Regulation

The telecom giant says the online video market is flourishing and there’s no reason to hold it back from negotiating interconnection agreements with some of the world’s largest companies.

Affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC are asking FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to revive a years-old proposal to regulate some over-the-top video providers, providers currently beyond the agency’s reach in terms of program access and must-carry/retransmission consent rules.

Broadcasters are pushing back on cable arguments that leased-access rules represent an infringement on cable’s First Amendment rights, and for good reason. If broadcasters want to preserve their cable carriage mandate, which they definitely do in a world where most broadcast viewing is over cable and satellite retransmissions — the cord-cutting trend notwithstanding — they want to nip the First Amendment challenge to that other carriage mandate in the bud.

Nielsen is telling the FCC that it remains the best way to determine if a TV station is getting significant out-of-market viewership. A determination that a station is “significantly viewed” in an adjacent market allows an MVPD serving that market to carry the station, even if it duplicates in-market syndicated or network programming. That importation is otherwise prohibited by the network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules.

Rules giving qualified MVPD buying groups the same good faith bargaining protections enjoyed by operators will go into effect on July 20, according to the FCC.

Broadcasters are telling the FCC that the pandemic makes it that much more important to streamline reviews of foreign ownership in broadcast properties, in part because pandemic-hammered stations may need to convert foreign debt into equity to avoid defaulting on the loans.

Norman Siegel: “The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States provides, in part, that government shall not abridge freedom of the press. Clearly, free expression by journalists, or by anyone with access to the equivalent of a printing press, is a cornerstone principle of our republic. The challenge to uphold this basic value is, unfortunately, an ongoing struggle.”

FCC watchers should mark their calendars for June 24. That is when the Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled an FCC oversight hearing featuring all five commissioners, according to the committee. It will be the first such oversight hearing since the COVID-19 pandemic.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said today that for the commission to consider President Trump’s executive order on social media during the run-up to the election “risks producing a chilling effect construed to make social media companies less willing to flag misinformation.”

The FCC has resolved some major outstanding issues in its framework for a transition to the ATSC 3.0 broadcast transmission standard. It declined to allow vacant in-band channels to be used for ATSC 3.0 deployment, which broadcasters sought but computer companies opposed because they want to use those channels for wireless broadband.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) will introduce legislation today that would give consumers grounds to sue companies like Facebook or Twitter over accusations of selective censorship of political speech.

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly told the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday that there continues to be a disconnect between the Department of Justice’s approach to antitrust and the realities of the competitive video marketplace.

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that struck down a Trump administration rule that required pharmaceutical companies to include the wholesale prices of their drugs in television advertisements.

One Media, which is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, said the FCC should adopt the “modest” modifications to its plan for deployment of the ATSC 3.0 advanced broadcast transmission standard, but should also look to be a little less modest, including recognizing the value of distributed transmission to localism. That came in comments on the FCC’s recent rulemaking.

Minority ownership of broadcast companies is languishing at around 8.5%. A revival of the minority tax certificate, which was killed by the Republican-controlled Congress in 1995, would be a small, but important, step toward redressing an enormous imbalance in mass communication.

Republican FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he’s unsure whether his agency has the authority to carry out President Trump’s executive order targeting tech firms’ legal protections.

The FCC has signaled it does not plan to change its plans to raise broadcast regulatory fees, a move that has the National Association of Broadcasters pushing back hard. The commission voted May 13 to propose collecting $339 million in regulatory fees for 2020, including the fee increase for broadcasters. But NAB said the FCC has not explained why it has denied broadcasters relief given the pandemic.

The FCC’s approach to Fiscal Year 2020 regulatory fees for broadcasters is “patently unfair and likely unlawful,” ignoring the impact COVID-19 is having on the industry, according to comments filed by the NAB. The comments are in response to an FCC proposal that would require the commission to collect $339 million in regulatory fees for the fiscal year. While that amount is the same as last year, the NAB says that the FCC proposal would see many broadcasters have to pay increased regulatory fees for the second consecutive year.

Byron Allen has withdrawn his $20 billion racial discrimination lawsuit against Comcast. The two parties have entered into a carriage agreement, with the cable company carrying Allen’s 15 TV channels, including The Weather Channel. The deal also includes the distribution of Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV and JusticeCentral.TV on X1, video on demand and TV everywhere.