Regulation

Brad Kinkade, an assistant Polk County attorney, told Judge Christopher Kemp that because Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri had only been charged with misdemeanors, the case was considered a low-priority and wasn’t worth the time needed to provide evidence the defense has requested.

Fox News Channel stars Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Howard Kurtz were accused of sexual harassment by a frequent on-air guest in a lawsuit filed Monday that the network called frivolous and untrue. In the same case, a former Fox employee said she was harassed and raped by news anchor Ed Henry, who was fired July 1 shortly after the network became aware of the accusations.

The FCC is trying to remove a potential barrier to the deployment of the ATSC 3.0 technical standard by TV broadcasters by ruling that a broadcaster’s lease of spectrum to a third party for provision of ancillary, non-broadcast services does not trigger attribution for the FCC’s broadcast ownership rules. Comments on the matter are due Aug. 17, replies on Aug. 31.

Fix the Court, the Radio Television Digital News Association and the Society of Professional Journalists have joined with more than two dozen groups to ask Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to continue to provide live audio of its oral arguments.

The FCC has issued a Public Notice reminding analog low-power television licensees that all analog transmissions must cease by July 13, 2021, and that deadline will not be extended or waived.

The FCC’s repack of close to 1,000 TV stations drew to a close, sort of, on Monday (July 13), but on a note very different from when the FCC first started working on the broadcast incentive auction following a congressional mandate to do so back in 2012. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai called the repack a “remarkable success story” and praised the cooperation among wireless carriers, while NAB EVP Rick Kaplan said they were lucky to have the right person in the job at the right time, referring to Pai.

Struggling startup mobile streaming service Quibi won an important court ruling Monday afternoon, when a federal judged denied a plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction of the platform’s core technology feature, Turnstyle.

Noncommercial stations continued on their path toward full funding-plus even as President Trump has tried to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Joe Biden has signaled that if he becomes President, his FCC will restore the net neutrality rules and FCC oversight authority the Republican FCC jettisoned in the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, as well as working to undo state laws blocking municipal broadband and invest even more in those projects.

The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has denied the second petition to delay the C-band spectrum repack and auction mandated in the 3.7 GHz Report and Order.

In moving to free up Wi-Fi and bolster superfast service, Ajit Pai has alienated some industries, congressional committees and Trump Cabinet leaders.

A House subcommittee has recommended $515 million for public broadcasting for fiscal year 2023, according to the America’s Public Television Stations, an increase of $50 million. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies has also recommended $20 million for the interconnection facilities that allow the stations to carry national programming.

An informal group of major media trade groups, unions and some high-powered sports organizations — led by Fox — is asking Congress to pass legislation that would provide “pandemic risk insurance” for businesses attempting to, well, do business during the current pandemic. Among those signing on to the letter were NAB, NCTA, MPA, NFL, SAG-AFTRA and NASCAR.

July is usually a month of family vacations and patriotic celebrations. While the pandemic has seen to it that those activities, if they happen at all, will look different than they have in years past, there are plenty of regulatory obligations to fill a broadcaster’s long, summer days. Here are a few of the dates and deadlines to watch for in July, and a quick reminder of some of the significant filings due right at the beginning of August.

Local broadcasters could use some regulatory help from the FCC by declaring that vMVPDs or “skinny bundles” must be treated like regular MVPDs and thus subject to retransmission consent obligations. Doing so would put the affiliates in a much stronger position to hang on to vMVPD fees than they are now.

The Trump administration has discussed a range of strategies to counter Huawei’s growth and put more American muscle into the competition against the Chinese telecom giant, including by prodding large U.S. technology companies to acquire Ericsson or Nokia.

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly: “The success of local television news in some markets comes even as the broadcast industry in general faces monumental challenges that existed apart from COVID-19, largely due to competition from unregulated high-tech companies openly competing for the same local advertising dollars.  And, these successes come despite the obstruction of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which overturned well-reasoned efforts by the FCC to modernize outdated media ownership rules last fall.”

The Priorities USA super PAC has been given a judicial OK to join a legal battle between Trump’s financially flush Republican reelection campaign and WJFW Wausau-Rhinelander, Wis. (DMA 134), which is being sued for airing a Priorities USA ad.

The Federal Emergency Management Association says it will not conduct a national test of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) via the broadcast Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert system this year.

The National Association of Broadcasters has asked the FCC to give stations in markets 61-100 more time before they are made subject to the FCC’s video description rules, which were mandated in the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010. The organization cited the pandemic’s effects on some stations in mid-markets.