH(FM) Newark, New Jersey; WMAS(FM) Enfield, Connecticut; and WHLL(AM) Springfield, Massachusetts, said an Entercom release. Cumulus and Entercom will each begin programming for their prospective new stations March 1 using local marketing agreements, but the transaction isn’t expected to close until Q2.

The FCC approved the sale of KNHL Hastings, Nebraska, from Legacy Broadcasting to Gray Television, said a Media Bureau letter released Tuesday. The bureau granted Gray’s request to operate the station as a satellite of KSNB-TV Superior.

An FCC rule change removing requirements broadcasters file paper copies of contracts and other documents with the agency took effect Jan. 22 (see 1812210057), reminded a public notice Monday.

Reject Red Brennan Group's petition for reconsideration of an FCC radio incubator order, NAB's filed, posted Friday in docket 17-289. Red Brennan is “clinging to outdated ownership rules that have utterly failed” to expand minority ownership, the association said. The FCC has considered and rejected arguments that the incubator program would hurt diversity (see 1808020048), NAB said. The petition “offers no evidence or arguments that warrant the Commission’s reconsideration,” it said.