Mutually exclusive full-power and Class A TV stations seeking alternate channels and expanded facilities in the post-incentive auction repacking have until July 30 to resolve conflicts, said the FCC Media Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force in a public notice Monday. “Following the close of the settlement period on July 30, 2018, the staff will dismiss all applications whose mutual exclusivity has not been resolved.” The PN lists 8 pairs of mutually exclusive stations, including some owned by CBS, Ion and Nexstar. “Proposals to resolve mutual exclusivity must be submitted as amendments to pending applications via LMS and must not create new mutual exclusivity or application conflicts," the PN said.

The FCC Media Bureau modified the repacking phase of two TV stations to bring their repacking phase in line with the rest of their markets, said letters released Friday. WQED Pittsburgh was moved from phase 9 to phase 4, and KTXL Sacramento was moved from phase 8 to phase 9. The letters said both stations verbally consented.

The FCC should exempt noncommercial educational stations from ATSC 3.0 simulcasting rules, representatives from America’s Public Television Stations, CPB and PBS told an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai Thursday, said a filing posted Friday in docket 16-142. “Without such an exemption, the simulcasting mandate will preclude many public television stations from pursuing a transition to ATSC 3.0 and delivering its many public service benefits to viewers.” Public TV (PTV) stations derive income from viewer donations, and are largely licensed to entities such as universities that have no incentive to leave viewers behind by ceasing to transmit in a standard they can’t receive, the groups said. Simulcasting is “uniquely challenging” for NCEs because the must-carry rules for such stations “are not connected to DMA boundaries,” the filing said of designated market areas. “Regulatory certainty of an exemption will ensure that PTV stations can invest confidently in their futures.”

The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on Connecticut Public Broadcasting’s petition to amend the DTV table of allotments (see 1708240050) to change the community of license for its WEDW from Bridgeport to Stamford, said an FCC public notice Thursday. "CBPI’s proposal warrants consideration.” The PN said the petition doesn’t “propose to change WEDW’s licensed facilities as part of its allotment request and its existing principal community contour will cover the entire community of Stamford from the station’s currently-licensed transmission facilities.” WEDW channel-shares with WZME Bridgeport, and CPBI pointed out that Stamford doesn't currently have a full power TV station licensed to it despite being the third largest city in Connecticut, the PN said.

The U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit gave anti-media consolidation groups until May 9 to file supplemental documents with the court demonstrating they have standing to challenge restoration of the UHF discount, said an order (in Pacer). “Petitioners’ affidavit(s) must be filed, together with a brief explaining (a) why this court should consider them, and (b) how they have satisfied their burden to establish their standing.” The groups' standing was the subject of considerable scrutiny at oral argument last week (see 1804240072), but the judges hearing the case said the matter could be addressed with supplemental filings. Standing is a serious consideration, but it’s unlikely the court would have offered that possibility if it intended to reject the case on standing grounds, several broadcast attorneys told us. The FCC has to May 16 to respond.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $25,000 forfeiture for Winston Tulloch, an alleged pirate radio operator in Paterson, New Jersey, said a notice of apparent liability released Wednesday. An unauthorized station was observed operating out of properties connected with Tulloch numerous times since 2015, and the station repeatedly gave Tulloch’s personal phone number on air as a contact for potential advertisers, the NAL said. The FCC “has repeatedly warned Mr. Tulloch that operation of this unlicensed station was illegal and that continued operation could result in further enforcement action,” the NAL said.

An FCC extension giving 39 radio stations 60 more days to comply with online public file rules could indicate that “likely soon” stations out of compliance could face penalties, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford Wednesday. The original deadline was March 1.The extension was mainly for “stations with very small staffs or those affected by recent hurricanes or otherwise non-operational,” Oxenford said. Since the three-year license renewal cycle for radio stations begins in 2019, the FCC will have ample opportunity to monitor public file compliance and penalize stations in violation, Oxenford said.

PBS SoCal, licensee of KOCE-TV Huntington Beach, California, is merging with broadcast network KCETLink Media Group, licensee of KCET Los Angeles, they announced Wednesday. It's a “merger of equals” that will create a public media organization serving “more than 18 million people living in the Southern California region,” the release said. The new entity will be chaired by KCET Board Chairman Dick Cook, while PBS SoCal President Andrew Russell will be CEO. (See also the personals section of this publication's issue.) The combination will be governed by a 32-person board of trustees made up of 14 members from each of the parent companies and four new appointees. The new organization will continue to operate from the parent companies’ existing locations in Burbank, Costa Mesa and Los Angeles and there won’t be “immediate changes” to broadcast operations or program schedules, the release said. “The name of the new organization will be announced with the closing of the merger, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2018” subject to regulatory approval, it said.

Broadcasters’ procedural objections to the American Television Alliance’s petition for reconsideration against the FCC ATSC 3.0 order aren’t valid (see 1804130044), said MVPD groups in replies posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. Though broadcasters argued the ATVA arguments are a rehashing of points already raised during the 3.0 rulemaking, NCTA disagreed. The FCC never specifically sought comment on whether it should sunset “substantially similar” provisions in five years even if no broadcasters had yet started transmitting in 3.0, NCTA said. The petition is legitimate because the 3.0 order contains “material error,” in that it doesn’t sufficiently address MVPD concerns about issues like retransmission consent, ATVA said. Broadcasters using retrans negotiations to pressure MVPDs into carriage of 3.0 is a harm that “can hardly be considered speculative,” said NTCA and WTA. “The Rural Associations agree with the Petitioners that the Commission should reconsider its decision not to order that ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals be negotiated separately."

Sharp Electronics and France TV, which plan to demo 8K broadcasts at the French Open tennis championships that begin next month, would like to collaborate with the BBC on 8K trials, their executives told us at an IFA news conference in Rome. Sharp also “would love to do tests at Wimbledon” with BBC for the tennis championships that open July 2 in London, said Sascha Lange, Sharp Europe vice president-marketing and sales. “Sky is another candidate." If "you can make good pictures with sports, you can make good pictures with anything, under any conditions," said Bernard Fontaine, France TV head-technology innovations. With tennis, the action is ideal for testing. "A small ball moving fast is a very good test. You have time to adjust during a match,” he said. Among tests will be comparing H.265 compression with uncompressed signals, and comparing 4K with 8K, said Fontaine. France TV “would like to work with NHK on this but we can’t because of TV rights issues,” he said of the world’s biggest backer of 8K. “The way France TV is funded we can do the ... tests for a month and not need to earn anything. ... What we are doing is not secret, it’s a public test, with shared information. The way NHK is funded is different and they would want to own the material and broadcast some of it by satellite.” BBC and NHK representatives didn’t comment Monday.