DirecTV, on a Sunday of all things, decided to announce its “No Locals” plan that allows satellite subscribers to drop local TV stations and save $12 monthly or $140 annually. Dish and DirecTV have must-carry and retransmission consent obligations like cable. But satellite TV providers are not required to make their subscribers buy local TV stations before buying the tier with all the cable channels. Could cable adopt Dish’s Flex Pack or DirecTV’s No Locals approach? Since it involves regulation, it’s complicated.
A majority of the FCC on Thursday voted to redefine broadband as speeds of at least 100 megabits per second for downloads — a fourfold increase from the current standard of 25 Mbps, which was set nine years ago. The new benchmark for upload speeds is 20 Mbps — nearly seven times faster than the current 3 Mbps standard. The FCC also set a long-term goal of 1 Gbps for downloads and 500 Mbps for uploads.
Cable and satellite-TV providers will need to make sure bills and ads clearly display a total price for video subscribers, including extra fees that can amount to hundreds of dollars a year, under a rule adopted Thursday by the FCC. “No one likes surprises on their bill,” Democratic FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. “The advertised price for a service should be the price you pay when your bill arrives. It shouldn’t include a bunch of unexpected junk fees.”
The fiscal 2024 budget request asks for $448,075,000 in budget authority from regulatory fee offsetting collections.
Federal regulators need to do more in support of local TV stations that are facing increased pressure for viewers and advertising from unregulated video streaming providers and big technology companies, Sinclair argued in a filing with the FCC in support of Chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s proposal to expedite license renewals for TV and radio stations that provide locally originated programming.
The FCC has introduced a docket inviting input on how to release unassigned spectrum licenses from its inventory in light of the ongoing lapse of the commission’s auction authority. This development coincides with the one-year mark – on March 9, 2023 – of Congress neglecting to extend the FCC’s auction authority. As a result, the agency’s authority lapsed for the first time.
Federal regulators want pay-TV consumers to receive rebates when channels go dark as a result of contract disputes between pay-TV operators and their content vendors, including TV stations and cable networks. But the proposal advanced last October by FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel is receiving firm resistance from cable and satellite TV operators. For one thing, while Rosenworcel’s plan would impose rebate obligations on cable and satellite, it would exempt TV stations. And that’s fine with the National Association of Broadcasters, which argued in a March 8 FCC filing that pay-TV operators are causing signal blackouts to happen in an effort to demonstrate to Washington regulators that carriage rules – called retransmission consent – are broken.
The FCC will decide on a set of proposed rules that, if passed, will require satellite and cable TV providers to clarify “all-in” prices clearly so consumers can make informed decisions when signing up for services. This Thursday, March 14, the FCC will vote on “all-in” pricing for cable TV companies.
Nexstar Media Group is pushing back against federal regulators’ decision to fine the broadcaster $720,000 for violating good-faith bargaining rules while negotiating a new carriage deal last year with a cable TV company in Hawaii. In a filing Friday, Nexstar said the FCC’sMedia Bureau zeroed in on a single, ordinary contract proposal and inflated its significance to an unnecessary degree in order to arrive at a fine amount that the broadcaster described as “astounding” and beyond the bureau’s authority to impose.
Last month, the FCC fined Nexstar $720,000 for violating retransmission consent rules in some respects, but the agency’s Media Bureau did not agree with Hawaiian Telecom that Nexstar through its bargaining approach crossed the line leading up to the multi-signal blackout that lasted nearly three weeks in July, 2023. Hawaiian Telcom disagrees. “Simply put, Nexstar used the looming blackout deadline as a cudgel in an attempt to force Hawaiian Telcom’s capitulation to whatever Nexstar’s last proposal was before time ran out,” it said in an FCC filing Friday.
Pennsylvania Democrats are rallying in support of Fox Corp. in its battle to retain ownership of its WTXF Philadelphia. On March 5, 16 members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives – all Democrats – sent a letter imploring the FCC to renew Fox 29’s license. The letter did not mention the license revocation controversy over Fox News Channel’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
The FCC confirmed it was the subject of a phishing operation that deployed a fake login page used by staff to authenticate their credentials. The cloned site, known as a phishing kit, was constructed by hackers who duplicated a legitimate login webpage from identity management vendor Okta, aiming to deceive users into entering in their private account information. It was discovered by cloud security firm Lookout, who announced the findings.
Federal regulators continue to face outside pressure to take steps to revoke Fox Corp.’s TV station license in Philadelphia in connection with 2020 presidential election coverage aired on Fox News Channel. The Media and Democracy Project (MAD) – which is demanding that the FCC revoke the operating license of WTXF – filed a comment with the agency on March 1 urging it to “act swifty” to begin a public hearing as a first step toward ultimate revocation. MAD’s comment did not appear on the FCC’s website until March 4.
The largest TV station group in the U.S. is suing in an effort to alter current federal rules that limit its ability to grow in local markets. Nexstar Media Group filed the action in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, faulting the FCC for freezing or tightening TV station ownership rules in disregard of controlling law that points to deregulation as competition to broadcasting takes hold. “The [FCC’s] order exceeds the [FCC’s] statutory authority because it tightens media ownership rules in spite of the statute’s clear deregulatory purpose and the lack of basis for such tightening,” Nexstar said in its Feb. 23 petition for review.
A federal rule that would require cable and satellite TV providers to report blackouts involving TV stations would violate the law, potentially incentivize blackouts, and ought to be abandoned, according the National Association of Broadcasters. NAB, the trade association for major TV station groups like Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Inc., was reacting to a proposal from FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, who wants to collect reports on TV station blackouts that last longer than 24 hours and that the agency would archive in a database available to the public.
Cable-affiliated internet service providers (ISPs) are challenging new federal digital discrimination rules in federal court in Washington, the second major legal case to target the rules. The suit was filed Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by NCTA – The Internet & Television Association and ACA Connects, which combined represent hundreds of broadband ISPs, the vast majority of them small.
FCC Bans AI-Generated Voices In Robocalls
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 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.
With the video marketplace in a state of flux, federal regulators need to review rules that determine how local TV stations gain carriage on streaming platforms like YouTube TV, Scripps Sports President Brian Lawlor said Wednesday. Testifying on Capitol Hill before a House panel, Lawlor called on the FCC to update the rules, which many TV station owners consider outdated and a source of friction with the Big Four networks.
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.
The commission plans a February vote on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to make it easier to send multilingual alerts over TV and radio.
Cable Giants Insist That Forcing Them To Make Cancellations Easier Violates Their First Amendment Rights
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.
A leader in the effort to strip Fox Corp. of a TV station license is renewing calls for a federal regulatory hearing based on recent developments in a defamation case about Fox News Channel’s 2020 election coverage. Former Fox executive Preston Padden, in a filing with the FCC Thursday, called on the agency to hold a hearing on Fox’s fitness to continue as the licensee of WTXF Philadelphia (Fox 29) based on revelations in Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation case against Fox.
Broadcast M&A Prospects Chilly In ’24
The FCC’s recent Top Four Duopoly rule decision, the agency’s kibosh of the Standard General-Tegna deal and private equity’s uncertainty about bellying back up to the bar all point toward a 2024 that will be relatively short on TV station mergers and acquisitions.
The owner of two radio stations in the Midwest is so far behind on payment of federal regulatory fees that he is in jeopardy of losing both licenses. The FCC has warned the owner and licensee, Daniel S. Stratemeyer, that he could be subject to license revocation if he failed to catch up on his payments within 60 days. He also has the option to demonstrate that “payment is inapplicable or should be waived or deferred.”
The future of streaming video will turn on whether the FCC bans broadband providers from tampering with online traffic, Netflix argued to the agency this week.
Cable’s most highly rated national sports channel is seeking an exemption from federal rules that require the provision of narrated audio descriptions to assist millions in the TV audience who are blind or visually impaired. Disney-owned ESPN — the home of the iconic Sports Center, NFL games and the College Football Playoffs — filed for the exemption today with the FCC. In recent weeks, Fox News and MNBC have filed for identical three-year exemptions.
The FCC’s Democratic majority wants cable and satellite TV consumers to receive rebates when TV stations go dark on their TVs. The plan, unveiled Wednesday by FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, triggered a strong response from the agency’s two Republicans, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington.
Ted Hearn: On Friday, Comcast won a TV station carriage dispute at the FCC. In siding with Comcast, FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer likely handed victory to a second cable operator: Hawaiian Telcom. The Honolulu-based cable company last July filed a retrans complaint against Nexstar with allegations identical to those lodged by Comcast.
The FCC Vs. The News In Your Neighborhood
Holman W. Jenkins Jr.: Local broadcasting might have a future if the agency’s ownership rules would get out of the way.
WPIX New York owner Mission Broadcasting is being fined $150,000 by the FCC over a contract dispute with cable giant Comcast that caused the cable TV company to file a complaint with the agency in 2022. TV stations and cable operators have a legal duty to negotiate retransmission consent carriage deals in good faith. But the FCC found that Mission violated that standard by requiring contract terms with Comcast that would have prevented either side from filing a complaint with the FCC.
The FCC is fining Nexstar’s KAMR Amarillo, Texas, $6,000 and a Paramount Global’s KPYX San Francisco $3,000 over lax recordkeeping discovered by agency staff in reviewing the stations’ license renewal applications submitted in 2022.
Fox Corp.’s effort to protect its WTXF Philadelphia from license revocation just got some new local political support. Pennsylvania State Rep. Morgan Cephas sent a brief letter calling on the FCC to renew the license, which is being challenged over 2020 election reporting that aired on Fox News Channel and Fox stations around the country. The challenge to the license began last summer. Although Fox has asked for prompt renewal, the FCC has not acted.
WGBP has deployed just about every legal argument possible in an effort to win a carriage dispute with Dish Network. Now the station is trying a little humor with the FCC’s Media Bureau staff to get across its point that Dish is blurring the meaning of regulations that are clear on their face. “While these interpretations are clear and unambiguous, Dish effectively asks the Media Bureau staff to stand on one foot, put on a pair of oversized sunglasses, and spin around five times, to try to find a different meaning,” said Wiley Rein lawyer Ari Meltzer, counsel for WGBP owner CNZ Communications, in a Jan. 5 filing with the commission.