Broadcasters are pushing back on an FCC proposal to change how they notify viewers of certain applications those stations file with the FCC, arguing, for one thing, that it could put them at a streaming disadvantage to online video providers without such FCC regulation.

The FCC is scheduled to vote on a final item at its May 13 public meeting teleconference.

Currently, some stations, radio and TV, are required to provide written notices to a local newspapers, others to provide on-air notices and some to use both, with specific rules on "timing, frequency, duration, and content."

The FCC said that complexity has created compliance issues it wants to resolve by streamlining the process, making it uniform, and allowing for online notification on a station's Web site.

Broadcasters are fine with that, but where they have a problem is with the FCC's proposed requirement that the "FCC Applications" link or tab be at the top of the station home page, and that "a broadcaster that has an app for its station, designed to be installed on users’ mobile devices, must include in the app a link to the web page containing the full notice text."

In various teleconference meetings with FCC staffers in advance of Wednesday's planned vote, execs from Fox, ViacomCBS, NBCU, Univision, and Disney(ABC) said the FCC should allow stations to put the applications tab at the bottom of the home page where many already include a link to their FCC online public interest file, EEO reports, contest rule disclosures and other info. "Consumers are now accustomed to looking for station information in that location," they told the FCC staffers.

As to having to place application notices in a station's app, they call that an "unnecessary and burdensome" additional regulation (in an item meant to streamline the process), especially given what they called the "evolving nature" of station apps.

"Mandating the inclusion of such additional navigation devices and information in station apps would constitute an expansion of regulation, not an update or modernization of existing regulations, and would unfairly disadvantage broadcast licensees, who compete with other digital media companies to provide consumer-friendly viewing options," they said. 

They argue that apps are designed to be "clean and simple" platforms for viewing of video, both news and a station's streamed signal, rather than being primarily for getting station information.

"Such apps aim to present a clean and simple interface for viewing video," they said. "Moreover, apps typically represent a much smaller percentage of the viewing audience than desktop and mobile websites, and updating apps typically takes much longer than making changes to desktop and mobile websites, which makes them unsuitable for conveying this kind of information.... Finally, apps frequently lack the kind of stacked 'hamburger' icon or other embedded tools that pull up a navigation menu and govern the user experience." 

As Cable Networks and distributors continue to struggle with the shift toward streaming video, private-equity giant Apollo Global Management, once a big player in the cable space, is turning an eye toward broadcast-TV stations and the lure of retransmission-consent revenue.

Apollo is not-so-quietly involved in three high-profile broadcast deals. On Friday (Feb. 15), it agreed to purchase a majority interest in 14 stations owned by Cox Media; it is said to have an agreement to buy Northwest Broadcasting, a Michigan-based broadcaster with more than a dozen stations in the Pacific Northwest; and it is said to be a bidder for stations Nexstar Media Group has earmarked for divestiture in connection with its $6.4 billion purchase of Tribune Media. Nexstar has identified about 15 market overlaps with Tribune properties, but there is no guarantee all of the affected stations will be put up for sale.

Apollo did not disclose the price it paid for the Cox assets, which include newspaper and radio properties in Ohio, but a prior report from Reuters said the deal was worth around $3 billion. Cox will retain a minority interest.

Becoming a Player Quickly

All in all, Apollo could become a player in the station group arena relatively speedily. The Cox deal would boost Apollo’s station holdings to about 40 across the country, putting it in the same neighborhood as Tegna, which owns 49 stations in 41 markets, and Tribune, which owns 42.

Apollo’s interest comes as TV station properties are drawing interest from nearly every sector. Once thought to be media’s version of the buggy whip, TV stations, with their emphasis on live sports and news programming, are becoming the last bastion of ad-supported content. In a climate where viewers are increasingly glued to ad-free subscription video-on-demand services, live sports and news continue to be appointment television.

Case in point: 21st Century Fox, which is nearing the finish line in the sale of its linear cable and production assets to The Walt Disney Co. for $71.3 billion. After that deal closes, expected in the first half of this year, Fox will be left with cable news, sports and broadcast properties. It has said on several occasions it would like to beef up its station portfolio over time.

Private-equity firms Blackstone Group and Providence Equity also are believed to be interested in adding to their broadcast portfolios.

An obvious attraction is the potential of more lucrative retransmission-consent revenue.

Nexstar has said it expects retrans intake from the Tribune stations alone to rise by $72 million in their first year under its ownership, applying the Nexstar rate card. With more stations in large markets, Nexstar should be able to grow its overall retrans haul substantially this year, when a big chunk of its stations come up for renewal.

But there is a risk. Even as station groups look to get bigger — with Gray TV completing a $3.6 billion deal to buy Raycom Media in January and others expected to seek deals to increase scale — retrans growth is slowing. According to Kagan, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, retrans revenue is expected to rise to $10.8 billion in 2019, up 6% from $10.2 billion in 2018, and increase another 4%, to $11.2 billion by 2020.

“We do see a slowing trend in terms of the growth rate from a high double digit growth rate on a year-over-year basis to a high single digits on a year-over-year basis,” Kagan senior research analyst, broadcast media Justin Nielson said.

Retrans May Have Hit Wall

Adding to that risk is that retrans contracts are usually on a three-year cycle, about the same window for a typical private-equity firm to seek a return on its investment. There’s also the idea retrans fees have hit a wall, as distributors and customers push back after years of double-digit increases.

Retrans fees currently average from $2.50 to $3 per subscriber per month, Nielson said. Some analysts have estimated that for the Big Four — CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox — those rates could rise to $4 to $5 per subscriber per month.

“From a broadcaster perspective, they still think there is still room to move up,” Nielsen said. But from a pay TV provider’s point of view, he cautioned, “You only have so much leeway on what you can pass along to consumers.”

There is expected to be a robust market to sell stations, another key component of private equity participation. Aside from Fox, which has expressed a desire to increase its station holdings after its Disney deal closes, Tegna and Gray Television are also expected to be on the hunt for more properties, Nielson said.

Dish Network’s Dish DBS Corp. officially launched its AirTV service Wednesday, an over-the-top, over-the-air service that gives customers access to dozens of over-the-air broadcast channels across multiple devices inside and outside of the home.

Dish originally introduced AirTV late last year in a limited soft launch of the device to test consumer interest. The company had also earlier debuted the AirTV Player, an Android TV based streaming device that allowed access to over-the-air content as well as Netflix, YouTube and apps on Google Play. The AirTV Player is still available – Dish also officially launched a cloud DVR for that product Wednesday, which it beta-tested earlier this year. 

RELATED: AirTV Tests Local Channel DVR 

The AirTV is a sleek portable box that connects directly to a home broadband connection utilizing Dish’s Slingbox technology to offer broadcast content both at home and on the go.

RELATED: Dish Unveils AirTV Player 

With AirTV, free local channels, like ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS, are available for viewing via the Sling TV or AirTV app on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and iOS and Android phones and tablets. Local channel availability depends on the OTA signal availability at the user’s home location. In many major markets, customers can receive 50 or more local channels for free.

There is no monthly charge for AirTV. Customers just have to buy the equipment, which retails for $119.99 and the service can be integrated into an existing SlingTV subscription – meshing with the customers other pay TV channels – or as a standalone. Customers don’t have to subscribe to Sling TV to use the Sling TV app for the broadcast service.

   “Customers can mount their antenna connected to AirTV wherever the signal is strongest, whether it’s tucked away in an attic or hidden behind the living room TV,” AirTV director of product development Mitch Weinraub said. “AirTV wirelessly streams to AirTV-enabled devices visible to a home Wi-Fi network, so there’s no longer a need to run cables across the home to get OTA signals.” 

Existing Sling TV users can integrate AirTV directly into their accounts. Customers can also set up a free Sling TV account to access their local channels via AirTV, or create a free account with the stand-alone AirTV app. 

RELATED: Dish Soft Launches New AirTV Box 

The AirTV device also eliminates the need to wire multiple rooms with individual antennas – the box connects devices and TVs throughout the house via WiFi connection. The AirTV box also can be located anywhere in the house – making for optimal antenna placement – and up to two streams are available inside the home. One of those streams can be viewed outside of the home.

Weinraub said SlingTV hasn’t offered broadcast channels in the past specifically because of the cost and hassle for customers. Local broadcast channels can be pricey – he estimated that the typical pay TV customer spends between $10 and $15 per month to receive broadcast stations via their pay TV subscription.

“That’s a lot of money,” Weinraub said. “Our goal is to not make them pay that when they don’t have to.”

The device also helps Sling TV avoid retransmission consent fees – the national service has no carriage deals with local broadcast channels. Customers who buy an AirTV box also have to buy an antenna – which can vary in size from shelf units to roof-top mounted devices and can be purchased separately or through professional installers -- to access channels for free over the air. 

The AirTV box is available for purchase on Amazon.com, through regional retailers like Microcenter and via the AirTV website. Weinraub said Dish is talking to other retailers like BestBuy and hopes the equipment will be available through their stores soon.

With about 14 million homes without a pay TV subscription and more and more households cutting the cord every day, Weinraub said AirTV believes the market is ripe for the product. And he added that most customers don’t understand the level of content that is available for free over the air. In addition to the major broadcast networks ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, My Network TV, the CW and PBS stations, some metro markets have 50 or more digital channels available, ranging from station-affiliated networks like MeTV and Acorn TV and movie channels and lifestyle channels. In the New York area alone, 72 channels are available over the air in SD and HD quality. Customers can determine which channels are available in their areas via the AirTV website. 

After entering the market a year ago with a platform focused on bringing digital over-the-air TV to mobile devices, TabletTV is adding support for increasingly popular over-the-top services.

TabletTV, a joint venture of Granite Broadcasting and U.K.-based Motive Television, has launched a new app, called TabletTV Plus, that stitches OTA and OTT together. It hopes this blend will appeal to a growing set of cord-cutters and on-the-go viewers.

“What people want is everything in one place,” Luc Tomasino, TabletTV’s launch director, said.

TabletTV’s offering centers on the TPod, an $89.95 device that performs the function of an antenna tuner, able to capture free, over-the-air TV signals for display on tablets with the company’s app. The TPod also has WiFi connectivity and an integrated DVR.

The newest version of the free TabletTV app also integrates Web connectivity and a guide that can integrate access to a Web browser and over-the-top apps and services. In that scenario, a viewer could watch TV in the app while simultaneously surfing the Web, checking email or accessing Twitter or Facebook.

TabletTV has launched a “Plus” version of the app for iOS-powered iPads, and expects to introduce an Android version next year. The current offering also lets users stream video to TVs via support for Google Chromecast and Apple TV (via AirPlay). The iOS app, made available on Apple’s App Store Nov. 15, integrates a guide with the local area’s over-the-air TV stations and the ability to load in “channels” that provide direct access to OTT and Web applications.

Early on, TabletTV’s over-the-top feature preloads access to offerings such as Google and YouTube, though customers can add “Internet channels” such as CBS All Access, HBO Now, Hulu, Netflix and Showtime.

TabletTV is also interested in striking up partnerships with other OTT services that would be interested in premium placement on the app’s program guide.

The company already has some experience with this OTA-OTT mix. Motive Television’s TabletTV operation in the U.K. (a separate unit that is not partnered with Granite Broadcasting) recently introduced an OTT-capable version of the TPod that supports a handful of apps, including YouTube, BBC iPlayer, BT Sport and Netflix.

TabletTV won’t say how many consumers have purchased TPods. The company launched its first beta market test with Granite’s KOFYTV in San Francisco in December 2014.

The company also said it’s too early to get a fix on the primary market for TabletTV and what the profile of the typical customer looks like.