The FCC should require Sinclair to provide more information about its relationships with the companies it's divesting in connection with the deal to buy Tribune, said the American Cable Association in a letter to the FCC filed in docket 17-179 Thursday. ACA opposes Sinclair/Tribune. The letter accuses Sinclair of withholding more than 250 documents about continuing agreements and disclosures connected with its divestitures. “At least some of those documents appear to contemplate an ongoing commercial relationship between Sinclair and the divested station’s new owner or to give Sinclair rights to purchase certain stations in the future,” ACA said. The FCC shouldn't let Sinclair “hide the ball in this manner,” ACA said. “No one knows what arrangements have been reached in any of these documents, and Sinclair has unilaterally decided the Commission need not review them.” The FCC can't allow the merger to proceed without examining the documents because of its unprecedented size, ACA said. The agency already has gone to “extraordinary lengths” to “defend itself from charges of partiality,” ACA said, citing a recent blog post by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly (see 1805220034). If Sinclair's arrangements with divestiture partners allow for joint retransmission consent negotiations “they would increase the already considerable harm the transaction will cause,” ACA said.

The FCC is expected to have an edge in Friday’s oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against Free Press and other groups on the agency’s restoration of the UHF discount, but not as big of one as usual, attorneys and industry officials said in interviews. Courts tend to defer to agency decisions, but that dynamic is complicated by this decision being a direct reversal of a 2016 FCC decision to strike down the discount, said Fletcher Heald appellate attorney Harry Cole, who isn't connected to the case. “The FCC has broad discretion,” Cole said, but such a 180-degree turn allows opponents to paint it as a decision motivated by politics rather than the measured work of an expert agency. If the D.C. Circuit isn’t sure what argument is better, it will defer to the commission, said an experienced telecom litigator.

Cable operators should take a page from the likes of Spotify by continuing to improve their user interfaces so UIs are a one-stop shop for a wide array of video content, the ex-CEO of TiVo advised smaller and mid-sized companies. Tom Rogers, now executive chairman of the WinView "second-screen interactive TV" provider, said it's "not too late" for operators to further include content companies in their UIs. Cable operators like Comcast “fought, they resisted, the streaming content companies for being part of their user interface,” he said Wednesday at an American Cable Association conference. Comcast disagreed, other panelists said operators are focusing their efforts on this, and another panel's moderator called cable "the original disrupter."

The digital divide is the FCC's “top policy priority” and the Connect America Fund reverse auction is “a milestone” in modernizing a key USF program, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told an American Cable Association conference Wednesday. Pai slammed Title II Communications Act regulation of broadband service, which he said was the result of “Silicon Valley giants” claiming small ISPs such as ACA's members “posed a greater threat to a free and open internet” than Google, Facebook and Twitter.

A court reversal of parts of a 2015 FCC robocalling order is likely to stand, said attorneys involved in or following the case on Telephone Consumer Protection Act regulatory restrictions. They said the current commission and most industry petitioners appear satisfied with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling Friday, which shot down two key agency decisions and affirmed two others in ACA International v. FCC, No. 15-1211 (see 1803160006). If some parties do appeal, the prospects the ruling will be overturned appear dim, they said. Continuing robocalling disputes are expected to play out at the FCC and in trial courts.

Broadcaster ideas for the future of the 39 percent national ownership cap range from getting rid of it completely to applying the 50 percent discount currently reserved for UHF stations to all TV stations, said comments filed Monday in docket 17-318 responding to an FCC NPRM on modifying or eliminating the cap and discount. “The traditional competition and diversity justifications for a broadcast-only national TV ownership rule have significantly eroded,” said NAB. Anti-media consolidation groups and MVPDs argued the cap should be preserved and the UHF discount should be eliminated. The proposals in the NPRM would “overrule Congress” to “suit the interests of Donald Trump’s cronies” at Sinclair and Fox, commented Free Press.

Telco groups pressed the FCC to shore up funding for high-cost USF support. NTCA highlighted the need to "remedy shortfalls" in support it sees as "undermining the effectiveness" of the program. The FCC should "pursue readily available paths toward helping to mitigate the insufficiency of USF support," including "the immediate use of existing program reserves" pending a further review and long-term measures, said an NTCA filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. The group said its May 2016 petition for reconsideration provided a vehicle for near-term relief. USTelecom backed "both long-term and short-term solutions" to ensure support is adequate. Insufficient funding affected "broadband providers' ability to build out fiber to rural areas," said its filing on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Seven Tennessee rural telcos receiving USF support through an Alternative Connect America Model urged the FCC to act by year-end to "authorize additional A-CAM funding up to $200/month per eligible customer location to enable more rural consumers in Tennessee to have the broadband connectivity necessary for jobs, education, healthcare, and economic development," said a filing. Some parties lobbied on the planned Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of support for fixed services, including a rural coalition of electric cooperatives, NTCA, the Utilities Technology Council and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. They urged the FCC to reject advocacy that "would reduce accountability and potentially undermine an efficient and fair auction process by delaying (or preventing entirely) the Commission’s review of information essential to confirming the technical and financial qualifications" of bidders. They disputed opposition to the coalition's proposal that wireless parties be required to provide spectrum propagation maps of their planned coverage areas in short-form applications. The American Cable Association urged the FCC to use census blocks, not census block groups as proposed, as the minimum geographic bidding unit. "[A]lthough many census blocks may be economically viable, the census block groups -- in which these blocks are found -- often are not," said an ACA filing on a meeting with agency auctions task force staff. "This is because these groups include extremely high-cost census blocks, whose reserve price is capped at an amount often far below what a bidder would need to meet its deployment obligations."

The FCC approved its ATSC 3.0 order 3-2 Thursday over the objections of Democrats, as expected (see 1711140053). Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn were highly critical of 3.0's transition plan order, which was little changed from what circulated last month. The plan is “cavalier” about possible consequences for consumers and MVPDs, Rosenworcel said. “Not ready for prime time,” said Clyburn. The order intentionally doesn't address every aspect of the new standard, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said. “Many questions remain,” he conceded. “This won’t be the last time we address ATSC 3.0,” he said.

Tech companies and Wi-Fi advocates pressed the FCC to open the entire 6 GHz band for unlicensed use, saying it's a key band for the future of Wi-Fi. Wireless carriers were more focused on the 3.7-4.2 GHz band and said the need for more spectrum is real. But public safety groups raised concerns in docket 17-183 about the 6 GHz band (see 1710020058). Commissioners approved a notice of inquiry in August (see 1708030052) and the next logical step would be an NPRM proposing bands for reallocation, industry officials said.

Small-cable and rural electric/telco groups opposed Hughes Network Systems' petition for FCC reconsideration of bid weights in a planned Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of broadband subsidies. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association backed Hughes' request to narrow the weighting gap between high-capacity and low-capacity broadband performance tiers in the CAF II auction, which they both say unduly favors fiber efforts. WISPA opposed Hughes' request to reduce high-latency penalty, and it opposed a Pennsylvania recon petition seeking help in obtaining CAF II support. Verizon was supportive of the latter. Comments were posted Thursday and Friday in docket 10-90.