Regulation

Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn has promised that, if confirmed to the commission’s open seat, she will recuse herself from decisions where retransmission consent or TV broadcast copyright are material issues. That came in a letter to acting FCC General Counsel Michelle Ellison Thursday (Jan. 27).

With the asterisked caveat that the items are “subject to change,” a vote on the nomination of Gigi Sohn to the open Democratic seat on the FCC has been set. The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled an executive session for Wednesday, Feb. 2, and Sohn is among 14 nominations slotted to get a vote. Among the other nominees are Alvaro Bedoya for the open Democratic seat on the Federal Trade Commission and four members of the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Kathy Im, Thomas Rothman, Elizabeth Sembler and Laura Ross.

The FCC has voted to deny a petition by broadcasters to reconsider its authorization of one of the database administrators for the TV white spaces, Nominet UK (now RED Technologies). White spaces are spectrum in the TV band between channels that the FCC is allowing for unlicensed use. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel had signaled the agency would vote at its Jan. 27 meeting to reject the petition, but the vote came early and was released Wednesday.

The vacancy will give President Biden his first chance to name a new justice. He has promised to nominate a Black woman.

Formerly senior adviser at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Simington was confirmed to the FCC by the Senate in December 2020 on a 49–46 party line vote, with GOP colleagues touting his light-touch regulatory approach. Simington, 42 and a native of Saskatchewan, Canada, holds one of two current Republican seats on the commission. In this Q&A he expresses empathy for broadcasters facing business challenges.

The civil rights group says her expertise is needed in the effort to close the digital divide and is urging the Senate Commerce Committee to favorably report the Democrat’s FCC nomination to the full Senate and to work actively for a vote in that body.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, is still looking to hold a confirmation vote for FCC nominee Gigi Sohn sometime soon. Sohn‘s nomination has gotten pushback from Republicans citing her support for Title II-based network neutrality rules and her support of fair-use carveouts from content copyright protections, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has said he would put a hold on her nomination before it got to a floor vote.

The trial comes at a time when those who argue that news outlets should pay a steeper price for getting something wrong are more emboldened than they’ve been in decades.

A federal court judge in California has reversed a ruling dismissing media mogul Byron Allen’s $10 billion lawsuit charging that McDonald’s discriminated against Black-owned media when it buys advertising. In a new order entered Friday, Judge Fernando Olguin denied McDonald’s motion to dismiss without prejudice and said McDonald’s has to answer Allen’s complaint by Jan. 27.

NAB members are briefed on legislative and regulatory issues facing the industry by the trade association’s new CEO and other execs.

Attention broadcasters in phases 6 through 10 of the FCC’s post broadcast incentive auction repack, a big deadline is coming up. The FCC’s Media Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force is reminding all full-power and Class A Low-power TV stations that they have to submit all their outstanding reimbursement invoices no later than March 22.

A major piece of legislation aimed at limiting the business conduct of Amazon and other tech platforms cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, underscoring a bipartisan desire to curb the influence of major internet companies.

Gigi Sohn, President Biden’s pick to fill the remaining vacancy on the FCC, continues to have an uncertain fate. Democrats are pushing for a vote on her nomination, while Republicans would rather the Senate Commerce Committee hold another hearing to examine Sohn’s role in a now-closed TV streaming service. The committee’s top Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), wants to put more questions to Sohn about her role as a board member on the nonprofit that operated Locast. The streaming service distributed local TV station signals online until a judge last year ordered it be shut down for violating copyright law. The company paid $32 million to settle claims brought by broadcasters.

With its publication in the Federal Register, the comment deadlines for the FCC’s request for input on making multichannel video programming distributors’ closed captioning settings more accessible have been set. Initial comments are due Feb. 17 and replies March 4.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s antitrust division on Tuesday launched a new inquiry aimed at updating guidelines to block illegal mergers. The agencies are seeking public input to update guidelines over the next 60 days.

The Association of National Advertisers, Interactive Advertising Bureau, U.S. Chamber of Congress and other business groups are asking lawmakers to pass a privacy law that would override state measures. “A growing patchwork of state laws are emerging which threaten innovation and create consumer and business confusion,” dozens of organizations said in a letter sent to Congress last week.

The long knives appear to be out for the nomination of Gigi Sohn, the former head of Public Knowledge and one-time counselor to former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, to the open Democratic seat on the FCC. That FCC majority will be key to potential reregulation of the broadcast and broadband/cable industries that is expected under a Democratic administration.

While this calendar should not be viewed as an exhaustive list of every regulatory date that your station will face, it highlights many of the most important dates for broadcasters in the coming year — including dates for license renewals, EEO Public Inspection File Reports, Quarterly Issues Programs lists, children’s television obligations, annual fee obligations and much more.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued subpoenas on Thursday to four major social media companies — Alphabet, Meta, Reddit and Twitter — criticizing them for allowing extremism to spread on their platforms and saying they have failed to cooperate adequately with the inquiry.

The ranking member on the powerful Senate Commerce Committee wants the relationship between new FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel and new NTIA head Alan Davidson to start out on the right foot. In a letter to both, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), called on the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration to work together to better coordinate spectrum policy.