Monty Tayloe

Nexstar Media and Sinclair agreed to create a consortium designed to let broadcasters compete with wireless companies using both ATSC 3.0 and current broadcast advertising, said a news release from the TV station owners and broadcast executives in interviews. The consortium, which “will promote spectrum aggregation, innovation and monetization,” will be jointly owned and controlled by Sinclair and Nexstar, the firms said. It's “non-exclusive” and the consortium “is intent on exploring the inclusion of other television broadcasting entities,” they said.

America's Public Television Stations President Patrick Butler conceded Washington is "rife with rumor" that President Donald Trump will recommend a budget that doesn't include funding for the CPB (see 1702230060), and noncommercial educational stations shouldn't "fear the battle that will come." Along with public TV's extensive support in Congress, 70 percent of Trump voters support funding CPB and would tell the president to "leave public television alone," Butler said at an APTS conference.

The FCC approved unanimously an NPRM on ATSC 3.0 and an order relaxing location rules for FM translators at Thursday’s commissioners' meeting, as expected (see 1702210058). Commissioner Mignon Clyburn supported the NPRM on the new TV standard, but was critical of aspects of the document and said it didn’t do enough to show that TV consumers won’t have their service disrupted by the transition to ATSC 3.0.

The wording of the FCC’s draft NPRM on ATSC 3.0 makes it “very clear” the FCC will adopt the new standard, and an order is expected this fall, said Jerald Fritz, One Media executive vice president-strategic and legal affairs, in an FCBA CLE on the new television standard Tuesday.

Both broadcast items scheduled for Thursday’s commissioners' meeting, on ATSC 3.0 and the 40-mile limit for FM translators (see 1702020060), are expected to be approved unanimously, industry and FCC officials told us. The final version of a draft order that would do away with the 40-mile limit on locating an FM translator is expected to show little change from the version released by the FCC when it went on circulation, but the draft NPRM on ATSC 3.0 is still in flux, said an official. The final NPRM is seen as likely to include some questions on issues raised by the American Cable Association and American Television Alliance (see 1702140065), but not many other substantive changes, said broadcast and pay-TV officials.

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler promised the incentive auction would be an “extravaganza,” but it didn't deliver, NAB President Gordon Smith said on C-SPAN's The Communicators, scheduled for broadcast over the weekend. “It was nothing of the case,” Smith said, saying the lower-than-expected results of the auction show the spectrum crunch it was meant to alleviate never really existed. Smith said promises of large payouts to broadcasters and to the Treasury weren't fulfilled. Broadcasters will receive around $10 billion from the auction, and the Treasury over $6 billion (see 1702100064). Those numbers are smaller than was promised, Smith said: Those promises were “bravado.”

Ex parte filings and blog posts from NAB and pay-TV groups about the draft ATSC 3.0 NPRM show where the battle lines will be in the comment phase and on an eventual ATSC 3.0 order, industry officials from both sides told us.

​When CTA, NAB and others petitioned the FCC for a rulemaking April 13 to allow broadcasters to begin using the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard (see 1604130065), they urged the commission not to require ATSC 3.0 tuners in receivers because the evolution to the next-generation TV standard “should be market-driven and based upon voluntary standards,” their petition said. But in the draft notice of proposed rulemaking on ATSC 3.0 that the FCC released Thursday under a "pilot program" launched by new Chairman Ajit Pai to promote public transparency (see 1702020016), the commission said it will seek comment on whether a tuner mandate or a market-driven approach to receivers would make better ATSC 3.0 policy.

CTA President Gary Shapiro called then-candidate Donald Trump “dangerous and unqualified to lead.” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Jim Cicconi, since-retired AT&T senior executive vice president-congressional affairs, publicly endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (see 1606230070). NAB President Gordon Smith donated to Trump's Republican primaries opponent Jeb Bush (see 1611150062) . Now that the election is over, those stances aren't expected to affect those entities' efforts to lobby the Republican-controlled Congress or the FCC, numerous attorneys, lobbyists and industry officials said in interviews.

Verizon doesn't see the need to engage in “massive M&A” in 2017, President of Operations John Stratton said Thursday at a Wells Fargo investor conference in New York. He added that it's good to have the option to pursue mergers and acquisitions in case something comes up. Stratton also discussed the company's wireless business, its focus on fiber, its IoT business and its priorities for 2017, which include plugging cash into improving network infrastructure, he said: “Back to the fundamentals.”