the HOT List

The elimination of the FCC's main studio rule is one step closer from becoming a reality. The Commission on Tuesday unveiled its tentative agenda for its October Open meeting, and it confirmed that the five-member agency will consider MB Docket No. 17-106. 

The FCC on Tuesday released its Broadcast Station Totals for the first nine months of 2017. Thanks to the FCC's Spectrum Auction, there are some dips in the number of broadcast TV stations licensed to air in the U.S. Meanwhile, there are fewer commercial FM stations and several more FM translators, while the number of AMs has taken a big dip.

Barring the unexpected, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai entered the day all but assured of a second term at the FCC, ensuring he will remain the leader through the end of June 2021. The U.S. Senate made it official Monday afternoon (10/2), confirming him for a second term that retroactively began July 1, 2016, in a 52-41 vote.

There's a new RVP for Radio, and a new RVP for Television, at Cox Media Group. In a late Monday announcement, the company turned to the head of its four South Florida FMs to take on a greater role for Cox's radio stations across four other markets. Concurrently, a Steel City TV exec is adding four markets to his oversight.

There will be no "Big Bang" involving any affiliate switches in some 32 Nielsen DMAs across the U.S. for Gray Television. A new multi-year renewal of the publicly traded broadcast company's station affiliation agreements with CBS Television has been reached.

Just days after reaching a new retransmission fee agreement with Citadel Communications for ABC affiliates in Providence, and Lincoln, Neb., DISH Network has, by law, been forced to yank stations owned by Lilly Broadcasting off its lineups as yet another retrans fight has erupted. This one had the ACA ticked off: CBS and ABC stations serving Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were impacted for a brief period.

WABC-7 and Disney-branded cable channels will remain on Altice USA cable TV systems, thanks to an retransmission fee agreement reached "in principle" Sunday evening. The accord puts to rest fears that Altice's Optimum systems in Westchester County and on Long Island would have been forced, by law, to remove the channels from its respective lineups.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Thursday issued a plea to Apple to activate the FM chips it has in its iPhones. There's just one small problem, Apple noted on Friday: All iPhones newer than the iPhone 6 don't have FM radio chips in them, nor do they have antennas designed to pull in FM radio signals. We've got an RBR+TVBR Observation on the subject, which is sure to fire up all radio broadcasting company owners and managers.

More than 550 television and advertising agency executives gathered today in New York for TVB Forward, and among the key highlights from this TV industry and ad agency conference was a session that saw one influential analyst give a thumbs-up to investing in local broadcast TV companies. RBR+TVBR was in attendance to bring readers in-depth coverage of this important industry event.

In a speech delivered as a welcome to attendees of the daylong TVB Forward conference in New York, Nexstar Media Group head Perry Sook, who also serves as the Television Advertising Bureau's Chairman, highlighted the strength of the local broadcast TV industry. Sook also took note of what steps are needed by local TV broadcast companies in order to remain competitive, while declaring that there's no better venue for all types of advertisers.

Emmis Communications head Jeff Smulyan has been adamantly vocal on the need to activate FM chips in the iPhone. A tronc inc. newspaper's Sept. 15 editorial blasted Apple for its refusal to turn on the chips. Now, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has joined the fight. However, Pai's comments come following criticism from a Democratic Commissioner on the FCC's response to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Puerto Rico, following Hurricane Irma.

NBCUniversal's Telemundo network loves "El Tri" — both the men's and women's teams — so much that it has teamed with América Móvil, the Mexican telecom giant led by CEO Daniel Hajj Aboumrad, in submitting a bid Thursday for U.S. broadcast rights, and another bid for the rest of the world, for no less than two World Cup cycles.

Three individuals working on a television tower used by Sunbeam Television Corp.'s FOX-affiliated WSVN-7 and BH Media Group Holdings' ABC-affiliated WPLG-10 in Miami died Wednesday afternoon after a piece of equipment they were on collapsed, plunging nearly 1,000 feet to the ground.

In an unprecedented show of support to the millions impacted by three hurricanes and two major temblors in Mexico, Univision invited no less than four of its sports competitors to its Miami-area headquarters yesterday and today to take part in a bilingual campaign supporting the American Red Cross. This saw personalities from the networks appear alongside Univision Deportes talent — and Univision allowing the networks to air its coverage of Liga MX first-division Mexican soccer league games as part of the 48-hour appeal effort.

A Democratic Member of the U.S. Senate this morning spoke out against changes to the FCC's rules regarding Net Neutrality, noting that as long as Chairman Ajit Pai continues to support the end of Title II classification for broadband, she can't support his vote for staying on as the agency's leader. Immediately following the anti-Pai rally call came details of a GOP tax reform proposal that the NAB says helps broadcasters.