WASHINGTON—Several labor unions and public interest groups have filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission urging the regulator to deny the Nexstar-Tegna merger because it would violate station ownership caps and would not be in the public interest.

“Though Nexstar and Tegna seek a waiver of this limit, the commission is prohibited by law from waiving, altering, or eliminating this National Cap,” the petitioners wrote, adding that as the FCC “is legally barred from granting applicants’ request to waive the National Multiple Ownership rule, the Commission should immediately deny those waiver requests and deny the application in full."

The petition to deny the transfer of broadcast licenses from Tegna to Nexstar was filed by Free Press, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians—Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA), The NewsGuild—Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA), the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry and Public Knowledge.

The Dec. 31 joint filing adds to a growing list of opponents to the deal. Others who have filed petitions opposing it now include EchoStar, Newsmax, Circle City Broadcasting, DirecTV and the American TV Alliance (ATVA).

Last November, Nexstar filed for FCC approval to acquire Tegna’s broadcast licenses. If approved, the multibillion-dollar deal would combine the nation’s first- and fourth-largest largest television-station groups. It would have 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and Washington, D.C.

The Nexstar filing argued that the deal “is absolutely critical to preserve the ability of the local television stations owned by Nexstar and Tegna to continue as viable, reliable sources of trusted, locally focused news and information.”

In its filing, EchoStar argued that the FCC does not have the authority to waive the 39% ownership cap and that the creation of a gigantic station group controlling “265 stations in 132, or 80%, of the country’s 210 Designated Market Areas…sharply contravenes [public]...interest. It would result in higher prices for multichannel video programming distributors and therefore for consumers.”

Circle City 's filing noted: “CCB is licensee of full-power television stations WISH-TV and WNDY-TV, both in the Indianapolis market, and is the applicant in a pending application for consent to acquire the license of television station WRTV, also in the Indianapolis market. CCB’s interests and those of viewers in the market, as well as the interests of advertisers and MVPDs, would be adversely affected by the grant of these applications.”

Circle City also stressed that the deal would not be in the public interest because it hurt other local outlets and reduce local news. “The proposed combination would give Nexstar a near-monopoly over local television advertising revenue, retransmission consent revenue, program acquisition, and local news production in the Indianapolis market,” the CCB filing concluded. “It would, in all likelihood, force CCB to reduce or eliminate its own local news operations, if not shut down entirely.”

WASHINGTON—A day after the APTS and NAB offered their comments requesting the expansion of Distributed Transmission Systems, tech groups—specifically New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge—are making their case as to why DTS spillover signals at this time should be considered unlicensed.

The FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that has resulted in these comments is proposing an expansion of the commission’s rules regarding DTS. However, OTI and PK are supporters of TV white spaces, the spectrum between TV stations and wireless broadband. The expansion of DTS would decrease the spectrum available for wireless broadband, they argue.

In the joint APTS, NAB comments, they say that expansion of DTS will help with the deployment of the ATSC 3.0 standard. OTI and PK counter by saying it is premature to take such action on that since there are few ATSC 3.0 services available to the public and the benefits aren’t yet known.

“At this early stage in the development of ATSC 3.0, the commission should not rely on promises of future services as the basis for another massive giveaway of spectrum to broadcasters,” the comments read.

Other potential issues with the current proposal is the possible creation of a DTS “Interference Area” more than twice the size of the current licensed coverage area of a broadcast station licensee, the tech groups claim. To help against this, the two organizations urge the FCC to not grant signal interference protection.

“Upgrading the status of spillover signals beyond DTS station’s areas to primary or secondary status could effectively grant broadcast licensees twice as much spectrum without even requiring that the license use the free spectrum to deploy services promised when ATSC 3.0 was authorized,” OTI and PK write.

Granting interference protection could also deny neighboring communities of other services, including TV white spaces, which could deter the use of vacant TV band spectrum to help try to close the rural connectivity divide, per the comments.

“DTS spillover signals should be considered unlicensed and should not confer interference protection rights against other licensed or unlicensed operations,” OTI and PK conclude.

The full comments are available through the FCC’s ECFS. 

WASHINGTON—More shots at the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger has been fired, this time from the public interest group Public Knowledge and ACA. The organizations filed responses to Sinclair and Tribune’s Opposition to the original Petition to Deny, which has asked the FCC to stop the merger of these companies.

“The record is clear,” Yosef Getachew, policy fellow at Public Knowledge, wrote. “The proposed combination of Sinclair Broadcast Group with Tribune Media is not in the public interest. If approved, the merger would result in fewer diverse independent programming options and higher cable prices for consumers. The transaction could also delay mobile broadband deployment in the 600 MHz band, hindering efforts to close the digital divide.”

“ACA urges the Federal Communications Commission to deny the Sinclair-Tribune transaction because it would violate existing FCC rules while at the same time failing to meet the obligation to demonstrate it would serve the public interest,” ACA President and CEO Matthew M. Polka's statement read. “Even if the transaction were not per se unlawful, it would create a broadcasting behemoth with unprecedented control over both the national and local television markets.”

The proposed merger between Sinclair and Tribune’s 42 stations would enable Sinclair to reach 72 percent of U.S. households, according to Public Knowledge; the organization reports that Congress had previously set a nationwide audience cap of 39 percent.

“Sinclair and Tribune have failed to show any positive, transaction-specific public interest benefits from the merger, and fail to address the significant public interest harms,” Getachew writes. “Instead, their filings in the record have only further demonstrated public interest harms that would result from the merger. Thus, the Commission should block the proposed merger.”

Click on the links to read Public Knowledge's and ACA's complete filings. 

WASHINGTON—In comments filed with the FCC recently, Public Knowledge, a D.C.-based advocacy group, warned the commission that, while the next-gen ATSC 3.0 standard offers new opportunities to efficiently deliver new services as well as continue to provide free television broadcasts to the public, the commission should continue to enforce the broadcast industry’s public interest obligations.

“The social contract between the public and those entrusted with free, over-the-air broadcast licenses remains the same regardless of the broadcast technology used,” said John Gasparini, policy fellow at Public Knowledge. The organization, which says it works to shape policy on behalf of the public interest, joins the Open Technology Institute at New America and Common Cause in filing comments to the commission defending the public interest in next-gen TV technologies.

Public Knowledge says that it supports the introduction of new technologies to the public, and that, while ATSC 3.0 will likely enable broadcasters to more efficiently deliver their programming and allow consumers new ways to access such services, local broadcasters should still be required to meet current existing public interest obligations. These include political rules on equal time; localism; educational and children’s programming; accessibility; emergency alerts, and public file disclosure obligations.

“As the commission and the broadcasters move forward with the process of considering this technology update, it is critical that these public interest obligations are similarly updated,” Gasparini said.

Read the full Public Knowledge filing to the FCC here.