The FCC posted a tutorial video explaining how to document repacking expenses on Form 399 for broadcasters seeking repacking reimbursement funds in the post-incentive auction reshuffling of TV channels and other changes.

The Consolidated Database System (CDBS) versions of broadcast ownership forms 323 and 323-E will no longer be available starting Nov. 27, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice. The forms are being migrated to the Licensing and Management System, the PN said. An information session on the new LMS forms will be Nov. 28. Starting that day, users will no longer be able to submit broadcast ownership reports in CDBS, and any users submitting nonbiennial versions of the forms in CDBS must complete that process by Nov. 27, the PN said. The filing window for broadcast ownership reports opens Dec. 1.

The Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance sees the FCC vote authorizing voluntary deployments of ATSC 3.0 (see 1711160060) as laying "the ground work for major improvements in America’s emergency alerting system,” said Executive Director John Lawson. Recent disasters “provide more depressing examples that our current alerting systems are not adequate,” he said. Using 3.0, the alliance and “public safety partners will begin the technical development” of AWARN next year, he said. But Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld blasted FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for the vote, calling it an “action that primarily benefits Sinclair Broadcasting at the expense of consumers.” With Sinclair having “boasted” about the audio measurement tools it will develop and patent royalties it will collect from the next-gen standard, the order “does nothing to protect consumer privacy or protect consumers from the extra costs" of the transition, said Feld. Though NCTA was active in docket 16-142 with filings urging 3.0 not impose costs and burdens on cable companies and their customers, the group declined comment Friday on 3.0's approval.

An item now listed as being on circulation concerns streamlining and improving the process for filing state emergency alert system plans, an FCC spokesman said. The draft on circulation is listed only as a Public Safety Bureau item “On the Matter of Amendment of Part 11 of the Commission's Rules Regarding the Emergency Alert System.” There has also been recent activity under that heading in docket 15-94 concerning Blue Alerts (see 1706220045), the proposed addition of an EAS code to warn of law enforcement officers in danger. Bureau staff queried Sage Alerting (see 1711140024) and AT&T about possible timelines for implementing the alerts. The bureau didn’t comment.

Tribune Media, being bought by Sinclair, said its real estate unit and a developer sold for $65 million 24 acres in Costa Mesa, California, to a joint venture including SteelWave, owner of the next-door Los Angeles Chargers football practice facility. Until it closed in 2010, the property being sold printed the Los Angeles Times, Tribune said Thursday. Tronc now owns that newspaper.

The FCC order letting Gray Television substitute Channel 7 for 5 for KYES-TV Anchorage was to take effect Thursday, said a correction (see 1712060011) in that day's Federal Register to a past FRnotice. "By moving to sister station KTUU[-TV]’s location, and operating with an existing modern broadband antenna on a high-VHF channel, the station will be able to deliver an improved signal," the regulator said in the original notice. Adding the signal to the translator network used by KTUU "will reduce most of the loss of service that would result from the proposed move," it said. Gray committed to improving the station’s service when buying KYES last year under a failing station waiver (see 1707170058).

Broadcasters that haven’t received any revenue from ancillary services won’t have to file forms associated with such revenue by the Dec. 1 deadline, said an FCC Media Bureau order in Thursday's Daily Digest. The bureau waived the deadline for such stations because an NPRM last month (see 1710240062) tentatively concluded stations that don’t generate ancillary services revenue shouldn’t be required to file such forms. “Waiver of the upcoming deadline for such stations to file the form serves the public interest by temporarily relieving them of a regulatory burden that the Commission has tentatively concluded is unnecessary,” the bureau said. The reporting period covered by the waiver ended Sept. 30.

“Unfortunate myths” are circulating about privacy concerns for ATSC 3.0, said NAB in a news release. The standard itself doesn't allow the collection of viewer data, but does have interactive services that can be accessed with a broadband connection, and that would allow targeted ads, said NAB. “This is nothing new.” Targeted advertisements would operate “just like other service providers you currently use (such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, and virtually every website you visit, as well as cable and satellite TV providers),” the group said. Though the draft rules don’t contain privacy rules, the FTC rules governing privacy and consumer data will apply, the association said. Sinclair said viewer data would be "anonymized" (see 1711140046).

Sixteen hurricane-damaged TV stations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands want the FCC to let them accelerate their post-incentive auction repacking plans, said a letter Tuesday. The stations want to build their new facilities as they rebuild from Maria, rather than have to duplicate construction to rebuild facilities for their pre-auction channel and then switch to the new one. An early switch also would allow the stations to take advantage of repacking reimbursement funds in their rebuilding process, the letter said. Most of the stations are assigned to phase three of the repacking and wouldn’t be able to switch to their reassigned channels until 2019, they said. All the stations are running on generators at reduced power and reduced operating hours, and are likely to do so for months because of the damage to power facilities in the areas affected by the storms, the outlets said. “The conditions are ripe for an early transition while stations are much more flexible, accustomed to or planning on alternate operations.” Because of the geography of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, an early transition wouldn’t interfere with other stations, though they may also need the agency to be flexible with granting special temporary authority during the process, they said.

Twelve months is enough time for Sage Alerting Systems to create software upgrades that will allow its customers to use the proposed Blue Alert emergency alert system code (see 1706220045), Sage President Harold Price said in response to questions from FCC Public Safety Bureau staff Monday, said an ex parte filing posted the next day in docket 15-94. That’s also enough time to integrate the code into equipment that hasn’t been sold or manufactured, Price said.