Regulation

The cable and broadband lobby is blasting the Federal Trade Commission’s proposal to outlaw junk fees, arguing the potential rules are not only unconstitutional but would also disrupt ad practices throughout the country.

Katie Puris, who was the Global Head of Brand & Creative at TikTok, alleged in a lawsuit filed this week in a Manhattan federal court that she was fired in 2022 after making internal complaints about gender and age discrimination linked to what she called a preference among company executives for hiring young people.

Effective immediately, the regulation empowers the FCC to fine companies that use AI voices in their calls or block the service providers that carry them. It also opens the door for call recipients to file lawsuits and gives state attorneys general a new mechanism to crack down on violators, according to the FCC.

Nexstar Media Group has been fined $720,000 — double the normal amount — for violating FCC rules while negotiating a new carriage deal last year with a cable company in Hawaii. The FCC’s Media Bureau, in an order issued today, said Nexstar violated agency rules by demanding that Honolulu-based Hawaiian Telcom agree not to file an FCC complaint against the broadcaster as a condition of reaching a new carriage deal. Hawaiian Telcom filed a complaint anyway.

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen late last week made the rounds at the FCC. In a Feb. 2 meeting with FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, Ergen criticized one of her key pay TV initiatives: Making cable and satellite TV operators provide consumers rebates as compensation for lost programming during contract disputes.

The lawsuit accused the fast food giant of failing to live up to a pledge to increase spending with Black-owned media from 2% to 5% by the end of this year.

The lawsuit Carano filed with help from X, formerly Twitter, in federal court in California alleges her wrongful termination from the Star Wars galaxy Disney+ streaming series after two seasons over a post likening the treatment of American conservatives to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.

The National Association of Broadcasters sees a link between exit fees required of pay-TV customers and carriage disputes that pit TV stations against cable and satellite TV operators. NAB, in comments filed Monday with the FCC, asserted that cable and satellite TV providers rely on the fees to benefit from losing TV stations as a result of failed contract or retransmission consent negotiations.

No. 1 satellite TV provider DirecTV is raising compliance concerns with new billing protocols proposed last year by FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel. She wants cable and satellite TV providers to adhere to an “all-in” billing format, which means one price for video programming to be displayed as a prominent single line item on bills and in promotional materials. DirecTV spent time with FCC officials recently to underscore the company’s difficulties in meeting the FCC’s requirements while complying with similar but not identical rules across multiple jurisdictions.

Showtime retorts that there is “no plausible basis” for the claim, which focuses on the participation of Georgette Jones, the titular couple’s daughter, and her part in a previous non-disparagement agreement.

The man trying to derail a Fox Corp. TV station license renewal claims that alleged false reporting by corporate sibling Fox News Channel about the 2020 presidential election can be taken into account by federal regulators. Former Fox executive Preston Padden, in a filing Wednesday with the FCC, said the agency in considering the character of a TV station licensee seeking renewal is allowed to evaluate the licensee’s conduct elsewhere.

“This is an important case with serious implications for the rule of law, and it will not end here,” a studio spokesperson says.

In a heated question and answer session with Mark Zuckerberg, Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley asked the Meta CEO if he has personally compensated any of the victims and their families for what they have been through. “I don’t think so,” Zuckerberg replied. “There’s families of victims here,” Hawley said. “Would you like to apologize to them?” As parents rose and held up their children’s pictures, Zuckerberg turned to face them and apologized for what they have been through.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X CEO Linda Yaccarino and other tech industry leaders faced a grilling from lawmakers today as they appeared for a landmark Senate hearing on the online exploitation of children. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) blamed the tech platforms at the outset for allowing the exploitation to proliferate, while dismissing the latest efforts the companies have taken to boost safety. “They are responsible for many of the dangers our children face online,” Durbin said, calling it a “crisis in America.”

The Hollywood Creative Alliance (formerly known as Hollywood Critics Association) is suing the Critics Choice Association for defamation in response to the org’s recent call for members to resign from the HCA in order to stay members of the CCA. According to court documents, the HCA claims the CCA has defamed the organization in an “attempt to boycott and steal members of the HCA” and is seeking “preliminary and permanent injunctive relief” along with “appropriate compensatory remedies and fees and costs” in response to the organization’s actions.

Fox Corp. is calling for the prompt renewal of its WTXF Philadelphia, saying recent attempts to influence the FCC’s review are legally defective in falling outside the agency’s policies and traditions in deciding the merits of a renewal. Fox’s lawyers pushed for FCC action in a letter today supportive of renewal of the license of WTXF. Fox claimed that the opposition’s reliance on court proceedings involving Fox News Channel had no legal bearing on the FCC’s renewal of a broadcast licensee.

New Baltimore Sun owner and Sinclair Broadcast Group Executive Chairman David Smith has been quietly involved in a lawsuit accusing Baltimore City Public Schools of defrauding taxpayers, documents show. Smith has had several discussions with the plaintiffs and their attorneys about the suit and is behind a corporation paying the plaintiff’s legal fees, according to documents obtained by The Baltimore Banner. All the while, Baltimore’s WBFF, Sinclair’s flagship station, has covered the case extensively without disclosing Smith’s role. A WBFF spokesperson said that WBFF reporters and staff did not know of Smith’s involvement in the lawsuit, and that the station will add disclosure to its stories. (Doug Wells/AP)

The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that an attorney who represents plaintiffs in the case sent the documents to one of its reporters on Jan. 19 and then asked for them back. When the news outlet declined, the attorney filed a court motion requesting they be returned. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie Russo approved the motion on Friday and ordered the news outlet to return the documents.

The commission plans a February vote on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to make it easier to send multilingual alerts over TV and radio.

Neither the FCC nor FTC has a particularly good track record of standing up to broadband and cable giants when it comes to their longstanding track record of anticompetitive behavior, price gouging or nickel-and-diming their often captive customers with bogus, hidden fees. Though occasionally one of the two agencies does step in to try make a bare minimum effort to rein in the industry’s worst impulses, such as the FTC’s attempt, unveiled last March, to force companies to stop making canceling service a pain in the ass. But the cable and broadband industry, which has a long and proud tradition of whining about every last consumer protection requirement (no matter how basic), is kicking back at that requirement.

Matthew P Bergman’s firm has filed cases against Snap, TikTok and others, with a novel argument – that the products are harmful by design.

The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it is investigating how partnerships between large tech businesses and artificial intelligence companies could affect competition. The agency sent so-called “6b” orders — equivalent to subpoenas — to the tech companies Microsoft, Amazon and Google, and artificial intelligence businesses OpenAI and Anthropic. Those orders seek information about deals between  Microsoft and OpenAI, Amazon and Anthropic, and Google and Anthropic.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday asks that a judge order the podcast outlet, Dudesy, to immediately take down the audio special, George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead, in which a synthesis of Carlin, who died in 2008, delivers commentary on current events. (Gregory Bull/AP)