Hawaiian Telcom Services filed a complaint with the FCC charging Nexstar with negotiating in bad faith by withholding retransmission consent, blacking out KHON Honolulu and several satellite stations. The complaint comes as Nexstar is engaged in a massive blackout with DirecTV affecting about 200 stations. DirecTV is offering impacted viewers a $10 rebate for the programming they’re not receiving because it hasn’t reached a new retransmission agreement with Nexstar.
The group asks the FCC to deny the station’s license renewal application, alleging that senior management of Fox Corp. “manipulated its audience by knowingly broadcasting false news about the 2020 election. Its intentional and chronic news distortion further divided the country, sowing discord that was a contributing factor to the attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
On Wednesday, the Canadian government announced that it will cease all ad spending — about $7.5 million per year — on Facebook and Instagram. The decision comes after Meta and Google blocked Canadian news in opposition to a law requiring technology platforms to compensate publishers for linking to their content.
Star Cillian Murphy and producers fired back at the Florida governor for using their footage in a heavily criticized anti-LGBTQ ad.
FCC Nixes Another Deal With Deafening Silence
Fargo, N.D.-based Forum Communications has learned the hard way just how much this FCC hates broadcast deals of any size.
Digital World’s settlement with the SEC could clear the way for a merger with Trump Media & Technology Group.
Exclusives
The television actor Allison Mack, who pleaded guilty for her role in a sex-trafficking case tied to the cult-like group NXIVM, has been released from a California prison, according to […]
The order came in a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, who claim the administration is trying to silence its critics.
R. Robert Popeo, the chairman of the powerhouse law firm Mintz Levin and an integral part
of Boston’s business and civic communities for more than 40 years, died on Monday. He was 85.
President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak to fill the two open Republican seats on the Federal Trade Commission, the White House said Monday. Ferguson is solicitor general for the Commonwealth of Virginia and previously served as chief counsel to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnel of Kentucky. Holyoak is the solicitor general for Utah, where she oversees the state’s merger reviews and antitrust enforcement. She previously was general counsel for the Hamilton Lincoln Law institute, a conservative nonprofit public interest law firm.
The agency is expected to focus on Amazon’s online marketplace. Khan is deemed unlikely to accept any tweaks to the business.
Attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis have asked that a trial involving Disney be postponed until the middle of 2025, well after the GOP presidential nomination race wraps up and voters have picked a winner in the November 2024 general election.
The agency is being pushed on extending good-faith rules to OTT providers, making ISPs pay into Universal Service Fund. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel has recently suggested that Congress may have to step in to give the FCC the regulatory authority that the Cable Acts of 1984 and 1992 gave it over traditional video. since those laws did not apply to, or anticipate, OTT. But she has apparently not ruled it out. “We are carefully reviewing the issue and exploring our options,” said an FCC spokesperson.
Netflix is poised to score big from two tax incentives that are moving through the state legislatures in California and New Jersey this week.
Attorneys for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis claim that he is immune from The Walt Disney Co.’s lawsuit over his effort to strip to the company of control over a special district covering its theme parks and resort in the state. In a motion to dismiss filed on Monday, attorneys for the state also argued that the federal district court lacks jurisdiction.
Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News laid bare how the network communicated behind the scenes about broadcasting 2020 election misinformation, ultimately leading the network to fork over a massive settlement. Newsmax could be next, as voting technology company Smartmatic has subpoenaed several of the right-wing cable network’s current and former employees for work and personal correspondence.
The Association of National Advertisers is weighing in against several of the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed “click to cancel” regulations, arguing that they “would hinder innovation and the free flow of commerce without providing commensurate benefits or protections to consumers.” The group says in a written filing that some of the proposed regulations “would create consumer frustration and unnecessary burdens,” are “out-of-step with the ways businesses and consumers interact,” and “would impose excessive restrictions on sellers’ ability to communicate with their customer base.”
Testifying at her first nomination hearing on Thursday, longtime telecommunications lawyer Anna Gomez faced little of the partisan sparring that marked prior nominee Gigi Sohn’s appearances.
Bill Tortoriello, a veteran of regulatory policy, has joined ACA Connects as director of regulatory affairs. ACA Connects President-CEO Grant Spellmeyer said: “We’re excited to have Bill join our ACA […]
The FCC released late on Friday a Third Report and Order and Fourth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking resolving many regulatory issues related to the ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV conversion. Among the issues addressed, was an extension through July 17, 2027, of the rule that required that the lighthouse signal be “substantially similar” to the primary video stream of the ATSC 3.0 signal. That rule had been set to expire this year, but the FCC believed that viewers needed more time to be guaranteed that they can watch the same programming they watch today whether or not they have a TV that can receive the new ATSC 3.0 signal.
The Federal Trade Commission has proposed making it easier for consumers to cancel online subscriptions they no longer want — including to streaming services — with civil penalties for companies that violate the new rules.
After the nation’s senate passed the Online News Act yesterday, Meta confirmed it will remove news content from Facebook and Instagram for all Canadian users, but it remained unclear whether Google would follow suit for its platforms.
As FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel suggested at a House oversight hearing Wednesday (June 21) that cable video-related regulation provided for in the 1984 and 1992 Cable Acts did not apply to online video providers, at a separate Senate Commerce Committee FCC nomination hearing today (June 22), chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) pressed the issue.
Bipartisanship is at least partially due to political deadlock. Pictured: Members of the FCC testify during a House oversight hearing.
The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has invited PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, LIV Golf League CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, to testify at a July 11 hearing regarding the entities’ planned alliance in men’s professional golf. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the subcommittee, and ranking member Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) invited the men to testify at the hearing in a letter Wednesday.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel sent a clear signal to Congress she is not looking to apply multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) regulations to streaming video services, and that she does not think the regulator has the authority to expand into that area in any event. Her remarks came in testimony to the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s FCC oversight hearing in its communications subcommittee.
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the agency accused Amazon of using deceptive designs, known as “dark patterns,” to deceive consumers into enrolling in Prime, which provides subscribers with perks such as faster shipping for an fee of $139 annually, or $14.99 a month.
