Regulation

A Quibi attorney argued on Thursday that the company would suffer “immense harm” if forced to disable its Turnstyle feature pending the outcome of a patent lawsuit. Eko, a New York-based video company, filed suit in March, alleging that Quibi had stolen its method of rotating video between horizontal and vertical orientations. Eko is seeking an injunction that would force Quibi to disable the feature while the suit is being litigated.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has vetoed a bill that would have imposed a new tax on digital ad revenue. “With our state in the midst of a global pandemic and economic crash, and just beginning on our road to recovery, it would be unconscionable to raise taxes and fees now,” he said Thursday

The owner of the NBC affiliate in Wausau, Wis., gives four big reasons why a judge should throw out a libel claim concerning the president’s coronavirus response.

The FCC consent decree is largest ever paid by a broadcaster and stems from its negotiations to buy Tribune. “Sinclair’s conduct during its attempt to merge with Tribune was completely unacceptable,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Today’s penalty, along with the failure of the Sinclair-Tribune transaction, should serve as a cautionary tale to other licensees seeking commission approval of a transaction in the future.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and NAB President-CEO Gordon Smith will participate in a keynote conversation Wednesday, May 13, during the NAB Show Express Welcome event. The industry’s top regulator and the head […]

CNN sent a cease-and-desist letter to President Trump’s reelection campaign over what it describes as a “false, misleading and deceptive” use of the network’s coverage in its recent campaign ad. According to the network, the cease-and-desist was drawn up by Rick D. McMurtry, who is associate general counsel for CNN’s parent company WarnerMedia. The letter takes issue with the campaign’s use of the CNN coverage in it’s “American Comeback” ad.

This afternoon, the FCC released a brief Order looking toward the day when life in the U.S. hopefully returns to normal, and broadcast stations begin rehiring furloughed workers. In the two-page order, the FCC waived the requirement in its EEO rule that broadcasters and MVPDs engage in “broad outreach” when filling each full-time job position. Making clear that this relief is restricted to the circumstances of COVID-19, the FCC limited application of the waiver to the rehiring of station employees that were laid off due to the pandemic, and only where the employee is then rehired within nine months of being laid off.

TV station group Howard Stirk Holdings (HSH) has agreed to pay $100,000 and adopt a compliance regime to settle an FCC charge that it had breached its duty to negotiate retransmission consent agreements in good faith. HSH admitted to the good faith violation as part of the settlement. The FCC’s Media Bureau chief, Michelle Carey, said it would be in the public interest to adopt the consent decree and settle the matter.

The FCC has unveiled a new logo in anticipation of its upcoming move out of its current headquarters. The new seal was the winner in an agency-wide contest among commission employees and contractors, who voted on the submissions. The winning logo was submitted by Umasankar Arumugam, picked by a vote of employees and contractors.

New Jersey Broadcasters Association President-CEO Paul Rotella tells the commission that any increase in annual fees for TV and radio stations is not warranted and that this is not the appropriate time to put any further financial burdens on broadcasters.

The American Television Alliance told the FCC that the problems with a competitive communications marketplace are retrans blackouts, retrans fees and broadcast consolidation in spite of FCC rules that are supposed to limit it, consolidation that drives retrans fees higher and has driven some smaller MVPDs have been pushed out of that marketplace.

The organizations — the Big 4 affiliate groups, the RTNDA, the Media Institute and the Society of Professional Journalists — say that the paid anti-Trump ad it aired was the very stuff of American politics and fully protected by the First Amendment.

Broadcasters are telling the FCC that the current pandemic provides even more argument for loosening broadcast ownership regs. They are telling the FCC it needs to declare the video and audio markets more competitive than they have ever been, arguing that both FCC ownership limits — which the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai has tried to loosen — and Department of Justice merger reviews — are “premised on the view that local TV and radio stations exist in markets hermetically sealed against the vast array of choices available to audiences and advertisers.”

May is one of those months where there are no regularly scheduled regulatory filings (e.g., no renewals, EEO reports, fee filings or scheduled public file disclosures).  Nevertheless, as always, there are a number of important regulatory dates — and changes in some dates — for May of which broadcasters should be aware.

The FCC issued public notices this week on the license renewal process for both radio and television operators.  The Public Notice on television renewals was perhaps more significant, as it addressed several issues and procedures for the television renewal process which begins with the filing of renewals for stations located in Maryland, D.C., Virginia and West Virginia, to be submitted to the FCC no later than June 1 of this year.

TV broadcasters on ch. 6 can breathe a a little easier, at least temporarily. The FCC has decided to defer a decision on scrapping its rules requiring low-power FMs and noncommercial educational FMs to protect TV ch. 6 from interference. The FCC had proposed doing so as part of an FM rule update approved this week, but decided to hold off.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), chairman of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, on Thursday proposed a ban on most merger activity amid the coronavirus pandemic. “As millions of businesses struggle to stay afloat, private equity firms and dominant corporations are positioned to swoop in for a buying spree,” the Rhode Island lawmaker said during a teleconferenced speech at an event held by the Open Markets Institute

The latest COVID-19 legislative package will apparently not include a couple of things that would have helped media outlets facing plunging ad dollars and a public’s increased reliance on critical news and information. A compromise bill was struck Tuesday (April 21) on a $480 billion successor bill to help small businesses. Broadcasters and newspapers, with the help of some legislators, had pushed for the next COVID-19 aid bill to include billions of dollars in federal advertising expenditures-for PSAs or census response campaigns — to be directed specifically to local media outlets.

Recently, FCC staff dismissed a request by the organization Free Press asking the FCC to investigate the broadcast of the President’s press conferences on the coronavirus and programs where commentators supported the President’s pronouncements. The FCC concluded that, in covering a breaking news story like the pandemic, it would be impossible for a broadcaster to fact check every statement made in a press conference and correct any misstatements in anything approaching real time, as there is so much room for interpretation of any statement made on these ongoing matters.

The NAB is clearly unhappy with the prospect that the FCC will open up the entire 6 GHz band for sharing with unlicensed wireless. Patrick McFadden, the group’s associate general counsel, left nothing but scorched earth beneath the Open Technology Institute, Facebook, tech companies in general, conservative groups and others in a blog post over the hot-button issue of opening up that spectrum, a proposal the FCC is voting on this week.

Pandemic or no, the FCC has signaled that it is business as usual for the 2020-23 TV station license renewal cycle, with the exception of public filing notices for the initial round of applications. That is according to the Media Bureau, which issued a reminder Monday (April 20).

Over half of the members of the House (240) have signed on to a letter to the Trump Administration asking it to direct federal government advertising dollars to local news media. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas) and Bill Flores (R-Texas) had circulated the letter last week seeking their colleagues’ signatures,

Potential vice presidential pick Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is one of four senators, two Democrats, two Republicans, who are calling for more local broadcasters and newspapers to be included in future COVID-19 small business assistance legislation, pointing out they are essential businesses in helping communities stay safe and informed.

The Trump campaign has targeted a small Wisconsin station in a libel suit over a super PAC ad. Its fellow broadcasters need to step up now by coming to its defense and fending off a critical assault on their First Amendment rights.