FCC

With the traditional beginning of summer upon us, there is no vacation from the regulatory actions of importance to broadcasters.  Let’s start with the routine actions for the new month.

The FCC’s Media Bureau is seeking comment on a request that it create a report on content vendor diversity. Fuse Media led a coalition of minority-owned media groups that sought the new report, which would include requiring such data from any company that relies on an FCC license, or any subsidiary of that company. That would include any number of streaming services as well as traditional content producers and platforms — with Disney, Comcast and Paramount among them.

The FCC, Department of Agriculture, National Telecommunications & Information Administration (all of which oversee broadband subsidy programs) and the Treasury Department have signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to share “information about and collaborate regarding the collection and reporting of certain data and metrics relating to broadband deployment.” They have also agreed to, to the degree possible, develop “consistent, complementary, uniform formats, standard, protocols and reporting processes for that data.

Critics of the $8 billion-plus purchase of Tegna’s TV station group by investment fund Standard General have told the FCC it needs to collect more data on the proposed merger before it rules on whether it is in the public interest. Common Cause, joined by the NewsGuild-CWA union and Public Knowledge, have filed a formal motion for both additional documents that the FCC and the public can peruse and an extension of time to weigh in. Currently, the FCC has set a May 23 deadline for those wishing to formally oppose the deal.

News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal editorial board this week continued its push to defeat the nomination of Gigi Sohn for the fifth Democratic seat on the FCC. The editorial board added the Fraternal Order of Police union’s opposition — which dates from March — to Sohn’ as the latest weapon in an ongoing campaign. The paper said the union stand appears to have put a trio of Democratic votes in doubt: Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada). If so, that would definitely be a blow to Sohn’s chances.

A group of minority-owned media, led by Fuse Media, is asking the FCC to collect data on the diversity of content vendors used by licensed media and telecommunications companies. The group’s petition wants streaming services owned by licensed media companies included among those who have to report on diversity, as well as traditional platforms like broadcast, cable and satellite TV.

Two of the FCC’s four current members have said they won’t interfere with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s planned $44 billion purchase of Twitter.  “The FCC cannot, and should not, block this sale,” Nathan Simington, a Republican, said this week. “We should instead applaud Mr. Musk for doing something about a serious problem that government has so far failed to address,” Simington added, obviously referring to reports that Musk plans to revise Twitter’s content-moderation policies.

The 2-2 Democrat-Republican deadlock at the agency means that many media issues are left hanging, including some important to the Biden administration and the TV industry, particularly net neutrality and media ownership.

In her first NAB Show appearance since her designation as FCC chair, Jessica Rosenworcel conceded that the introduction of a fifth commissioner would solve the agency’s current 2-to-2 political gridlock, but she’s not losing any sleep over it.

Of the 14 entities that have applied to the FCC to build new TV stations, only one was rejected, although Sinclair is among the applicants whose short-form applications were found to be incomplete. The FCC is auctioning 27 construction permits for full-power TV stations and interested parties will get to bid for the right to them starting June 7. There were seven potential bidders whose applications were deemed complete: Gray Television, Major Market Broadcasting of North Dakota, Marquee Broadcasting, Radiant Life Ministries, Renard Broadcasting, RxDIO.com and TV-49.

It appears that two can play at the game of six-figure ad campaigns targeted at FCC nominees — in this case, the nomination of Gigi Sohn to fill the vacant Democratic (majority) seat. A week after a group called The One Country Project (OCP) said it had launched a six-figure ad campaign meant to keep Sohn off the commission, the Communications Workers of America Monday (April 25) said it had launched a six-figure campaign to make sure she did get the seat.

The FCC says that if anyone wants to oppose the $8 billion-plus purchase of Tegna’s TV station group by investment fund Standard General, they need to speak now, or at least by May 23.
That is the deadline for petitions to deny the deal, according to the pleading cycle for public comment on the deal released by the FCC Thursday (April 21). The FCC has opened a docket on the deal (Docket No. 22162) where oppositions and responses will be filed.

Pearl TV, the consortium of TV stations advancing NextGen TV, took aim at cable operators in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington. That is according to a FCC document […]

Some former Democratic members of Congress have joined what is increasingly a concerted effort to block the nomination of Gigi Sohn, President Joe Biden‘s nominee to the open Democratic seat on the FCC. A group called The One Country Project said it has launched a six-figure ad campaign meant to “ensure that the FCC prioritizes rural broadband expansion and communities,” but in the next sentence defines the campaign as “aimed at raising awareness that the Biden administration’s [FCC] nominee, Gigi Sohn, is the wrong choice for the FCC and rural America.”

Affiliated TV stations said they are suffering a double retransmission-consent hit from their networks driven by the move to streaming video. The chairs of the Big 4 network affiliate associations have been pressing the FCC to start applying retransmission consent rules to virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) so non-network owned stations can negotiate directly with streamers for payment.

The FCC has issued its “Equity Action Plan,” which it said was “pursuant to the president’s executive order on advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government.” The plan is primarily an outline of efforts already underway through a variety of legislative funding initiatives tied to COVID-19 and infrastructure upgrades, all of which have implications for closing the digital equity divide.

The FCC should conclude its long-overdue, congressionally mandated quadrennial review of whether its media ownership regulations are necessary in the public interest, NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt told FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel earlier this month, according to an FCC filing. A politically tied FCC is unlikely to approve reregulation of broadcasters and so far there has been no movement on a Senate confirmation vote on Gigi Sohn, the Democratic nominee who would break that tie.

The chairwoman and NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt will appear on the gathering’s main stage in Las Vegas on April 25.

Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (vMVPDs) operate in the loophole of the internet, free from having to honor network exclusivity agreements and able to negotiate directly with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, thus cutting local affiliates off at the knees. Their regulation needs to be at the top of the FCC’s agenda or quality local news is in peril.

Fans in the association sphere called on the Senate to confirm Democratic nominee Gigi Sohn to fill the fifth seat on the FCC, which has been vacant for well over a year. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the associations acknowledged the Senate had a lot on its plate with “pressing national issues.” Nonetheless, they urged senators to end debate over Sohn’s nomination — a discharge vote is akin to a cloture vote, allowing for a final vote on a bill or nomination.

Broadcaster Cox Media Group said it has “responded promptly” to outreach from Cincinnati Bell and rejects claims it has not been negotiating for retransmission consent in good faith or that it is demanding fees for the telco‘s broadband-only subscribers. Cincinnati Bell had filed a formal retransmission consent complaint with the FCC against CMG-owned WHIO — the CBS affiliate in Dayton, Ohio, and the top station in the market — for allegedly failing to negotiate in good faith, as FCC rules require, by trying to charge a fee per over-the-top video streamer as well as per traditional cable subs.

Cincinnati Bell, doing business as Altafiber, has filed a retransmission consent complaint against Cox Media/Apollo’s WHIO, the CBS affiliate in Dayton, Ohio, and the top station in the market, for allegedly failing to negotiate in good faith, as FCC rules require, by trying to charge a fee for over-the-top video streamers as well as traditional cable subs. Cincinnati Bell says that would constitute a “crippling” fee.

The FCC said it has upgraded its electronic comment filing system (ECFS), which is how the public and stakeholders weigh in on agency issues and proposed inquiries and regulations. According to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the regulator has transitioned to a cloud-based architecture that will allow it to upgrade and expand features and functions and allow it to scale up as needed. The system now also employs a reCAPTCHA engine to protect against fraud and abuse.

House Democrats made a point of noting the absence of a fifth FCC commissioner — specifically Democratic nominee Gigi Sohn — at the first FCC oversight hearing in the current Congress on Thursday. In his opening statement, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) said he hoped the Senate would soon confirm Sohn to that seat.

The FCC’s new/revised strategic plan promotes universal broadband and digital equity, communications priorities of the Biden Administration. The plan looks at equity in particular by examining how FCC policies in the past might have created “historical, systemic, and structural barriers that perpetuate disadvantaged or underserved individuals and communities.”

Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee have so far blocked the nominations of Georgetown University law professor Alvaro Bedoya to the FTC and consumer advocate Gigi Sohn to the FCC, largely on grounds that they are too partisan. That left both commissions deadlocked with a 2-2 split between Democrats and Republicans, denying agency leaders the majorities they needed to advance the Biden administration’s priorities. In response, Senate Democratic leaders are preparing to use a parliamentary maneuver known as a discharge petition to allow a floor vote on both nominees, according to people familiar with the matter.

Broadcasters said they are willing to compromise on the amount of licensed spectrum they have wanted the FCC to carve out of the 6 GHz band. That came in a letter to the commission from the National Association of Broadcasters, which has been trying to insure that licensed mobile operations can preserve a protected space — including guard bands — as the FCC opens up the band for unlicensed use.

The FCC has released another of its regular EEO audit notices, this time targeting more than 250 radio and TV stations. Those stations, and the station employment units (commonly owned stations serving the same area) with which they are associated, must provide to the FCC (by posting the information in their online public inspection file) their last two year’s EEO Annual Public File reports, as well as backing data to show that the station in fact did everything that was required under the FCC rules.

The FCC is finally moving on a request Comcast filed nearly nine months ago, asking the agency to declare that Nexstar is in violation of the 39% cap on broadcast national audience reach. But regulatory wheels move slowly, so there’s no indication yet of what the commission might do.

has upheld the collective multimillion-dollar fines against a number of TV stations for violating its mandate that retransmission negotiations be conducted in good faith, saying a challenge to that decision failed both on procedural grounds and on the merits. AT&T, the former owner of DirecTV, had filed the good-faith complaint against Deerfield Media, GoCom Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, HSH, Mercury Broadcasting, MPS Media, KMTR Television, Second Generation of Iowa and Waitt Broadcasting, all of which the FCC said failed to meet its standard for good faith negotiation.

The FCC announced on Tuesday that it has begun implementing rules requiring broadcasters to report when airwave time has been leased by foreign governments or representatives. Under the rule, new leasing agreements are immediately subject to the mandate, while existing ones have up to six months from the Federal Register publication date to comply with the rule, which was adopted last April.

The House Energy & Commerce Committee will hold an FCC oversight hearing March 31.
It is possible, though unlikely, that the FCC could be at full strength by that time if the Senate votes to discharge and then vote on the nomination of Gigi Sohn for the fifth FCC seat, though a hold threat continues from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

Broadcasters are pushing back hard on the FCC’s potential restoration of the mandate that broadcasters file data on the diversity of their workforces and that the data be available to the public, including by blaming Big Tech for some of broadcasting’s diversity recruiting problems.

A divided Senate Commerce Committee finally voted Thursday (March 3) along party lines to send Gigi Sohn‘s nomination to the FCC to the full Senate for a vote, a big step toward her ultimate confirmation. The vote was 14-14, which means the nominee can get a floor vote, but with no favorable or unfavorable recommendation.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday told lawmakers that it opposes the nomination of longtime net-neutrality supporter Gigi Sohn to the FCC. “Ms. Sohn is one of the leading advocates for policies that amount to regulatory overreach in the broadband market,” Neil Bradley, EVP and chief policy officer at the business organization, said in a letter to leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is slated to vote Thursday on Sohn’s nomination.

More than two months after the Senate delayed a vote on Gigi Sohn’s nomination to the FCC, her name is included on a list of presidential appointments set to be voted on by the House Commerce Committee on Thursday (March 3). While Sohn could yet face another delay, the planned vote suggests Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) thinks she has the votes needed to send the nomination to the full Senate.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has set March 3 for a vote by her committee on the nomination of Gigi Sohn for the open Democratic seat on the FCC. Sohn has had two nomination hearings but as yet no vote in the committee on whether to favorably report her to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. (C-SPAN photo)

The FCC is launching an inquiry into how it can “prevent internet providers from engaging in digital discrimination.” The agency was under a directive from Congress related to the tens of billions of dollars being handed out for broadband deployment and adoption in the Biden administration‘s infrastructure package. “Your ZIP code shouldn’t determine your access to broadband,“ FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in outlining the agenda for the agency‘s March meeting, when there will be a vote on launching the notice of inquiry.