Calls to downgrade the FCC’s kidvid draft NPRM to a notice of inquiry are an attempt by Senate Democrats and advocacy groups to inject “unnecessary delay and distraction,” into the proceeding (see 1806290057), Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a commentary in the National Review Thursday. The same information gathering results can be achieved by an NPRM, he said. Criticisms that the kidvid proposals would reduce the availability of high quality content for kids aren’t based on evidence, O’Rielly said. Data provided to the FCC shows “only 0.6 percent of American households with children do not have access to either cable or Internet services -- and that number is even smaller for low-income, minority households,” O’Rielly said. The information coming in to the FCC indicates “broadcasters are heavily burdened by our rules, while most American households and children receive questionable benefits from them,” O’Rielly said. “I stand ready to work with anyone, within reason, from now until we vote on this rulemaking to reframe or ask additional questions that will build the most robust record possible.”

The freeze on minor change applications for low-power TV and translators is now lifted, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice Tuesday. The freeze was put in place ahead of the LPTV displacement window, which closed June 1. “Freezes on the filing of applications for displacement, applications for digital companion channels, and applications for new digital LPTV/translator stations and major changes remain,” the PN said. This opens up useful options for such stations, LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino said in an emailed newsletter.

Comments on the FCC proposal to relax rules requiring stations post physical copies of broadcast licenses on their premises are due in docket 18-121 Aug. 1, replies Aug. 16, said a public notice posted Monday.

The FCC auction of 15-year-old mutually exclusive FM translator construction permits raised $574,771, the Media and Wireless bureaus said in a public notice in Monday's Daily Digest. Twenty bidders won 30 permits, the PN said. The permits in Auction 83 were those with interference conflicts that couldn’t be resolved after a 2003 filing window and have been stalled ever since (see 1801170031). Downpayments from the auction are due July 16, final payments July 30. Winning bidders must submit long-form applications by Aug. 8.

The FCC should delay consideration of Sinclair buying Tribune until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rules on the revived UHF discount, said a motion from Public Knowledge and Common Cause filed Thursday in agency docket 17-179. “Disassembling a transaction that has been consummated, or bringing it in compliance with a significantly lower ownership cap, would be very difficult or impossible.” Though the deal’s shot clock has been stopped while the FCC collects comments on Sinclair’s latest amended application, “only 13 days remain on the clock,” PK and Common Cause said. The final filing deadline for the Sinclair/Tribune proceeding is July 12. “If the Commission were to restart it at the close of the current pleading cycle, that could lead to action in this proceeding that would be uninformed by the Court’s decision,” said Common Cause and PK said. “Jumping the gun” and approving the deal before the court ruling could allow the combined company to obtain “long-lasting concessions from distributors” based on “a heft that it will have to shed shortly thereafter,” the motions said. Disassembly of the combined company could take “a long time to effectuate” and would be extremely difficult, the groups said. If the UHF discount were to go away after the companies were allowed to combine, they would have to divest stations to reduce their reach by 33 percent of U.S. households, the y said. “Abeyance is necessary to guard against the substantial ‘unscrambling of the eggs’ in the form of station divestitures by New Sinclair so significant that they would amount to an undoing of the merger.” Sinclair didn’t comment.

The “Trump FCC” is allowing Sinclair to turn local TV news “into a coordinated national platform for the delivery of messages” that attack opponents of the president, former Chairman Tom Wheeler blogged for the Brookings Institution Thursday. Sinclair and the FCC didn’t comment. By doing away with Wheeler-era rules that prevented sidecar arrangements, the agency “rubber-stamped” the “charade” that sidecar deals comply with ownership regulations, Wheeler said. “The efforts of the Trump FCC to help Sinclair expand its national political propaganda machine have not even been subtle.” Sinclair’s initial announcement of a Tribune combination that at the time didn’t comply with the national ownership cap “was a strong indicator that Sinclair believed the Trump FCC would conveniently change the law to help them,” Wheeler said. “There is an arrogance in engineering federal regulation to benefit a specific company -- especially when the chairman of the Trump FCC has preached ‘regulatory humility.’”

Salem Media Group reached a $10,000 FCC settlement over subsidiaries consummating a pro forma transaction before it was approved, said an order and consent decree in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. It's connected to applications for a pro forma transfer of licenses between Salem subsidiaries, including Caron Broadcasting and South Texas Broadcasting. Though other parts of the deal were approved in December, the transfers involving South Texas weren’t, but the companies consummated all of them, the document said. When the Media Bureau granted the South Texas transactions in February, Salem revealed the deal had already been consummated, the bureau said.

The FCC effort to update kidvid rules “has begun with grossly misplaced priorities,” said the Parents Television Council Wednesday. The draft NPRM “reads like a ‘wish-granting factory’ for the broadcast industry,” PTC said (see 1806260067). “Where are the NPRM’s proffered benefits to America’s children? Where are the bullet points which focus on the needs of families?” asked President Tim Winter. The proposed changes are based on data provided by broadcasters, but the agency should gather data on the needs of children and families, PTC said. Still, the group praised the commissioner who led the effort to create the draft. “We are truly grateful to FCC Commissioner [Mike] O’Rielly for his leadership on this potentially thorny issue.” PTC said. ”It’s high time for modernizing and improving the rules.”

The FCC Media Bureau granted one-month extension of comment deadlines for the FM translator interference proceeding, acceding to radio broadcasters (see 1806260042), an order said Wednesday. Beasley Media, iHeartCommunications, Radio One and others want more time to gather Nielsen data on “locations of listening to full service FM radio stations.” A “brief extension” will allow for “more thorough comments” without causing undue delay, the order said. Comments in docket 18-119 are now due Aug. 6, replies Sept.5.

The attorneys general of California, Oregon, and the District of Columbia want to join the AGs of Illinois, Iowa, and Rhode Island in petitioning the FCC to deny Sinclair buying Tribune (see 1806210071), said a motion to amend the original state petition posted in docket 17-179 Wednesday. California, Oregon and D.C. weren’t included in the original filing because a meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General led to their being unavailable, the motion said.