The two mutually exclusive applicants for the FCC’s Auction 111 have until Nov. 30 to reach a settlement agreement to be resolved without competitive bidding, said a Media Bureau public notice Monday. Auction 111 consisted of low-power TV stations and TV translator stations (see 2109210056). The applicants are Major Market Broadcasting of New York and Venture Technologies Group. Sixteen other applications either didn’t have conflicts or had conflicts that have already been resolved, the PN said.

Technology for stations to geotarget radio broadcasts “is beneficial to minority communities, including radio broadcasters, small businesses, and the public,” said National Newspaper Publishers Association CEO Benjamin Chavis in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 20-401 Monday. The tech will help minority-owned broadcasters and let minority-owned businesses afford broadcast advertising by creating targeted, cheaper ad spots, he said. The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council have been pushing the FCC to change booster rules to allow the tech, as has the tech’s creator, GeoBroadcast Solutions (see 2102100055). NAB and iHeartMedia argued the tech would disadvantage minority groups.

The FCC approved Gray Television’s $2.7 billion purchase of 17 TV stations from Meredith, said a letter from the Media Bureau's Video Division posted Friday. “The Transaction serves the public interest, convenience, and necessity.” Approval was expected and Gray executives recently said it would come soon (see 2111050063). The deal involves one overlapping market that Gray addressed by divesting WJRT-TV Flint, Michigan, to Allen Media (see 2107150003), and drew no formal objections. The transaction will make Gray the No. 2 U.S. broadcaster by revenue, and give it an audience reach of 25% of households, well under the 39% cap. Two informal objections, including a late-filed one from a Las Vegas-area broadcast antenna installer who said Meredith had a policy against carrying ads that encourage cord cutting, were rejected. “We cannot conclude, as Mr. Antenna suggests, that such a policy exists, or ever existed, at Gray or Meredith,” staff said: The deal would create public interest benefits for viewers because of Gray’s Washington bureau and the advantages of greater scale. Once the sale is consummated, Meredith will separate into two companies, one consisting of the broadcast properties and owned by Gray, and the other -- Meredith’s print, content and digital businesses -- will become a subsidiary of Dotdash Media (see 2111100051). The deal is expected to close Dec.1, Meredith has said.

Meredith’s board approved a stock distribution connected with the company’s planned spinoff of its nonbroadcast TV businesses, part of the arrangements for Gray Television’s buy of Meredith’s TV stations (see 2106030074), said a Meredith release Tuesday. The companies are expected to close their deal “immediately” after the stock distribution, which is planned for Dec. 1. Gray executives said on a recent earnings call the transaction was expected to be finalized soon (see 2111050063). The deal awaits approval from Gray’s board in a planned Nov. 30 vote and FCC approval, the release said. The spinoff, which includes Meredith’s content, digital and magazine arms and will be called “New Meredith,” will become a subsidiary of Dotdash Media, the release said. The FCC didn’t comment Wednesday.

Comments are due Nov. 17, replies Nov. 22, on CXR Radio Station Trust’s request for a one-year extension of the Dec. 17 deadline for CXR to divest Florida FMs WSUN Holiday and WPYO Maitland, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice posted in docket 19-98 Wednesday. Those licenses were assigned to CXR as part of Terrier Media’s deal for numerous Cox Media stations (see 1911220069), with the requirement that they be divested to an unrelated party within two years. Terrier is affiliated with Apollo Global Management.

Broadcasters should never be partisan, should focus on “the counterpunch” and shouldn't be afraid to negotiate, said outgoing NAB CEO Gordon Smith in a livestreamed “state of the industry” address before NAB’s Marconi Awards presentation Wednesday. Smith steps down at year-end and will be replaced by current NAB Chief Operating Officer Curtis LeGeyt (see 2104070045). The speech had been planned for the since-canceled NAB Show 2021. Smith has headed NAB for 12 years, after a two-term stint in the U.S. Senate. LeGeyt is “the right person at the right time for this job,” Smith said Wednesday. The outgoing CEO praised NAB’s role in securing COVID-19 pandemic relief for broadcasters and “standing up to the tech giants,” and said broadcasting has never been more important as an institution than over the past 20 months. Smith advised advocates for broadcasting to prioritize issues with practical consequences, hire “the best, not the most,” and not “punch” until they have assessed the likely response from their opponent. “Some things have to ripen, and you want to calibrate your punch when it’s most impactful,” Smith said. He will continue to work for NAB as an adviser starting in January.

The FCC should require NAB to conduct a “timely” inquiry on the accessibility of children's broadcast programming, said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf, the American Council of the Blind and others in a joint reply comment filing posted in docket 18-202 Tuesday. In earlier comments, NAB said changes to kidvid rules hadn’t affected programming accessibility (see 2110080056), but the groups said the data is insufficient. “Despite two years of specific forewarning that this inquiry would be forthcoming, NAB has advanced a mere few hundred words of bare contention that the status quo is acceptable,” the filing said. NAB is the only entity positioned to gather systemic data on the accessibility of broadcast content, said the groups. “Children with disabilities deserve a more serious vindication of their civil rights to view educational video programming on equitable terms.” If NAB doesn’t provide more data quickly, the FCC should reassess the changes to the kidvid rules allowing broadcasters more flexibility to satisfy kidvid requirements with shorter programs and multicast programs. NAB declined to comment.

The FCC received no submissions from U.S.-based foreign media outlets for the Oct.11-April 12 period, it said in a report to Congress Monday. The previous semi-annual report, in May 2021, had only one submission, from Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, which had also submitted in previous iterations of the report (see 2105100054). The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act requires the reports.

The FCC unanimously approved a Further NPRM seeking comment on proposals from NAB’s petition on ATSC 3.0 multicasting. The FNPRM released Friday tentatively concludes that the agency should let 3.0 stations license multicast streams that are hosted by other stations (see 2110280064). It proposes allowing stations broadcasting in 3.0 on their own channels to license ATSC 1.0 multicast streams hosted by other stations without simulcasting that stream in 3.0 themselves. Licensing multicast streams would make clear what station is responsible for FCC violations on a given stream, the FNPRM said. It would also address concerns about noncommercial educational stations hosting the streams of commercial broadcasters, the FNPRM said. FCC rules prohibit airing broadcast ads over NCE spectrum. The proposals could help address broadcaster capacity concerns “by facilitating the participation of stations uncomfortable with a purely contractual approach and making the participation of NCE stations legally permissible,” the FNPRM said. The FCC declined to seek comment on an NAB proposal for broadcasters to host multicast streams even without broadcasting in 3.0 but asked about allowing 3.0 broadcasters to host their primary and multicast streams on different stations to prevent service loss. “Is there any reason to treat ‘simulcast’ multicast streams differently than ‘simulcast’ primary streams?” the FCC asked. The FNPRM seeks comment on how to prevent broadcasters from taking advantage of the rule changes “to aggregate programming or broadcast spectrum on multiple stations in a market in a manner that would not otherwise be possible or permitted.”

IHeartMedia investor Global Media & Entertainment Investments withdrew a request that the FCC approve iHeart to be up 49.99% foreign-owned, GMEI said in a letter posted in docket 21-141 Thursday. IHeart itself had requested to be only up 14.99% foreign-owned, and opposed GMEI’s request that the FCC increase the percentage (see 2110140043). GMEI is "hopeful" the withdrawal "will conserve the Commission’s and all parties’ resources and enable prompt grant of iHeart’s Petition,” the letter said. The iHeart petition would allow GMEI to increase its position in iHeart up to the allowed percentage. GMEI also spoke with Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner on the matter, the letter said. The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector last week OK'd the iHeart petition (see 2110270042).