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A new bill introduced in the U.S. Senate is designed to boost minority participation in the telecommunications industry.

The NATE: Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association commends the introduction of the IMPACT Act, or the Improving Minority Participation and Careers in Telecommunications Act. The bill was introduced by Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.); Tim Scott (R-S.C.); and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, in late March.

The act is designed to help address the telecommunications industry’s workforce by establishing a federal grant to promote the development of telecommunications education and job-training programs at minority institutions.

[Read: NATE Welcomes Telecom Workforce Bill]

The bill proposes to award $100 million in grants to certain institutions of higher learning to educate and train students to participate in the telecom workforce.

The entities that are principally eligible for grants under the legislation will be historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), tribal colleges and universities (TCU) and minority-serving institutions. The legislation dictates that these schools would be required to partner with members of the industry or an organization with experience providing workforce training to the telecom industry. The goal is to develop programs to ensure that students have the skills needed for the workforce.

“We are particularly excited that this is a bipartisan proposal that appropriately recognizes the critical importance of promoting educational and employment opportunities in the telecommunications field, which is so essential to the nation’s economy, competitiveness, security and vital communications capabilities,” said Todd Schlekeway, NATE president and CEO. “This legislation, if passed, can play a major role in developing a pipeline of future workers that is an integral part of NATE’s workforce development strategic plan.”

When the announcement was made, Sen. Wicker said that the bill aims to create a trained workforce to fill the thousands of vacant jobs that are needed to deploy broadband networks. Unfortunately, demand outstrips qualified candidates. “[W]e do not have a trained workforce to fill [these jobs],” Wicker said.  “HBCUs and TCUs can help fill these jobs by providing career-specific opportunities for students. The IMPACT Act would support these institutions in developing telecommunications-related career building programs that will help bridge the digital divide.”

The IMPACT Act would:

• Create the Telecommunications Workforce Training Grant Program, which the NTIA would use to award $100 million in grants to HBCUs/TCUs/minority-serving institutions to develop telecommunications job-training programs that would educate and train students to participate in the telecommunications workforce;
• Require schools to apply for grants in order to partner with industry (or an organization with experience providing workforce training to the telecommunications industry) to develop these programs, to ensure students have the skills they need for the workforce;
• Allow schools to use the grants to hire and train faculty, design and develop the curriculum, pay for costs associated with instruction, fund internships and apprenticeships, and recruit and support students;
• Require schools to include a plan to increase female participation in the program;
• Require that NTIA award at least 30% of the grant funds to HBCUs and another 30% to TCUs to ensure equitable distribution of funds; and
• Require reporting to ensure schools use funds as required, that they are training students appropriately, and that students are securing employment in the telecommunications industry.

 

The post Bill Aims to Boost Minority Involvement in Telecom Space appeared first on Radio World.

Photo: Getty Images Nigel Killeen

A long-awaited decision from the U.S. Supreme Court says the FCC acted properly when it moved to eliminate some radio and TV ownership rules. The court’s unanimous decision released today is a victory for the FCC and a defeat for groups that worry further consolidation will decrease ownership opportunities for women and minorities.

The FCC released new media ownership rules in 2017 to abolish the newspaper/broadcast and radio/TV cross ownership rules, and relax several local TV ownership regulations. The FCC concluded the three rules were no longer necessary to promote competition, localism, or viewpoint diversity and would not harm minority or female ownership.

[Read: Supremes to Hear Broadcast Dereg Case]

Prometheus Radio Project and several other public interest groups petitioned for the courts to intervene arguing the FCC’s decision to repeal or modify the three rules was arbitrary or capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and rested on flawed data.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia agreed with Prometheus and vacated the FCC’s 2017 order. Today’s Supreme Court ruling reverses the judgment of the Third Circuit.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the unanimous 9–0 opinion of the court citing the Communications Act of 1934 and the broad authority it grants the FCC to regulate broadcast media in the public interest. The FCC is directed to review its media ownership rules every four years and repeal or modify rules that no longer serve the public interest.

The Supreme Court found: “The APA’s arbitrary-and-capricious standard requires that agency action be reasonable and reasonably explained. Judicial review under that standard is deferential, and a court may not substitute its own policy judgment for that of the agency. A court simply ensures that the agency has acted within a zone of reasonableness and, in particular, has reasonably considered the relevant issues and reasonably explained the decision.”

The Supreme Court agrees that the FCC concluded correctly after examining data that repealing the two cross-ownership rules and modifying the Local Television Ownership Rule would “deliver on the commission’s promise to adopt broadcast ownership rules that reflect the present, not the past.”

The FCC order “was reasonable and reasonably explained,” Kavanaugh wrote.

Kavanaugh’s written opinion concluded: “In light of the sparse record on minority and female ownership and the FCC’s findings with respect to competition, localism, and viewpoint diversity, we cannot say that the agency’s decision to repeal or modify the ownership rules fell outside the zone of reasonableness for purposes of the APA.”

The Supreme Court in its ruling noted the Third Circuit has repeatedly rejected the FCC’s efforts to modify its ownership rules for the last 17 years.

“As a result, those three ownership rules exist in substantially the same form today as they did in 2002,” the SCOTUS opinion stated.

The FCC contends that rapidly evolving technology and dawning of new media outlets — particularly cable and internet — has rapidly transformed how Americans obtain news and consume media, rendering some rules obsolete. The FCC contends that permitting efficient combinations among radio, TV and newspaper outlets would actually benefit consumers.

 

The post Supreme Court Rules on Media Ownership Question appeared first on Radio World.

FOX News Media has extended Bret Baier’s current multi-year deal and remain an anchor and executive editor of Special Report, the 6pm ET weekday program on FOX News Channel. Baier, who signed a new multi-year deal in 2019, will also continue as the network’s chief political anchor.

“I am thrilled to continue working with FOX News Channel for the next five years,” he said. “It has been my home away from home for almost a quarter century. Suzanne Scott, Jay Wallace, and the Murdoch’s have been terrific leaders and bosses. I look forward to working closely with my incredibly talented team to cover the Important stories of our time in the fair and honest way our viewers expect.”

Baier first joined the network in 1998 as its inaugural reporter in the Atlanta bureau.  Throughout the 2020 cycle, Baier co-anchored the network’s special coverage of the presidential debates as well as the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He also co-moderated a series of presidential election town halls with then-candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Amy Klobuchar as well as former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former President Donald Trump.

Prior to his anchor role, Baier served as FNC’s chief White House correspondent in 2006 and as national security correspondent covering military and national security affairs from the Pentagon. Before joining the network, Baier worked for WRAL-5 in Raleigh.

The first day of the second quarter of 2021 started out on a highly positive note for radio and TV stocks. Only one of the companies RBR+TVBR regularly tracks was down.

That’s more sour news for that lone decliner: ViacomCBS.

The company’s shares continued to decline on Thursday (4/1), dipping 46 cents to $44.64.

Also down, cable and OTT peer Discovery Inc., which lost $0.15 to $43.31.

Otherwise, it was a fine start to Q1 for radio and TV. Townsquare Media is now at $11.01, up $0.28, while Nexstar Media Group is now at $142.70, thanks to a $2.27-per share climb.

MESA, ARIZ. — The Arizona Diamondbacks are in San Diego to face the Padres in their first Major League Baseball regular season match-up of the season.

D-Backs fans won’t be watching the game on FOX Sports Arizona. That’s because it has been rebranded, along with every other FOX Sports RSN, as part of a long-planned reboot under new owner Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Sinclair Broadcast Group and Bally’s Corporation late Wednesday moved forward with the official renaming of its regional sports networks (RSNs) as Bally Sports.

It ushers in a new era for the former FOX RSNs, and is part of an enterprise-wide, long-term strategic partnership between Sinclair and Bally’s announced in November.

“Through our alliance with Bally’s and others, the RSNs will create innovative experiences for sports fans when rooting for their favorite local sports teams,” Sinclair Broadcast Group President/CEO Chris Ripley said. “The rebrand is the ideal first step as we further our efforts to thoroughly change the paradigm of the in-home sports experience, elevating how audiences view and interact with live sports content. We can’t wait to roll out even more game-changing options for fans everywhere in the future.”

In conjunction with the partnership, Bally’s acquired naming rights for all Sinclair RSNs, previously branded with the FOX name. An official Bally Sports app is expected to be released shortly.

The Sinclair-owned and operated RSN portfolio now includes 19 network brands:

• Bally Sports Arizona
• Bally Sports Detroit
• Bally Sports Florida
• Bally Sports Great Lakes
• Bally Sports Kansas City
• Bally Sports Indiana
• Bally Sports Midwest
• Bally Sports New Orleans
• Bally Sports North
• Bally Sports Ohio
• Bally Sports Oklahoma
• Bally Sports San Diego
• Bally Sports SoCal
• Bally Sports South
• Bally Sports Southeast
• Bally Sports Southwest
• Bally Sports Sun
• Bally Sports West
• Bally Sports Wisconsin

In the Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision to reverse a Third Circuit appeals court’s remand of the 2017 cross-ownership rules rewrite, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh offered commentary on the data the FCC had with respect to assessing the effects of such a rule change on minority and female ownership.

In short, Kavanaugh said it’s not the Commission’s fault it has a “sparse record” on the subject.

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The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to reverse the Third Circuit’s remand of the FCC’s 2017 cross-ownership rule rewrite was warmly celebrated across the Nation’s Capital on Thursday.

Among those highly pleased with the ruling: A veteran Wiley attorney (pictured) who has advocated for media rule reform, the Director of Appellate Litigation at TechFreedom and, of course, the President/CEO of the NAB.

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The surprise 9-0 ruling in favor of the FCC, and NAB, in its fight against Prometheus Radio Project, effectively reverses the Third Circuit remand of the Commission’s series of November 2017 deregulatory rule changes for broadcast media, namely the end of cross-ownership restrictions that date to an era when “The Hustle” was the top song on AM Top 40 stations.

But, just what does the Supreme Court ruling do? And, are foreign ownership rules a part of the mix?

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The November 2017 “modernization” of the FCC’s cross-ownership media rules and erasure of the “eight voices test” for TV — a move that also saw the end of the television JSA attribution role — was officially given the green light in a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling released April 1.

In the 20-page opinion is a separate note, appearing following the Opinion of the Court penned by Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, is a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas.

Thomas was compelled to note “another, independent reason why reversal” of the Third Circuit’s remand order, is warranted.

In his view, the Third Circuit improperly imposed nonstatutory procedural requirements on the Commission “by forcing it to consider ownership diversity in the first place.”

After noting that the Court “correctly holds” that the FCC’s orders weren’t “arbitrary and capricious,” and that the Commission “reasonably concluded that modifying its broadcast ownership rules would not harm minority and female broadcast media ownership, Thomas made it clear that “the FCC had no obligation to consider minority and female ownership” when engaging in its rule rewrite some 3 1/2 years ago.

Why? “Nothing in §202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 directs the FCC to consider rates of minority and female ownership,” Thomas said. “Nor could any court force the FCC to consider ownership diversity … Courts have no authority to impose ‘judge-made procedures’ on agencies.”

The Third Circuit, as Thomas sees it, disregarded these limits. And, Thomas took issue with the Third Circuit’s consistency in doing so — likely eliciting cheers from now-former Chairman Ajit Pai, former Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, NAB senior leadership and industry leaders including Gray Television head Hilton Howell Jr.

Thomas noted how the court first disregarded its limits some 17 years ago, when it vacated the FCC’s modification of its Local Television Ownership Rule and faulted  the FCC for “failing to mention anything about the effect this change would have on potential minority station owners.”

He then noted that the Third Circuit repeated this “error” in 2016.

While the respondents — Prometheus and other public interest groups — attempted to defend the Third Circuit’s ruling by noting that the FCC has previously discussed ownership diversity when considering its ownership rules, “[t]hat argument fails because the FCC’s ownership rules—unlike some of its non-ownership rules—were never designed to
foster ownership diversity.”

Meanwhile, Thomas noted in his concurring opinion that “from its infancy, the FCC has generally focused on consumers, not producers … The FCC kept true to that design when promulgating ownership rules.”

For example, when it created the Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule at issue here, Thomas continued, “the agency explained that its ‘ownership rules rest on two foundations: the twin goals of diversity of viewpoints and economic competition,’ and that viewpoint diversity is the ‘higher’ policy. To these two consumer-focused goals, the FCC has also added a third: localism. None of these objectives advances demographic diversity of
owners for the sake of owners.”

Yes, Thomas acknowledged that the FCC “has sometimes considered minority and female ownership of broadcast media when discussing ownership rules.”

Yet, “Time after time … it has viewed those forms of diversity not ‘as policy goals in and of themselves, but as proxies for viewpoint diversity.’”

In conclusion, Thomas — and the eight other Supreme Court justices — accomplished what the FCC has struggled to do since George W. Bush was president but couldn’t, because of a Philadelphia court the highest judicial body in the land has just overruled.

“The Third Circuit had no authority to require the FCC to consider minority and female ownership,” Thomas said. “So in future reviews, the FCC is under no obligation to do so.”

It’s not an April Fools’ Day joke. ​Still, it arrived months earlier than many had expected.

The U.S. ​Supreme Court, in a 9-0 unanimous decision, has overturned the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ remand of the FCC’s cross-ownership rule revisions.

A 20-page decision was released Thursday morning.​

More details soon from RBR+TVBR

E.W. Scripps Company has closed on its sale of Triton to iHeartMedia for $230 million and exited the digital audio business.

Scripps will use the money to reduce its debt.

[Read: For Radio, Audio Is the New Now]

iHeart has said the deal establishes it as “the only company to provide a complete set of advertising technologies and measurement solutions for all forms of audio media.”

Even as iHeart expands its focus on audio, Scripps is moving the other way.

“The sale of Triton completes Scripps’ high-return exit from podcasting and digital audio,” it said in a press release. “It sold podcast company Stitcher in October. Scripps nearly doubled its return on investments in both companies, and now it is focused on growth strategies in the television business.”

 

The post Scripps Completes Sale of Triton to IHM appeared first on Radio World.

It began life centered on sports.

Now, a growing virtual MVPD has scored a carriage agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group that secures a home for the company’s newly created regional sports network — the home of the beloved Chicago Cubs baseball club — but not in time for Opening Day.

Sinclair’s Marquee Sports Network and fuboTV Inc., publicly traded on the NYSE, reached a deal that will bring Chicago Cubs game coverage to the live TV streaming platform “in the coming weeks.”

The regional sports network (RSN) will be available in fuboTV’s basic English-language channel package in the Chicago area and surrounding regions, including Indianapolis, Des Moines and South Bend, Ind.

Marquee Sports Network General Manager Mike McCarthy says the network is “thrilled” to have added fuboTV.

Ben Grad, fuboTV’s SVP of Content Strategy and Acquisition, added, “The addition of Marquee Sports Network to our leading sports, news and entertainment portfolio makes fuboTV a great streaming choice for Cubs fans, as well as other Chicagoans looking to cut the cord.”

It’s Opening Day for Major League Baseball. And, no joke, every team except the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox will be in action, as the game was postponed due to rain in the forecast.

That’s good news for O’s fans, sort of, who subscribe to Dish and its Sling vMVPD wanted to watch the game. Had the game been played, they would have been “blacked out.”

Cough it up to another carriage agreement whiff between the direct broadcast satellite services provider and an owner of a cable or TV station.

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From our Who’s Buying What page: Triton Digital announced that Masima Radio Network, the largest radio network in Indonesia with 18 stations, has selected it for streaming and podcast services including delivery, monetization and measurement.

The brands of Masima Radio Network include Prambors, Delta, Bahana and Female Radio. Triton Digital has been acquired by iHeartMedia in a deal that was finalized this week.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

“Through this partnership, Masima Radio Network will utilize Triton’s audio streaming network for the delivery of its podcasts and commercial radio online,” the organizations said.

“In addition, Masima Radio Network will use Triton’s ad server to insert targeted audio ads into their content, as well as Triton’s audio advertising technology to monetize their inventory through both open and private marketplace deals.” Masima also will measure their listening audiences using Triton’s Webcast Metrics and Podcast Metrics measurement services and use Triton’s podcast platform, Omny Studio.

The announcement was made by Fitzgerald Salendu, digital content manager at Masima Radio Network, and Benjamin Masse, managing director, market development and strategy at Triton Digital.

 

The post Triton Signs Masima Radio Network appeared first on Radio World.

The organization that founded “Free Speech Week” has named former FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly as a senior fellow.

The Media Institute said O’Rielly will also become a member of its First Amendment Advisory Council.

The nonprofit organization describes itself as nonpartisan and “working to advance sound communications policy, freedom of speech, and excellence in journalism.”

“During his tenure at the FCC, Commissioner O’Rielly was known for his dedication to streamlining the regulatory process, eliminating outdated regulations, promoting competition and innovation, and defending the First Amendment,” the organization said.

O’Rielly, a Republican who was nominated to the FCC by Pres. Barack Obama, was a commissioner from 2013 to 2020. He is a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for the Economics of the Internet and principal at MPORielly Consulting LLC.

The announcement was made by The Media Institute Pres. Richard T. Kaplar.

 

The post O’Rielly Joins The Media Institute appeared first on Radio World.

Walt Tiburski, a veteran radio broadcasting sales and management leader and former station owner, has just announced his retirement after more than 50 years in the business.

From the shore of Lake Erie to the tranquil beaches of Southwest Florida, Tiburski’s seen a lot over the years, and he’s our guest on today’s RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by Dot.FM.

 

Streaming, Social, Podcast or Broadcast
– get a Dot.FM domain name by heading over to Get.FM today!

 

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Walt Tiburski” on Spreaker.

Entravision Communications Corp. appears to be turning an important fiscal corner.

Its stock price hasn’t been this high since mid-October 2018. Its “Fuego” Latin Pop format just expanded to Las Vegas and Palm Springs, Calif., respectively. And, as shared on March 11, its Q4 2020 results were highly positive.

Why, then, did the company disclose to the SEC on Wednesday that it couldn’t file its annual report in a timely manner to the financial regulatory agency?

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