Pearl TV stations have “started to look" at doing over-the-air ATSC 3.0 transmissions in 4K, Managing Director Anne Schelle told the ATSC NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday. “We had an almost opportunity -- I can’t really talk about it -- where a network was looking at it, but for rights issues and others, we didn’t do it,” she said. She foresees stations in 2022 will begin doing events-based broadcasts in 4K for live sports, she said. “Some of the stations are talking about production in 4K” for some of the “shoulder content they’re producing around sports,” she said.

The FCC should merge the 2018 quadrennial ownership review into the upcoming 2022 QR to “take the time to conduct a proper review,” two university professors studying media ownership said in joint comments posted Friday in docket 18-349. “A continuing legal impasse on media ownership policy benefits neither citizens nor the broadcast industry,” said Christopher Terry, University of Minnesota assistant professor of media law and ethics, and Caitlin Ring Carlson, Seattle University associate professor of communication. The FCC “set a precedent for incorporating ongoing quadrennial reviews to newly required ones during the crossover between the 2010 and 2014 reviews,” the professors said. “There is little reason to abandon the approach at this time.” The agency is likely to receive “increased deference” due to the U.S. Supreme Court opinion from the FCC’s successful Prometheus appeal, and could use that to develop a record to allow an eventual 2022 QR order to survive legal challenge, the filing said. The FCC “should commit to rapid action when launching the 2022 proceeding, unlike the last possible moment launch of the current proceeding in December of 2018,” the professors said. “Releasing a notice of proposed rulemaking shortly after the new year will give the agency some time to properly consider the comments.”

GeoBroadcast Solutions’ (GBS) geotargeted radio proposal “threatens to completely upend the radio industry’s business model with only an illusion of an upside,” said NAB and iHeartMedia in a call Monday with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, according to an NAB ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 20-401. Starks has been a vocal proponent of the geotargeted radio technology as a way to make minority-owned radio stations more viable. “The reality is quite the opposite,” NAB and iHeart said. Geotargeted radio will put downward pressure on ad rates, hurting smaller broadcasters, said NAB and iHeart. It could also be used to specifically target more affluent areas, and could lead to interference concerns, the filing said. GBS didn’t comment.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $3,000 forfeiture for Nexstar Media’s WSPA-TV Spartanburg, South Carolina, for repeatedly failing to file quarterly TV issues/programs lists, said a notice of apparent liability listed in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The station uploaded four lists over one year late and three lists between one month and one year late, the NAL said.

Proposed increases in FY 2021 regulatory fees would be “especially challenging after the huge revenue downturns of the past two years,” state broadcast associations told acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a call Monday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 21-190. The group included the executive directors of the Indiana, West Virginia, Minnesota and Georgia broadcast groups. The FCC plan “to charge broadcasters 16% of its operating costs while those same broadcasters hold only 0.07% of the spectrum regulated by the Commission is an unsustainable approach to funding,” the filing said. Continuing the FCC’s traditional regulatory fee approach and charging broadcasters for costs associated with broadband mapping “merely forces broadcasters to subsidize through excessive regulatory fees their fiercest competitors -- social media and technology companies,” the filing said. The FCC should “promptly launch a separate proceeding to commence that effort and ensure a thoughtful process in which all may participate,” the associations said.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $3,500 forfeiture for LMNOC Broadcasting over the company’s failure to file a timely license to cover for FM translator station K251CJ, Taos, New Mexico, and for operating the translator after the broadcaster’s construction permit expired, said a combined order and notice of apparent liability in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The bureau will grant the broadcaster’s license renewal application when the forfeiture is resolved, the order said. LMNOC engaged in unauthorized operation for more than six months, the order and NAL said.

The FCC Media Bureau granted Gray Television’s requests to delete Channel 4 from Superior, Nebraska, and allot it to York, Nebraska, and substitute Channel 24 for 4 at York for its station KSNB-TV, said an order listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. KSNB-TV had been licensed to Superior but with the change is now licensed to York. The move is part of an effort by Gray to improve service to viewers in the Lincoln, Nebraska, area after another station’s tower collapse in 2020 and “the imminent failure of KSNB’s existing technical facility,” Gray told the agency, according to the order. The bureau also granted Corridor Television’s request to change the channel of KCWX Fredericksburg, Texas, from 5 to 8, said another order listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $3,500 forfeiture for Hoosier AM/FM for failing to file a timely license to cover for its FM translator station W288DN, Marion, Indiana, and for operating the translator after the broadcaster’s construction permit expired, said a combined order and notice of apparent liability listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The bureau will grant Hoosier’s license renewal application when the forfeiture is resolved, the order said. Hoosier's proposed forfeiture was reduced from $7,000 because translators are a secondary service, the item said.

The Patent and Trademark Office accepted CTA’s statement of use on the NextGenTV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs, clearing its final hurdle toward a trademark registration certificate, said an agency notice Tuesday. The certificate “will issue in due course barring any extraordinary circumstances,” said PTO. CTA’s July 1 statement of use said the logo was first deployed commercially “at least as early” as March 2020 (see 2107260021).

The FCC Media Bureau canceled a notice of apparent liability proposing a $4,500 forfeiture for Autaugaville Radio after it was found that the agency's licensing and management system listed the wrong license expiration date for Autaugaville’s Alabama stations WXKD(AM) Brantley and W292HL Troy, said an order listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest (see 2108020048). With the incorrect date in the LMS, the broadcaster couldn’t file renewal applications on time, the order said.