The FCC Media Bureau will approve the proposed Tribune/Local and Gannett/Belo broadcast deals this week, said agency officials in interviews Wednesday. The $2.73 billion Tribune/Local transaction will be approved without any additional conditions or divestitures, and the bureau won’t impose additional conditions on the $2.2 billion Gannett/Belo deal beyond the single station divestiture handed down by the Department of Justice earlier this week (CD Dec 17 p6), said the officials. Both deals will be approved on the bureau’s delegated authority, the officials said. Public interest groups had argued that because both deals involve sharing arrangements between stations, they should be handled by the full commission. Bureau staff found that the deals were “within the zone of existing precedent,” and so didn’t require a vote by the full commission, said an FCC official.
Amazon’s original film and TV production unit, Amazon Studios, plans to shoot all 2014 original series in 4K Ultra HD, it said Monday, joining Netflix as a streaming video provider getting a head start on broadcasters and cable networks to 4K content distribution.
Amazon’s original film and TV production unit, Amazon Studios, plans to shoot all 2014 original series in 4K Ultra HD, it said Monday, joining Netflix as a streaming video provider getting a head start on broadcasters and cable networks to 4K content distribution.
An FCC Media Bureau letter pointing out problems with some sharing arrangements involved in Sinclair’s deal to buy Allbritton probably doesn’t represent a policy shift in the commission’s stance on mergers and acquisitions, said industry attorneys and an analyst in interviews. But public interest officials said questions about Sinclair’s financial arrangements that were raised in the letter (CD Dec 9 p5) --after they were pointed out by Free Press and others -- might point to a stricter stance on ownership rules. “Asking about financial relationships is significant,” said public interest attorney Andrew Schwartzman, who consults for Free Press. The FCC’s stance though could be “deal-specific,” he said.
A panel of judges upheld the FCC ban on political ads on public radio and TV stations. The opinion, issued Monday following a rehearing, came from a panel of 11 judges in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. One judge presented a partial dissent and partial concurrence, and two judges dissented completely. The en banc court overturned a previous 9th Circuit decision that struck down the ban (CD April 13/12 p2). The decision stemmed from a case brought by the Minority Television Project, owner of KMTP-TV San Francisco, against an FCC order that found the station liable for a $10,000 fine when it ran ads for for-profit companies (CD April 13/12 p2). The Justice Department requested the rehearing (CD Nov 29/12 p17).
The “nuclear option” invoked in the U.S. Senate Thursday will likely add three President Barack Obama-appointed judges to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but that new Democratic majority is unlikely to strongly improve the FCC’s chances in defending net neutrality rules, industry observers told us Friday. Stifel Nicolaus analysts said the 7-4 D.C. Circuit Democratic majority could make it easier for the FCC to appeal a negative ruling by the three-judge panel that heard the case in September. But industry attorneys said that wouldn’t make a meaningful difference in the outcome, which could ultimately be determined by the Supreme Court.
The “nuclear option” invoked in the U.S. Senate Thursday will likely add three President Barack Obama-appointed judges to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but that new Democratic majority is unlikely to strongly improve the FCC’s chances in defending net neutrality rules, industry observers told us Friday. Stifel Nicolaus analysts said the 7-4 D.C. Circuit Democratic majority could make it easier for the FCC to appeal a negative ruling by the three-judge panel that heard the case in September. But industry attorneys said that wouldn’t make a meaningful difference in the outcome, which could ultimately be determined by the Supreme Court.
A broadcaster agreement to pay $110,000, train employees and take other compliance actions to settle an Enforcement Bureau indecency investigation is the first FCC action on such content in several years and a rare instance of the commission’s acting against non-English programming, said experts we interviewed Friday. The night before, the bureau released a consent decree where Liberman Broadcasting agreed to develop an indecency manual, name a compliance officer, train staff, report future noncompliance and file four reports over the three-year term of the settlement. Notably, said one of the indecency experts, broadcast lawyer John Crigler of Garvey Schubert, the licensee admitted it violated indecency rules for the now-discontinued talk show-type program that complaints said featured scantily-clad women with almost no obscurance of sexual parts and much unfiltered cursing in Spanish.
Carriers are expected to accede to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s demand (CD Nov 15 p14) that they work out a voluntary agreement on cellphone unlocking as part of the CTIA Consumer Code, industry observers said Friday. Wheeler in particular emphasized a requirement that they notify subscribers “when their devices are eligible for unlocking and/or automatically unlock devices when eligible, without an additional fee.” Industry observers also said Wheeler’s letter signals that he’s not afraid to get tough with the group he formerly led as longtime president of the CTIA.
Carriers are expected to accede to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s demand (WID Nov 15 p12) that they work out a voluntary agreement on cellphone unlocking as part of the CTIA Consumer Code, industry observers said Friday. Wheeler in particular emphasized a requirement that they notify subscribers “when their devices are eligible for unlocking and/or automatically unlock devices when eligible, without an additional fee.” Industry observers also said Wheeler’s letter signals that he’s not afraid to get tough with the group he formerly led as longtime president of the CTIA.