Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network

Conn. network strikes deal with LocusPoint on proceeds from spectrum auction

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The Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network plans to relinquish the spectrum assigned to WEDW-TV in Bridgeport, one of four stations in its statewide network, in the FCC’s upcoming auction, according to documents filed with the FCC. Under its agreement with spectrum speculator LocusPoint Networks, the pubcaster received an undisclosed cash payout from LocusPoint and will share a portion of its future auction proceeds with the company. Financial details of the contract, approved by the network’s board of trustees in June 2013, have been redacted from FCC records due to a mutual confidentiality agreement. Connecticut Public Broadcasting Inc. is among the sole-service public TV licensees identified in a July CPB white paper warning of the creation of a “white area” — the loss of PTV broadcast service — if pubcasters choose to auction off their spectrum. But that won’t happen in this case, according to officials from LocusPoint and CPBN.

Programs/Content

Final NPR newsmag clocks will take effect Nov. 17

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NPR has released the final versions of the new clocks for its newsmagazines and set a date of Nov. 17 for their implementation. The network unveiled proposed clocks in July after more than a year of work that involved staff and representatives from member stations. The clocks are the second-by-second scheduling of what happens when during the newsmagazines, including newscasts, music beds and funding credits. They also affect when stations can insert their own local content.

Quick Takes

NAB challenges parts of FCC’s plan for spectrum auction

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The National Association of Broadcasters filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Monday to challenge part of the FCC’s spectrum incentive auction order filed last week. NAB said it had no alternative but to file the lawsuit because the order as written could leave broadcasters footing the bill for tower relocation and other expenses when the spectrum is repacked. NAB also aims to have the court direct the FCC to drop a study that it plans to do ahead of repacking to determine broadcasters’ coverage areas. NAB said following the study, which would use a different methodology from previous surveys, could harm its members. “Under this new methodology, many broadcast television licensees, including NAB’s members, will lose coverage area and population served during the auction’s repacking and reassignment process, or be forced to participate in the auction (and relinquish broadcast spectrum rights),” the lawsuit reads.

Quick Takes

Join a webinar today on audio levels with Adam Ragusea, presented by AIR and PRX

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Current contributor Adam Ragusea’s July commentary “Why you’re doing audio levels wrong, and why it really does matter” has become one of our most popular posts in recent months. Today Public Radio Exchange and the Association of Independents in Radio continue the conversation with a webinar on audio levels hosted by Ragusea and American Public Media technical coordinator Rob Byers, whom Ragusea interviewed for his Current piece. The hourlong session starts at 1 p.m. Eastern time; register here.

People

Sherlock, Downton Abbey lead PBS to eight wins in Creative Arts Emmys

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Sherlock: His Last Vow won four of the eight Creative Arts Emmys awarded to PBS programs by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences during the Aug. 17 Primetime Emmy gala celebrating technical achievement. Sherlock, a BBC production that aired on WGBH’s Masterpiece, picked up its four wins in the miniseries or movie categories. Editor Yan Miles won for outstanding single-camera picture editing for a miniseries or movie, and Director of Photography Neville Kidd won the Emmy for cinematography in a miniseries or movie. The detective drama also won awards for sound editing, with statuettes given to supervising sound editor Doug Sinclair; sound editors Stuart McCowan, Jon Joyce and Paul McFadden; Foley editor William Everett; and Foley artist Sue Harding.

Programs/Content

Stations’ joint effort brings streaming BBC shows to websites

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A joint effort among PBS and five member stations has created a more efficient way for stations to offer online streams of British imports such as Doctor Who and Death in Paradise while honoring BBC restrictions that limit web streaming. The BBC’s agreement for streaming programs besides Masterpiece limits access to viewers within a station’s market. But COVE, PBS’s online video platform, does not allow for filtering by location, which hampered stations’ ability to offer BBC content. Those restrictions made for an “unmanageable” situation, said John Decker, director of programming at KPBS in San Diego. But stations are now using a new web page created by PBS that allows for location-based filtering, and five stations have agreed to handle uploading of BBC content to ensure quality and prevent duplicative uploading.

Quick Takes

Monday roundup: Downton gaffe draws laughs; TechCrunch profiles Matter

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• A publicity photo from the fifth season of Downton Abbey made the rounds on the Internet for all the wrong reasons. The shot of stars Hugh Bonneville and Laura Carmichael featured an anachronistic plastic water bottle perched on a mantle. Producer ITV has since removed the shot from its press site, according to the BBC, and it’s also vanished from PBS’s pressroom. “You had one job, guys. One job,” Buzzfeed wrote.

System/Policy

Alaska’s KUAC, APRN reach agreement to help station with budget shortfall

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Joint licensee KUAC in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Alaska Public Radio Network have agreed on a three-month extension that will allow the station to continue airing APRN content while it addresses a $170,000 funding shortfall. The University of Alaska Fairbanks, which owns KUAC, announced July 1 that it would cut the station’s funding by that amount to offset its own $12 million budget shortfall. The reduction amounts to about 6 percent of KUAC’s total budget. APRN helps stations in Alaska share content and offers the programs Talk of Alaska and Alaska News Nightly, both of which air on KUAC. The agreement between KUAC and APRN allows the station to continue running APRN content without paying dues until November 30.

Community Service Grants

KEET steps up membership efforts to hold on to federal funding

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KEET-TV, one of the smallest PBS member stations, has grown its membership by 40 percent and raised more than $600,000 over the past six months in an effort to keep its federal Community Service Grant. Local businesses in Eureka, Calif., have posted banners pushing “The Power of One,” the motto of KEET’s campaign. Website pop-ups show viewers holding signs with titles of their favorite public TV shows. A local utility provider is pitching in, donating a portion of each paid petroleum bill to the station. At issue is KEET’s inability to meet the $800,000 minimum in nonfederal financial support that CPB requires of CSG grantees, which the station has never done in its 45-year history.

Programs/Content

Nonprofit Marshall Project gears up for putting criminal justice reform on national agenda

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The Washington Post had a blockbuster front-page investigation with a lengthy Aug. 3 story about an unreliable witness in a Texas execution case. But the story came from a new kid on the block. “The Prosecutor and the Snitch” was the first story to be published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news site focused on criminal justice reform. The Marshall Project, named after former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, plans to officially launch in October.

System/Policy

Crane, Savage elected as new NPR board members

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The month-long election for NPR’s Board of Directors closed Monday, with two incumbents and two new faces joining the board. NPR announced Tuesday that Mike Crane, director of Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison, and Mike Savage, g.m. of WBAA in West Lafayette, Ind., will join the board. For what is believed to be the first time, Savage got on the ballot with a written petition signed by at least 15 authorized representatives. Candidates are usually picked by a selection committee headed by the NPR board chair. Incumbents Caryn Mathes, g.m. of KUOW in Seattle, and Flo Rogers, c.e.o. of KNPR in Las Vegas, were re-elected to second terms, and Patricia Diaz Dennis and former NPR interim CEO Paul G. Haaga Jr. were re-elected as public directors.