Fox's practice of using affiliates whose signals originate
from Mexico to reach U.S. markets along the border is under
serious scrutiny by the FCC and could threaten Fox's ability to
broadcast the NFL in San Diego. Fox, which has used Tijuana's
XETV-TV to reach San Diego and two other stations on the Texas
border, had received a five-year waiver on a federal regulation
preventing signals being transmitted across the border. But that
waiver was struck down in April following a protest by Mike
McKinnon, who runs KUSI-TV, San Diego's UPN affiliate. MEDIAWEEK
notes, with just five commercial stations in San Diego, losing
XETV would force Fox to change its signal to KUSI. The FCC took
up the issue again last week asking for new comment from Fox,
McKinnon and XETV. A ruling is not expected for "several
months," with the start of the NFL season looming on Labor Day
weekend (MEDIAWEEK, 6/17 issue).
BIGGER PICTURE: The Baltimore SUN and USA TODAY note the
comments made by Westinghouse Chair Michael Jordan on Tuesday
that CBS would spend whatever it takes to get the NFL back. In
Baltimore, Milton Kent writes one way to "make everyone
relatively happy" would be to give CBS a Sunday night package,
moving ESPN and TNT to Thursday night. If that doesn't work, CBS
could bid for NBC's AFC package, "which would be devalued
seriously" by moves of the Browns and the Oilers (Baltimore SUN,
6/20). Rudy Martzke notes the problem for CBS is that the five
current NFL partners "have strong renewal language in their
contracts." Also, Thursday nights have not rated well for ABC in
the past, and the NFL may want to recreate the scenario of a
"outside, hungry network bidding on the packages that are in
place" --a la Fox a few years back (USA TODAY, 6/20).
