NAB will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for its new HQ June 20, said an email. The event will be streamed online and attended by District of Columbia Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and NAB CEO Gordon Smith. NAB's new HQ will be at South Capitol and M Sts., S.E., in Washington’s Capital Riverfront neighborhood and is projected to cost close to $36 million (see 1504070056). NAB is expected to move to the new building in 2018.

The FCC should work on its quadrennial review media ownership proposal with the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, MMTC said in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday in docket 15-50. The FCC promised the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it would have a proposal in circulation in only four weeks, so “it would be advantageous for the Commission’s staff to go through the proposals with MMTC with an eye toward satisfying the court's expectations,” the letter said. The FCC has “declined to engage” with MMTC after previous court losses on ownership rules, the letter said. MMTC proposed a detailed schedule of meetings with Media Bureau and the Office of the General Counsel staff throughout June to work out final proposals, culminating in a June 24 meeting between Wheeler and MMTC President Kim Keenan before Wheeler circulates the proposal June 30.

Expanding access to over-the-air radio for smartphones would increase the effectiveness of wireless emergency alerts, NAB told the FCC Public Safety Bureau in a meeting last week, said an ex parte filing Wednesday in docket 15-91. “Most WEA messages include text directing consumers to 'Check Local Media' for more information and instructions,” NAB said. “Simplifying the connection between WEA messages and the FM radio already available in many smartphones would be a logical extension of this current practice.” While a mobile device is tuned to radio, it's also minimizing battery drain and not burdening local cell networks, NAB said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued three forfeiture orders against as many New Jersey pirate radio operators Thursday. Ivan Angeles of Passaic and Alejandro Ramirez of Paterson were fined $15,000 each, and Jose Luis Hernandez of Passaic was fined $10,000, the forfeiture orders said. All three were fined for disregarding repeated warnings, the orders said.

Nexstar will divest five TV stations in four markets as part of its proposed buy of Media General. “Nexstar anticipates announcing additional station divestitures shortly,” it said in a Friday news release. The divestitures will eliminate overlapping markets and bring the deal under the 39 percent ownership cap, Nexstar said. They involve WCWJ Jacksonville and WSLS-TV Roanoke being sold to woman-owned Graham Media, KREG-TV Glenwood Springs, Colorado, being sold to Marquee Broadcasting, and KADN-TV Lafayette, Louisiana, and LPTV station KLAF-LD Lafayette being sold to minority-owned Bayou City Broadcasting, the release said. The sales will increase “opportunities for minority television station owners to play a greater role in the U.S. broadcasting industry,” Nexstar said.

Low-power TV and translator stations that want to take advantage of their post-auction displacement window must be operating on the date the FCC Media Bureau issues a channel reassignment public notice informing incentive auction-participating broadcasters of their new channels, the bureau said in a PN Thursday. Since the channel reassignment PN will come out after the auction is finished, the bureau doesn't know the exact date LPTV and translator stations will need to be operating on. "We cannot predict with certainty the date of the conclusion of the now active auction or the release of the Channel Reassignment Public Notice,” the bureau said. “We anticipate release of this clarification provides sufficient time for permittees that have already commenced, but not yet completed construction, or that have made equipment investments but not yet commenced construction, to complete their construction and license their authorized facilities in order to qualify for the limited displacement window for operating stations.” A station is “operating” if it “has licensed its authorized construction permit facilities or has an application for a license to cover on file with the Commission on that date,” the bureau said.

PMCM agreed to pay $15,000 as part of a settlement for violations of FCC children’s TV and public file rules, said a consent decree posted Tuesday and OK'd by commissioners. The violations occurred at WJLP Middletown Township, New Jersey, the station at the heart of an ongoing conflict between PMCM and the Media Bureau over channel assignment (see 1605170073). The consent decree said the violations occurred in 2009 when PMCM had difficulty obtaining a programming source.

France Télévisions is partnering with the French Tennis Federation to offer 360-degree live broadcasts in 4K and virtual reality of all French Open matches played on the tournament’s three main courts, the broadcaster said in a Monday announcement. An RG360 virtual reality app, created by French startup FireKast and available for free on iOS, Android and Samsung Gear VR, will let fans view live or replayed matches in “full immersion” 360-degree 4K, it said. To make the content available to everyone, France Télévisions will also be trying out new functions on the YouTube Live 360 player on the French channel francetvsport, it said. And 360-degree replays will be available through francetvsport’s YouTube and Facebook platforms, it said. For the fourth straight year, the French Tennis Federation and France Télévisions also will offer a special event channel for the men’s and women’s singles semifinals and finals matches, it said. A French telco will broadcast these matches in Ultra HD on digital terrestrial TV in the Paris area and by satellite for the rest of France, it said.

ATSC for the first time identified publicly the six high-dynamic-range proposals vying to be selected as ATSC 3.0's technical solution as the video codec of the next-gen standard gets elevated to the status of proposed standard from candidate standard (see 1605100047). The proposals to be evaluated are from Dolby, Ericsson, NHK/BBC, Qualcomm, Technicolor and a joint proposal on open HDR10 from Qualcomm, Samsung and Sharp, ATSC President Mark Richer emailed us Friday. "ATSC is making great progress in our consideration of HDR technologies for ATSC 3.0." ATSC's S34-1 ad hoc group on ATSC 3.0 video "will review HDR proposals and demonstrations in late June," he said. S34-1 representatives have said the group hasn’t decided whether to go with a single HDR technology or with multiple solutions, and that the selection will follow comparative demonstrations of the various proposals in mid-June at CBS Labs in New York. S34-1 representatives have said it plans to finalize its selection by July 31, when ATSC 3.0 video's candidate standard period is set to expire.

The FCC Media Bureau denied three must-carry complaints filed by PMCM against Time Warner Cable, RCN Telecom and Service Electric Cable TV, said orders issued Tuesday. In all three cases, PMCM argued the carriers were violating must-carry rules by failing to carry PMCM's station WJLP Middletown Township, New Jersey, on Channel 3. PMCM has been seeking for months to broadcast its station on virtual Channel 3.10, though Channel 3 is already assigned to another TV station. The cable carriers were carrying WJLP on Channel 33, which corresponds to the DTV Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) assigned by the Media Bureau. The bureau was “unpersuaded” by PMCM's arguments that must-carry channel assignment shouldn't be based on PSIP, the orders said. The bureau also rejected PMCM's request that the complaints be ruled on by the full commission, saying the complaints don't present “novel” questions.