The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the unopposed motion of the American Television Alliance of low-power stations to intervene as of right in defense of the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order against the four consolidated petitions challenging the order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act (see 2404080002), said a signed clerk’s order Wednesday. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516).
Broadcasters attending the 2024 NAB Show in Las Vegas will focus on exploiting and guarding against the latest advances in artificial intelligence, on making the now 7-year-old transition to ATSC 3.0 finally pay off, and on surviving an unfavorable regulatory landscape, industry officials told us. “We’ve been building out the service; now it’s put up or shut up time,” said Gray Television Senior Vice President Rob Folliard of ATSC 3.0. The show kicks off Saturday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The American Television Alliance (ATVA) of low-power stations seeks leave to intervene as of right in defense of the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order against the four consolidated petitions challenging the order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act, said the alliance’s unopposed motion Friday in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 8th Circuit, in an April 2 order, granted NCTA’s motion to intervene on the FCC’s behalf (see 2404020045). In the order under review, the FCC found that its existing media ownership rules, with some minor modifications, remain necessary in the public interest, said ATVA’s motion. Most important to the group, the FCC retained the local television ownership rule with modest adjustments to reflect changes that have occurred in the television marketplace, it said. That rule limits the number of full-power television stations an entity may own within the same local market to at most two, subject to some limits, it said. The “top-four prohibition” generally bars broadcasters from owning two stations ranked among the top four in a local market, it said. The order “rejected broadcaster efforts” to weaken the top-four prohibition for strong public interest reasons, and the commission also took action to prevent parties from exploiting unintended ambiguities or gaps in the top-four prohibition, it said. ATVA and its members will be “substantially affected” by the 8th Circuit’s review of the order, said the motion. FCC rules require ATVA members to engage in retransmission consent negotiations with television broadcasters throughout the country, and the association argued throughout the agency proceeding that the challenged rules will protect consumers from rising costs due to pass-through of retransmission consent fee increases that result when broadcasters are able to negotiate retransmission consent fees for two top-four stations jointly in a market, it said. ATVA “likewise explained to the FCC the need to close the loophole that was increasingly being exploited” by network affiliation arrangements and acquisitions to circumvent the top-four prohibition, it said. An 8th Circuit decision calling the FCC’s decisions into question in these areas “would increase broadcasters’ already-powerful ability to extract supracompetitive retransmission consent fees from ATVA members and, ultimately, from consumers,” said the motion. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516). The 8th Circuit previously granted the unopposed motions of four network affiliates associations (see 2403220041) and six radio group owners (see 2403260001) to intervene in support of the four consolidated petitions.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals adopted the briefing schedule that the parties proposed in the four consolidated petitions for review challenging the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act (see 2404030004), said the court’s tentative schedule Friday. The opening briefs of the four petitioners and their intervenor supporters are due July 15, it said. Sept. 13 is the deadline for the FCC’s response brief and that of NCTA, which is intervening on the FCC’s behalf to defend the order against the petitioners’ Section 202(h) challenges, said the schedule. Reply briefs are due Oct. 15 and final briefs Nov. 18, it said. The parties said they framed the schedule to allow for the briefing to be complete and the cases ready for submission on the merits before the end of calendar 2024. The dates “may be advanced or extended by court order or a party's early or late filing of a brief,” said the schedule. All briefs and appendices should be filed with the 8th Circuit’s St. Louis office, it said. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516).
Opening briefs of the four petitioners and their intervenor supporters challenging the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act (see 2403220041) would be due July 15 under a proposed briefing schedule that has the backing of all parties, NAB told the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing Tuesday. Sept. 13 is the proposed deadline for the FCC’s response brief and that of NCTA, which is intervening to defend the order against the petitioners’ Section 202(h) challenges, said the filing. Reply briefs would be due Oct. 15 and final briefs on Nov. 18, it said. The proposed schedule “would allow for the briefing to be complete and the cases ready for submission on the merits” before the end of calendar 2024, it said. The petitioners currently anticipate filing joint opening and reply briefs, it said. The intervenors supporting the Section 202(h) challenge anticipate filing two sets of opening and reply briefs, one from the four network affiliates associations, the other from six radio ownership groups, it said. “The number of briefs, the issues the parties intend to raise, and the number of words needed for full and efficient presentation of the issues could change if additional petitions for review or intervention motions are filed,” it said. April 15 is the deadline to file additional petitions for review of the quadrennial order; further intervention motions would be due 30 days later, said the filing. The parties request leave to file a supplemental joint proposed briefing schedule by April 22, seven days after the deadline to file a petition for review, it said. They further request leave to file a second supplemental joint proposal by May 22, if necessary, seven days after the deadline to intervene, “to ensure all parties are accounted for,” it said. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516).
The 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court granted the unopposed motions of four network affiliates associations (see 2403220041) and six radio group owners (see 2403260001) to intervene in support of the four consolidated petitions for review that challenge the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act, said a clerk’s order Tuesday. The 8th Circuit also granted NCTA’s motion to intervene to defend the FCC’s order against those Section 202(h) challenges (see 2403250064). The court denied without prejudice the network affiliates associations’ request to be deemed intervenors in any petitions that may be consolidated with the existing four in the future. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516).
The FCC unanimously approved an order allowing broadcasters to use FM boosters to originate geotargeted radio content (see 2402090044). The order lets broadcasters apply for an experimental license to carry geotargeted content for a maximum of three minutes per broadcast hour. Such content is expected to be mostly advertisements, and the push for geotargeted radio has faced heavy opposition from NAB and larger broadcasters over concerns about ad rates and interference (see 2210210050). The item includes a further NPRM that seeks comment on establishing a more permanent process to replace the experimental license. In comments included with the order, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the order would help minority and small- market broadcasters. “No fewer than 21 civil rights organizations also urged us to make this change,” he said. “They believe geotargeting has the power to diversify media ownership, while giving small businesses and community organizations more of an opportunity to get their message on the air.” The FCC has for years “ensured that various technologies from cable to 5G to next-gen broadcast TV have the freedom to target their content to specific geographies,” said Commissioner Brendan Carr in his statement with the order. “Except the FCC has never allowed radio broadcasters that same opportunity. It has artificially limited broadcasters’ business models,” he said. The order said: “Weighing the competing interests in this proceeding, we find that program origination over boosters will advance the public interest with benefits that outweigh the concerns.”
The 5G Fund order that FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated March 20 raised long-standing concerns that the agency releases drafts for "meeting" items but not for those voted electronically, regardless of their relative importance. For those items, industry groups and companies must schedule meetings with commissioner staff and the bureaus and offices to ask about details.
The FCC's proposed $1.8 million proposed forfeiture for Nexstar and sidecar operation Mission Broadcasting (see 2403220067) is "an encouraging sign to everyone that has been urging the Commission to bring an end to this media ownership shell game" that are sidecar agreements, ACA Connects Vice President-External Affairs Zamir Ahmed blogged Thursday. He said broadcasters use sidecars to "circumvent federal rules and squeeze even more money out of pay-TV subscribers." The FCC action "should be just the first step in increased oversight of sidecar agreements that overstep the law," he said.
Six radio broadcasters seek leave to intervene in support of the four petitions for review consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that challenge the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act (see 2403050075), said their unopposed joint motion Monday. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516). The radio broadcasters seeking to intervene in support of those petitions are Connoisseur Media, Mid-West Management, Midwest Communications, Sun Valley Radio, Eagle Communications and Legend Communications of Wyoming. The radio broadcasters, owners and licensees collectively of nearly 200 stations across the U.S., would see their interests “adversely affected” by the implementation of the FCC’s order, said their motion to intervene. It would harm them “by arbitrarily restricting their ability to compete in their markets against larger, less regulated digital content providers and advertising platforms,” they said. The platforms, including those owned by some of the largest U.S. companies, have been “siphoning away” listeners and advertising revenue from traditional radio, it said. The ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates associations sought leave Friday to intervene in support of the four petitions, arguing that the FCC’s order “refused to loosen” the commission’s “decades-old regulation of local television ownership to reflect today’s increasingly competitive media landscape (see 2403220041). NCTA on Monday came to the defense of the order, arguing that it rightfully retained the commission's local television ownership rule, which generally limits the number of full-power television stations an entity may own within the same local market (see 2403250064).