Regulation

While the FCC could wave its wand and turn all C-band downlinks into just so much scrap metal, optimism runs high that the CBA’s proposal for reapportionment of the 500 MHz spectrum and band sharing will be the outcome—if 5G does have to be accommodated. However, that approach involves the addition of an LNB filter, and likely will require retuning receivers and moving dishes to different satellites.

A judge appointed a special prosecutor Friday to look into why the Chicago state’s attorney’s office abruptly dropped the case against Jussie Smollett, leaving open the possibility that the former Empire actor could yet face charges in what police say was a phony attack on himself that he staged to get attention.

Next week, on Wednesday, Aug. 28, at 11 a.m. ET, the FCC will hold a webinar to detail the process for seeking reimbursement for costs incurred because of the repacking of TV channels into a smaller part of the spectrum following the incentive auction.

The FCC has set comment dates for its proposal that TV stations be allowed to fulfill their educational/informational children’s programming obligations by airing it on another station in the market. Comments are due by Sept. 16; reply comments by Oct. 15.

The Trump administration is appealing a district court judge’s decision to block a rule that would have required TV and streaming video ads for prescription drugs to include their list price. The move comes around six weeks after a U.S. district court judge blocked the new ad regulation on the grounds that the Health and Human Services agency lacked authority to issue it.

Comcast has filed its opposition to BeIN Sports’ request for emergency review of the FCC’s dismissal of the beIN’s program carriage complaint against the cable operator. Comcast says that review should be denied and the underlying order affirmed.

Playboy senior White House correspondent and CNN contributor Brian Karem filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Donald Trump and White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham over the suspension of his White House “hard pass” credential last week.

Heading towards a $20 billion showdown with Comcast at the U.S. Supreme Court this fall in his long running racial discrimination lawsuit against the media giant, Byron Allen today tore into the Brian Roberts-run company and an 11th hour intervention by the Department of Justice. “This is historic,” the Entertainment Studios boss said of an Aug. 15 brief filed by the feds seeking to tighten the definitions of a Reconstruction Era statute in Comcast’s favor. “Donald Trump’s DOJ and Comcast are working together to destroy a civil rights statute in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Gray Television’s deal to buy KDLT Sioux Fall, S.D., and create a precedent-setting affiliate duopoly in the market has been hung up at the FCC for 15 months without any explanation. For the sake of buyers and sellers, large and small, the FCC needs to act.

Notice was published in the Federal Register today of the FCC’s changes in the children’s television rules — setting the effective date for most of those new rules as Sept. 16.

Media analysts and the entertainment industry aren’t the only ones paying attention to the recent CBS-Viacom merger. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, has weighed in on the merger, Tweeting that the Department of Justice “should be paying close attention.”

The FCC today said Walt Disney Co.’s ABC unit has agreed to pay a $395,000 civil penalty after an October 2018 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live used a simulated wireless alert tone.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Wednesday circulated a draft order that would grant approval to the $26 billion tie-up of T-Mobile Us Inc. and Sprint Corp.

FTC Chairman Joe Simons, who is overseeing a tech task force, for the first time said he is prepared to break up major tech companies. He said this could be done by “unwinding” past mergers if the agency finds the companies are harming competition. Antitrust experts have argued for years that major tech companies buy startups to shut down their competition.

As if the last “spectrum reallocation” and subsequent repack hasn’t provided enough drama, there’s another move afoot to further trim broadcasters’ operational resources. This one hasn’t received the notice that the big “reverse auction” commanded, but it has the potential to send TV, radio, and cable system operators scrambling, should the FCC (and wireless providers) have their way.

A draft executive order from the White House could put the FCC in charge of shaping how Facebook, Twitter and other large tech companies curate what appears on their websites, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The draft order, a summary of which was obtained by CNN, calls for the FCC to develop new regulations clarifying how and when the law protects social media websites when they decide to remove or suppress content on their platforms.

If the initial excitement you feel at the prospect of what will hopefully be another bountiful political advertising market quickly gives way to a sick, uneasy feeling as you try to recall the FCC’s rather complex, and often confusing, political broadcasting rules, then this “update” is for you.

The FCC this week issued a Notice of Apparent Liability proposing a $233,000 fine to Cumulus Media for violations of the sponsorship identification rules.  The fine illustrates not only how seriously the FCC takes its sponsorship identification rules (particularly in the context of political and issue advertising) but also the how aggressively the FCC can act for even the slightest violation of a consent decree involving a prior violation of its rules.