Regulation

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.

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.

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.

A new bipartisan bill would establish a commission to explore potential regulations for artificial intelligence. The  National AI Commission Act — introduced by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) — calls for establishing a 20-member panel that would be tasked with reviewing the current approach to regulation, and developing a “risk-based framework” for the technology.

FCC member Nathan Simington is telling Congress that he and his fellow commissioners need to serve as a check on the power of the chair. According to testimony for the House Energy & Commerce Committee FCC oversight hearing today, Simington, a Republican, said that if the agency does not adopt rules allowing for full commission oversight of decisions made by staffers under authority delegated by the chair, Congress should step in to mandate it.

President Joe Biden voiced support for regulations that would require cable and satellite TV providers to give consumers an all-in price for video service rather than laying on hidden “junk” fees. The proposal from the FCC is part of the Biden administration’s effort to crack down on companies’ hiding true costs from families, the president said Tuesday in a statement.

The country’s largest newspaper chain said that Google’s power over ad technology has contributed to the decline of local news.

Fox News is on the verge of settling another major lawsuit. Abby Grossberg, the former network producer who filed an explosive complaint against the company earlier this year, is in the final stages of ironing out a settlement with the company, according to people familiar with the matter.

Both houses of the California legislature showed support Thursday for extending tax credits for film productions in the state, offering about $330 million annually to studios who film here — with a pending stipulation that filmmakers show real increases in diversity hiring for these projects. The extension, part of a $311.2 billion draft state budget, would keep the California Film and Television Tax Credit Program through 2030. Legislators still are hashing out details for a final budget, which then will require approval from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

It looks like the FCC is going to launch an inquiry into data caps and usage-based pricing, which have long been in the ISP broadband offering arsenal and which have drawn criticism from Democrats and streamers like Netflix that root for as much consumer bandwidth as possible. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, usually no fan of data caps, said Thursday that she was asking her fellow commissioners to approve a notice of inquiry into how broadband providers use data caps.