The FCC’s upcoming incentive auctions may be the weapon broadcasters are looking for in their fight against Aereo, the upstart company using over-the-air signals to sell content to consumers on the cheap.

One theory being floated says the threats by CBS and FOX to pull their networks off the air may not be so far fetched. Selling off spectrum would accomplish two goals: it would bring in billions to broadcasters while they stick it to Aereo by denying them the very root of their service, over-the-air signals. The Verge has more details on the idea that may make Aereo the game changer it promises to be, just not in the way it intended.

Conveniently, CBS directly owns 29 stations, most in major markets, while Fox parentNews Corporation owns 27. Every station sits on a lucrative license to regional spectrum that it uses to broadcast its signal. By submitting those licenses to the FCC’s auction, these networks would stand to see a windfall, shutting the door on Aereo (which relies on over-the-air signals to collect its source content) in the process. Meanwhile, American households that rely entirely on over-the-air television — a recent GfK report estimates them at 17.8 percent of the viewing public — would be the pawns in the game.

A trailer for the new movie “Olympus Has Fallen” is using short bursts of a real Emergency Alert System tones as part of its soundtrack.

Radio magazine decoded the tones from the trailer titled, “No Surrender” and tracked them to a monthly test in Virginia. While the trailer is currently posted on You Tube, The Society of Broadcast Engineers has warned stations they could be in trouble if they use it on air:

March 7, 2013 – This is an advisory that a new movie, Olympus Has Fallen, to be released on March 22, 2013, uses actual EAS tones in the movie trailer. If the trailer is used in radio or TV advertisements, the stations may be subject to FCC fine. Read more

Despite indications the FCC has tabled a decision to end joint sales agreements until the commission could study the impact of the proposal on minority ownership, commissioner Ajit Pai recently told TVNewsCheck, “It is very much on the table.”

Pai told TVNewsCheck he felt the proposal to eliminate the agreements would hurt smaller broadcasters. “We are talking about stations in the 100 or 200 biggest markets, which have a miniscule portion of the revenue of, say, a New York City station. A JSA or SSA (shared service agreements) can mean the difference between consolidating operations and saving costs.”

Shared service agreements allow broadcasters like Nexstar to operate two stations in markets where outright ownership would be prohibited. Nexstar has agreements to operate many Mission Broadcasting owned stations. In Little Rock, Nexstar operates both the FOX affiliate and the NBC affiliate, but only owns KARK. KLRT is owned by Mission.

Under the proposal, JSA’s would need to be “unwound” within two years or the stations would count as being wholly owned.

We’ve all experienced the commercial or two that seem way louder than the show we’re watching.  Well today, the FCC, urged on by Congress, is ending the national pastime of riding the remote during commercial breaks when it begins enforcing the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM Act.

The CALM act requires all TV ads maintain the same average volume as the programs in which they appear.  The FCC rules do make allowances for some variations in volume, though.

A commercial may have louder and quieter moments, but, overall, it should be no louder than the surrounding programming. This may mean, however, that some commercials will comply with the new rules, but still sound “too loud” to some viewers.

The FCC is relying on viewers to file complaints if they find a commercial that is louder than the program it accompanies.  The complaint form can be found by clicking here.  Instructions on filling out the form can be found here.  After the jump you can see what information the FCC is looking for when a complaint is filed. Read more

White males may be losing traction when it comes to politics, but not so when when it comes to owning TV stations.

A recent Federal Communications Commission study shows that as of 2011, 69 percent of commercial broadcast stations are owned by whites.

The remaining 31 percent was split between station ownership identified by ethnicity (2 percent) and those that weren’t (28 percent).

Station ownership by women was also lacking.  Women owned only 6.8 percent of all commercial stations in 2011 while men owned 64.8 percent, .5 percent were jointly owned and 28 percent were owned by no majority male or female interest.

According to the study minorities owned just 30 of the 1,348 full power commercial stations in the US.

The full study can be read by clicking here.

[Los Angeles Times]

Viewers in western Ventura County, just North of Los Angeles, will now be able to see their favorite ABC shows in HD thanks to KEYT‘s owners pressing Time Warner Cable to fully honor its must-carry agreement with the station.

Time Warner had been broadcasting the Santa Barbara ABC affiliate’s HD signal to the eastern part of Ventura County which is in the stations DMA.  But according to RBR-TVR blog,

The station has a special market definition that makes certain otherwise non-market communities part of its own individual market pursuant to an FCC modification dating back to 1995 – and as such, it wants its HD signal carried on the local TWC system.

Read more

A political ad some are calling offensive for its graphic visual images is putting local stations in Kentucky and Indiana in a delicate position.

Andrew Beacham, who is running for the 2nd Congressional District seat against incumbent Republican Brett Guthrie, paid the stations to air a spot showing pictures of an aborted fetus while asking viewers, “Will we knuckle under?  Violate our consciences and become accomplices to Obama’s immorality?”  You can watch the ad after the break, but we warn you its graphic.

Because of a Federal Communications Commission rule that stations give reasonable access to candidates who want to air political ads, Beacham’s spot will air 22 times between Wednesday and Friday.  CBS News reports one station manager intends to warn viewers of what they may see,

Rick McCue, general manager of WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, described the ad as offensive and said his station may run a disclaimer along with it.

As a legal matter, McCue said, “we have no right to censor the ad, and we can’t refuse it either. ”

“We can at least give people a heads up, and we intend to do that,” he added. “How we’re going to word it, I don’t know yet.”

Read more

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, according to GigaOM.com, is planning to circulate his ideas to the commission today on how they might conduct the so-called incentive auctions where broadcasters can sell off their airwaves, or spectrum, to appease increasing consumer demand for wireless broadband.

The FCC is also expected to release its tentative agenda today for its meeting in three weeks.  That agenda is expected to include discussion about the incentive auctions approved by Congress in February.

Wireless carriers say they’re running out of spectrum space to fuel the increasing consumer appetite for data streaming and wireless services offered by smart phones and tablets.  In response, Congress is encouraging broadcasters to sell off unused spectrum to wireless carriers who can then use it to ease their broadband crunch.

Read more

While some small TV stations in larger markets are struggling to make a buck off what they broadcast, recently investors have been snatching them up for how they broadcast.

Investors are buying up small stations in anticipation of what the FCC is calling incentive auctions, where broadcasters auction off their airwaves in an effort to free up much needed spectrum for mobile broadband.  The speculators are hoping companies, such as wireless phone carriers looking to meet increasing demand for their services, would pay a hefty price for the added airwaves.

The Wall Street Journal says the gamble is not yet a sure thing:

Much about the auction remains uncertain, however, including the timing. The agency plans to publish its proposed rules for the process sometime this fall, and industry observers say the auction could begin as early as 2014. But the FCC has until September 2022 to conduct the sale and license the airwaves to wireless companies.

Read more

The FCC’s Media Bureau defended the legality of a controversial shared services agreement involving three stations in Honolulu when it rejected a complaint last week from a local media watchdog group.

Media Council Hawaii filed a complaint in 2009 concerning the then-newly formed virtual triopoly of KHNL, KFVE, and KGMB.  Raycom Media, owner of KHNL and KFVE, had struck a deal with MCG Capital, owner of KGMB, to form an entity, now known as “Hawaii News Now,” that would effectively be run by Raycom.  As part of the complex deal, Raycom traded programming and control of MyNetworkTV-affiliate KFVE with MCG for that of CBS-affiliate KGMB–a move that basically made Raycom the owner of Honolulu’s NBC and CBS stations. Read more