A roughly $1 billion bid from the former CNN chief Jeff Zucker and his Emirati backers raised concerns among lawmakers over a storied conservative newspaper.
Federal regulators need to do more in support of local TV stations that are facing increased pressure for viewers and advertising from unregulated video streaming providers and big technology companies, Sinclair argued in a filing with the FCC in support of Chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s proposal to expedite license renewals for TV and radio stations that provide locally originated programming.
House passage of the bill is only the first step. The Senate would also need to pass the measure for it to become law, and lawmakers in that chamber indicated it would undergo a thorough review. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’ll have to consult with relevant committee chairs to determine the bill’s path.
The House plans to vote on Wednesday on a bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent to sell the popular social media app.
Two Amazon Prime Video users claim the company violated a federal video privacy law by allegedly sharing information about their online video viewing with other Amazon-affiliated companies, and with outside businesses. In a class-action complaint, Virginia resident Meredith Beagle and Louisiana resident Jordan Guerrero allege that Amazon Services regularly discloses personally identifiable information to its parent company, Amazon Inc., “for audience measurement purposes, marketing purposes, market research purposes, advertising purposes, and other data collection and analysis purposes.”
Federal regulators want pay-TV consumers to receive rebates when channels go dark as a result of contract disputes between pay-TV operators and their content vendors, including TV stations and cable networks. But the proposal advanced last October by FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel is receiving firm resistance from cable and satellite TV operators. For one thing, while Rosenworcel’s plan would impose rebate obligations on cable and satellite, it would exempt TV stations. And that’s fine with the National Association of Broadcasters, which argued in a March 8 FCC filing that pay-TV operators are causing signal blackouts to happen in an effort to demonstrate to Washington regulators that carriage rules – called retransmission consent – are broken.
Exclusives
The court found that 20th Television may have engaged in religious discrimination against the actor, who was denied an exemption from the vaccine.
TV stations owners caught a break, judicially speaking. That’s because the industry’s effort to overturn the FCC’s new media ownership rules will not be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia. Instead, the case is going to the 8th Circuit in St. Louis. For decades, the Third Circuit has been a graveyard for broadcasters’ efforts to relax ownership rules within the context of a process at the FCC called the Quadrennial Review.
The FCC will decide on a set of proposed rules that, if passed, will require satellite and cable TV providers to clarify “all-in” prices clearly so consumers can make informed decisions when signing up for services. This Thursday, March 14, the FCC will vote on “all-in” pricing for cable TV companies.
Nexstar Media Group is pushing back against federal regulators’ decision to fine the broadcaster $720,000 for violating good-faith bargaining rules while negotiating a new carriage deal last year with a cable TV company in Hawaii. In a filing Friday, Nexstar said the FCC’sMedia Bureau zeroed in on a single, ordinary contract proposal and inflated its significance to an unnecessary degree in order to arrive at a fine amount that the broadcaster described as “astounding” and beyond the bureau’s authority to impose.
Last month, the FCC fined Nexstar $720,000 for violating retransmission consent rules in some respects, but the agency’s Media Bureau did not agree with Hawaiian Telecom that Nexstar through its bargaining approach crossed the line leading up to the multi-signal blackout that lasted nearly three weeks in July, 2023. Hawaiian Telcom disagrees. “Simply put, Nexstar used the looming blackout deadline as a cudgel in an attempt to force Hawaiian Telcom’s capitulation to whatever Nexstar’s last proposal was before time ran out,” it said in an FCC filing Friday.
Pennsylvania Democrats are rallying in support of Fox Corp. in its battle to retain ownership of its WTXF Philadelphia. On March 5, 16 members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives – all Democrats – sent a letter imploring the FCC to renew Fox 29’s license. The letter did not mention the license revocation controversy over Fox News Channel’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
Heitshusen had been at Des Moines, Iowa, NBC affiliate WHO for 17 years when she said she was denied an on-air contract in 2020. She filed an age and gender discrimination lawsuit against the station and parent company, Nexstar, alleging a widespread practice of removing older, female staffers from the air because of their looks. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants on Wednesday afternoon.
Legislation that would force China-based ByteDance to divest TikTok or risk a ban in the U.S. is expected to clear a key committee this week, setting up a future House floor vote.
WTXF Philadelphia owner Fox Corp. says the main party trying to revoke its license has resorted to “gimmicks” and “stunts” that should be cast aside by the FCC. Fox is embroiled in a dispute with an organization called the Media and Democracy Project that wants the commission to revoke the license over allegations that Fox News Channel aired falsehoods about voting technology used to tabulate votes during the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
The Federal Trade Commission says it considers web browsing data sensitive, even when stripped of names, Social Security numbers and other comparable information traditionally considered “personally identifiable.” “Browsing and location data are sensitive. Full stop,” the FTC said in a post discussing recent privacy complaints it brought against Avast (which sold users’ web browsing data) as well as two location data brokers (Outlogic and InMarket Media).
So You Think You Can Dance co-creator and former judge Nigel Lythgoe has been accused of sexual assault for the fourth time in less than three months. “Lythgoe’s sexual assault and battery were so traumatizing that Plaintiff no longer feels like the confident, capable, and independent woman that she was before the incident,” says Jane Doe of the alleged 2018 incident in a filing Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Brian Beneker, a script coordinator on the show who claims “heterosexual, white men need ‘extra’ qualifications” to be hired on the network’s shows, is represented by a conservative group founded by Trump administration alum Stephen Miller.
The FCC confirmed it was the subject of a phishing operation that deployed a fake login page used by staff to authenticate their credentials. The cloned site, known as a phishing kit, was constructed by hackers who duplicated a legitimate login webpage from identity management vendor Okta, aiming to deceive users into entering in their private account information. It was discovered by cloud security firm Lookout, who announced the findings.
Federal regulators continue to face outside pressure to take steps to revoke Fox Corp.’s TV station license in Philadelphia in connection with 2020 presidential election coverage aired on Fox News Channel. The Media and Democracy Project (MAD) – which is demanding that the FCC revoke the operating license of WTXF – filed a comment with the agency on March 1 urging it to “act swifty” to begin a public hearing as a first step toward ultimate revocation. MAD’s comment did not appear on the FCC’s website until March 4.
Musk said the prominent AI start-up had put profits and commercial interests ahead of seeking to benefit humanity.
A federal judge held veteran investigative reporter Catherine Herridge in civil contempt on Thursday for refusing to divulge her source for a 2017 series of Fox News stories about a Chinese American scientist who was investigated by the FBI but never charged. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington imposed a fine of $800 per day until Herridge complies, but the fine will not go into effect immediately to give her time to appeal.
“This is a very important process. We are sticking to our principles, to our guns,” David Gandler told analysts Friday.
The largest TV station group in the U.S. is suing in an effort to alter current federal rules that limit its ability to grow in local markets. Nexstar Media Group filed the action in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, faulting the FCC for freezing or tightening TV station ownership rules in disregard of controlling law that points to deregulation as competition to broadcasting takes hold. “The [FCC’s] order exceeds the [FCC’s] statutory authority because it tightens media ownership rules in spite of the statute’s clear deregulatory purpose and the lack of basis for such tightening,” Nexstar said in its Feb. 23 petition for review.
A federal rule that would require cable and satellite TV providers to report blackouts involving TV stations would violate the law, potentially incentivize blackouts, and ought to be abandoned, according the National Association of Broadcasters. NAB, the trade association for major TV station groups like Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Inc., was reacting to a proposal from FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, who wants to collect reports on TV station blackouts that last longer than 24 hours and that the agency would archive in a database available to the public.
In nearly four hours of arguments Monday, several justices questioned aspects of laws adopted by Republican-dominated legislatures and signed by Republican governors in Florida and Texas in 2021. But they seemed wary of a broad ruling, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett warning of “land mines” she and her colleagues need to avoid in resolving the two cases.
Cable-affiliated internet service providers (ISPs) are challenging new federal digital discrimination rules in federal court in Washington, the second major legal case to target the rules. The suit was filed Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by NCTA – The Internet & Television Association and ACA Connects, which combined represent hundreds of broadband ISPs, the vast majority of them small.
Forty-five House Republicans are urging the Supreme Court to uphold an injunction that could prevent White House officials from discussing controversial matters with personnel at social media platforms. The injunction, issued in September by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, prohibits some government officials from attempting to “coerce or significantly encourage” platforms’ content moderation decisions. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed Friday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other lawmakers claim the injunction is justified, arguing that the Biden administration “repeatedly used government coercion to stifle public debate.”
Cable’s largest trade association is issuing a new reminder that cities can’t impose fees on cable operators’ broadband revenue. NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, in a Feb. 7 letter to the FCC, cited federal law that requires cable to pay local franchise fees based on a percentage of gross revenue derived from cable service. Broadband is not a cable service but rather an information service.
