The FCC approved 3-0 Thursday, with few changes, an order and further NPRM on expanding the commission’s VoIP numbering authorization rules (see 2512170039). Also at the meeting, commissioners addressed low-power TV and translator stations in a second item approved unanimously and, for the sixth consecutive month, adopted a direct final rule (DFR) to expunge a set of what the agency said are obsolete and unnecessary rules.

More consolidation among local broadcast stations is a must for survival, but beyond a change in ownership, it will also bring a change in how stations operate, station group owners said Wednesday at NAB’s annual New York City show. They also said the ATSC 3.0 transition needs a deadline for exiting 1.0 that the FCC will support.

Now with a Republican majority, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Wednesday laid out policy priorities that range from accelerating and easing broadband infrastructure deployment to tackling blue-collar workforce issues.

Broadcasters are poised to execute a rush of mergers and acquisitions if the FCC relaxes ownership rules, but uncertainty about markets, the direction regulators may take and the future of broadcast networks could influence deal-making, broadcast brokers said in interviews this week. The agency's failure to relax ownership rules could spur a wave of bankruptcies, they said. “The industry is crying out for some relief, and it really deserves some relief, because we can't compete with the giant companies that we're forced to compete with now,” Media Services Group co-founder George Reed said. Tideline Partners Managing Partner Gregory Guy said “2025 is the most fundamentally important year for broadcasters in decades.”

Expect a Donald Trump White House and FCC to focus on deregulation and undoing the agency's net neutrality and digital discrimination rules, telecom policy experts and FCC watchers tell us. Brendan Carr, one of the two GOP minority commissioners, remains the seeming front-runner to head the agency if Trump wins the White House in November (see 2407120002). Despite repeated comments from Trump as a candidate and president calling for FCC action against companies such as CNN and MSNBC over their news content, many FCC watchers on both sides of the aisle told us they don’t expect the agency to actually act against cable networks or broadcast licenses under a second Trump administration.

The FCC might not be as aggressive on pirate radio enforcement and curbing cable local franchise authorities (LFAs) after Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's expected departure from his seat Jan. 3 at the latest, experts and insiders told us. Some wonder if O'Rielly will be a quieter presence on the commission in his remaining weeks; he issued no statements at its August meeting though he did for the C-band auction rules approved on circulation (see 2008060069). O'Rielly's office and the FCC didn't comment.

Both an FCC commissioner and critics of the agency's approval Thursday of a local franchise authority (LFA) order anticipate its being challenged in court. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, who along with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel dissented in the 3-2 vote, said he has "no doubt" about litigation. Emailed NATOA General Counsel Nancy Werner, "There will be litigation over the final order."

A possible FCC compromise on the draft kidvid NPRM didn’t materialize and the item was approved with a 3-1 party-line split Thursday (see 1807110051). Though Commissioner Mike O’Rielly acceded to a request from Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to edit the item to be free of tentative conclusions, Rosenworcel said Thursday the two sides couldn’t come to agreement. She praised O’Rielly’s willingness to negotiate and didn’t identify any other concessions she requested. “I was informed that even with these edits it was not sufficient to garner a bipartisan vote,” O’Rielly said. The version approved Thursday contains the same tentative conclusions as the draft item, O’Rielly and Media Bureau staff said.