An FCC draft order on creating new emergency alert system codes was withdrawn from the commissioner meeting agenda Friday morning. An agency spokesman told us it’s expected to be adopted “soon.” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he hadn't voted on the item when it was unexpectedly pulled because of its “horrible” cost-benefit analysis. The item, which would create specific EAS codes for high winds and storm surges, wasn't expected to be controversial (see 1606220063).

The same reasoning used by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in vacating FCC joint sales agreement attribution rules prevents the agency from eliminating the UHF discount without examining the nationwide broadcast ownership cap, said NAB in a letter to the commission posted online Thursday in docket 13-26. Just as the 3rd Circuit said attribution rules don't exist separately from the ownership rules they're based on, “there would be no need to have the UHF discount if it were not for the national TV ownership cap,” NAB said. The FCC can't “logically demonstrate that making the national TV ownership rule more stringent by removing the UHF discount serves the public interest without examining the cap itself,” said NAB. Removing the UHF discount without examining the national cap “will not withstand judicial scrutiny,” NAB said,

The FCC should eliminate the eight voices test and newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, NAB wrote the agency, posted in docket 14-50 Tuesday. That cross-ownership rule "affirmatively harms localism," and "exacerbates the perilous state of the newspaper industry," NAB said. The eight voices test "erroneously assumes that broadcast TV stations exist in a separate competitive universe that lacks multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), the Internet, online and mobile video services and all other competitors," NAB said. "That assumption is contrary to reality." The FCC can't use the incentive auction as a basis for not concluding the 2010 and 2014 quadrennial reviews in the time frame established by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, NAB said. "Because Congress and the Commission already have decided that reducing the number of TV stations will serve the public interest, the Commission cannot properly use that public interest judgment as a basis to further delay fulfilling its obligation."

NAB held a groundbreaking ceremony at the Capital Riverfront site of its new headquarters Monday. Located at 1 M St. SE, Washington, the building is expected to be completed in two years and make it easier for broadcasters to lobby nearby Capitol Hill (see 1504070056). NAB President Gordon Smith said the new building is “a statement” that broadcasters should remain a cornerstone of telecom. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and NAB Joint Board Chairman and Tegna President Dave Lougee spoke.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued three notices of apparent liability proposing $50,000 total in fines for three TV stations that violated public file rules. Winstar Odessa, licensee of KWWT Odessa, Texas, faces a proposed $20,000 fine for failing to file children’s TV programming reports on time for 16 quarters; KSQA Topeka, Kansas, faces a $15,000 fine for similar violations over 14 quarters; and Rama Communications faces a proposed $15,000 fine for violating the main studio and public file access rules at its WQBQ(AM), Leesburg, Florida, according to the NALs.

An FCC-proposed rule change to lower skywave protections for Class A AM stations could limit the reach of presidential emergency alerts, the Federal Emergency Management Agency Integrated Public Alert Warning System Program Management Office commented in a filing posted Thursday in docket 15-91. Presidential messages are intended for use during massive, nationwide disasters. The proposal to lower skywave protections is part of the FCC's AM revitalization rulemaking. It would create “extended areas where stations with which FEMA does not have direct communications pathways may cause interference” to currently protected radio broadcasts, that agency said. The protected stations are usually larger, and the FCC proposal is seen as making it easier for smaller AM stations to sustain their business model. The smaller stations “most likely depend on a relay of the Presidential message” from other stations, FEMA IPAWS PMO said. The FCC proposal would lower the number of stations that receive presidential alerts directly from FEMA, the filing said. “Due to this newly proposed interference, the reach of a Presidential message at a critical time would be diminished. FEMA urges the FCC not to authorize reduced protection to Class A AM skywave service.” The comments came in an emergency alert system proceeding where industry urged the FCC to go slow with EAS changes (see 1606090070).

The Parents TV Council took its effort to reform the TV content ratings system to the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board. PTC in a news release Thursday said it talked with Monitoring Board Chairman/MPAA President Chris Dodd and in a subsequent letter to him sought public hearings on the TV Content Ratings System's operation and on evaluating ways of improving it. PTC also said it asked Dodd to reply by June 17. MPAA didn't comment. The PTC also wrote the FCC asking for overhaul of the board that oversees the ratings system, though that move is seen as unlikely (see 1605200067).

The FCC shouldn't subject broadcasters to ownership limitations while allowing pay-TV mega-mergers like Suddenlink/Cablevision and Charter/TWC, NAB said in an ex parte filing posted online Monday in docket 14-50. “Particularly in light of the still increasing consolidation in the pay TV industry, the Commission must fulfill its statutory mandate in the pending quadrennial reviews and repeal or modify the asymmetric broadcast ownership restrictions,” NAB said. Economic analysis of the video programming and advertising markets show “the unprecedented level of competition facing TV stations for both viewers and advertisers and the consequent declines in broadcasters’ competitive position,” NAB said. The ownership rules “severely constrain” broadcasters from competing with ever-larger pay-TV companies, NAB said. The FCC is “obligated” to “repeal or significantly relax its local ownership restrictions,” said the filing.

Final briefs in the newer of Free Access and Broadcast Telemedia's court challenges of the incentive auction rules are due Sept. 29, said an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. A decision on FAB Telemedia's other legal challenge is still pending, after oral argument in May (see 1605050052).

Nexstar will divest two stations to Gray Television for $270 million as part of Nexstar's deal to buy Media General, Nexstar said in a news release Friday. The “planned divestiture” of WBAY-TV Green Bay, Wisconsin, and KWQC-TV Davenport, Iowa, “reflects Nexstar’s stated intention to divest certain television stations in order to comply with the FCC local and national television ownership rules and to obtain FCC and Department of Justice approval of the proposed Nexstar/Media General transaction,” the release said. Both stations are “#1 in their market in terms of ratings and revenue and their mid-to-small market size perfectly fits [Gray's] profile,” said Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker in an email to investors.