In a post on the FTC’s website, the agency warns of scammers using household company names to dupe consumers. In a specific example, it cited a phishing email sent to a Netflix customer that claimed the user’s account is on hold because Netflix is “having some trouble with your current billing information.” The email invites the user to click on a link to update their payment method.
A new round of Facebook data controversies has incensed lawmakers and added to the social network’s mounting problems. Lawmakers have roundly criticized Facebook and its executives but it is unclear if they are any closer to bridging the divisions over a federal privacy law.
Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order establishing the Oregon Broadband Office within the Oregon Business Development Department. The governor’s recommended budget includes funding to fully staff the new broadband office. “This is an economic and equity issue, ” said Brown. “Broadband is essential for businesses to grow, and for schools, health care providers and first responders to deliver the highest quality of service.”
The partial government shutdown began at midnight Friday (Dec. 21) after Congress failed to agree on an appropriations bill or a stop-gap funding measure. The FCC announced that it had funding available to pay staff through at least the close of business Jan. 2 despite the shutdown.
A government shutdown was looking more likely late Thursday (Dec. 20) after the House passed an appropriations bill, with over $5 billion in “wall/steel slat” funding that the Senate is unlikely to pass. If so, the FCC could continue to operate if it has prior-year funding to tap into, but if not, it will scale back to activities “immediately necessary for the protection of life and property.”
The $3.6 billion merger creates another TV mega-group with stations in 92 markets reaching 24% of TV homes (or 17% with the UHF discount the FCC uses in calculating compliance with its 39% ownership cap).
Exclusives
As expected, the House Democratic Caucus has elected Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) as the new chairman of the Energy & Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over communications issues and the FCC. He succeeds Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) with the changeover of control of the House to the Democrats in January.
Congress is looking to regulate sports betting nationwide under a bill introduced Wednesday. In what looks like the first federal response to New Jersey’s victory in a Supreme Court case in May that paved the way for legalized sports betting nationwide, the bipartisan bill would require the Department of Justice to establish minimum standards for all states that legalize the activity.
FCC Grants Raycom, HITV Honolulu Renewals
The FCC has granted the license renewals of Raycom’s KHNL and KGMB, both Honolulu, and HITV’s KFVE Honolulu, denying a license challenge by Media Council Hawai’i and putting a final nail in the group’s long-standing complaint that Raycom and KITV had run afoul of local ownership rules.
FCC Eliminates Posting Of Broadcast Licenses
Two years into Ajit Pai’s chairmanship, a central theme at the FCC is deregulation. Sometimes framed in terms of “modernizing media rules,” the topic is at the forefront of just about every proceeding. This was true for one of the most recent decisions at the commission, as a Report and Order was adopted on Dec. 10 that will eliminate the need to post and maintain broadcast licenses at a physical location.
CBS’s board was emphatic this week that the ousted chief executive Leslie Moonves “will not receive any severance payment,” slamming the door on his quest to collect $120 million. Case closed? Hardly. Under his termination agreement, reached when he left the company in September, CBS itself will be picking up the tab — it has been footing the bill for Moonves’s monthslong legal fight against CBS.
Ex-KCTV Anchor Settles Suit Against Meredith
Charter Communications has agreed to refund $62.5 million to 700,000 customers and provide streaming services and premium channels at no charge to 2.2 million active Spectrum customers to settle a consumer fraud lawsuit. On Tuesday, the office of the New York Attorney General announced the deal collectively valued at $174 million, which it says represents the largest-ever payout to consumers by an Internet service provider in U.S. history.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A former detective is suing the filmmakers who produced the Netflix series “Making a Murderer” alleging the documentary defamed him. WBAY-TV reports that former Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Detective […]
Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and eight of his Democratic Senate colleagues have called on the FCC to preserve the FCC’s Kidvid rules, which the commission is currently considering loosening to give broadcasters more flexibility on when and how their that programming, or perhaps eliminating some entirely.
No, broadcasters and cable operators have not agreed that either the must-carry/retrans regime is still good law (broadcasters) or an anachronistic thumb on the competitive scale (cable), but the FCC has sought comment on a joint proposal by both those camps for updating how TV stations notify MVPDs of whether they are electing either mandatory carriage (must carry) or will try to negotiate a fee for MVPD carriage of their signals (retransmission consent), with the possibility of losing carriage if they can’t strike a deal.
NEW YORK (AP) — Disney Channel actor Stoney Westmoreland has been fired after he was arrested in Salt Lake City for allegedly attempting to have a sexual relationship with an […]
Katie Couric, Stephanie Soechtig, Epix and others associated with the documentary Under the Gun have successfully fended off an attempt to revive a lawsuit contending that the film tarnished the reputation of a gun rights group and several of its members.
Sen. Joe Manchin has placed a hold on Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr’s renomination Thursday, a week after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the agency’s Mobility Fund Phase II program would be suspended temporarily while regulators investigate whether major wireless carriers submitted false data on their coverage maps.
Nexstar has reached a settlement with the Justice Department over DOJ’s investigation into the TV ad market, specifically what DOJ says are anticompetitive exchanges of competitively sensitive information. It has already settled with Sinclair, Raycom, Tribune, Meredith, Griffin and Dreamcatcher, but added Nexstar to the settlement as a defendant Thursday (Dec. 13) and filed a proposed settlement at the same time, as it did with the others, which all settled Nov. 13.
PHOENIX (AP) — Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio alleged in a defamation lawsuit earlier this week against three news organizations that CNN made no effort to correct anchor Chris Cuomo’s erroneous […]
CBS reached a $9.5 million confidential settlement last year with actress Eliza Dushku after on-set sexual comments from Michael Weatherly, star of the network’s show Bull, made her uncomfortable when she was beginning a run as a recurring character. Dushku was written off the show after complaining about Weatherly’s comments on her appearance and jokes involving sex and rape made in front of cast and crew in March of 2017.
In its mandated quadrennial review, the commission seeks comment on local radio and television ownership rules, the dual network rule that prohibits a merger among the Big Four broadcast networks and diversity-related proposals.
CBS News reached a legal settlement with three women who accused the network of not doing enough to stop one of its anchors, Charlie Rose, from sexually harassing them. The three women had worked for CBS when Mr. Rose was a host of CBS This Morning and a correspondent for 60 Minutes.
Noncommercial TV stations want the FCC to let them spend the money on a post-incentive auction repack campaign funded by Congress in the Ray Baum’s FCC reauthorization act. That would include coordinating the campaign for both noncommercial and commercial stations.
Sinclair Broadcast Group is attacking a petition filed at the FCC by the American Cable Association calling for regulators to review whether the owner of several Fox- and ABC-affiliated stations around the nation’s capital is still fit to hold broadcast licenses.
Disgraced media mogul Les Moonves is threatening to sue CBS over recent leaks of lurid details about his alleged sexual misconduct. In what’s expected to amount to a breach of contract suit, Moonves’ lawyers are preparing to allege that leaks to the New York Times last week about CBS’s pending investigation into Moonves broke a confidentiality agreement and sullied the exec’s reputation, sources close to Moonves said.
Jessell | Sook & Nexstar Sound The Right Note For Tribune
Despite all the shots I have taken at Sinclair’s David Smith for his top-down meddling in news and for souring the regulatory climate in Washington, I like the idea of his owning Tribune. However, I think I like the idea of Nexstar’s Perry Sook owning Tribune even more. He can better make the case in Washington that mega-station groups are good for the country; he will be a better steward of Tribune’s news operations and will be just as committed as Smith in advancing ATSC 3.0 datacasting.
Draft legislation that aims to provide federal oversight to sports betting surfaced out of retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch’s office this week. The 37-page untitled discussion draft, obtained by ESPN, is viewed as an initial step in what’s expected to be a long, tedious process that will play out as legal sportsbooks pop up in an increasing amount of states.
