Regulation

The Commerce Department said President Trump’s proposed ban of the apps WeChat and TikTok will go into effect Sunday, Sept. 20, to “safeguard the national security of the United States.” The order follows weeks of dealmaking over the video-sharing service TikTok. President Donald Trump has pressured the app’s Chinese owner to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to a domestic company to satisfy U.S. concerns over TikTok’s data collection and related issues.

The Federal Trade Commission is expanding its retrospective analysis into the impact of mergers it has approved over the past three-plus decades. That comes as both the FTC and Department of Justice are looking at whether Big Tech mergers that got pro forma sign-offs because they were not large enough to trigger antitrust reviews should have been captured by competition reviews.

Comcast Corp. says the U.S. Supreme Court should step in and shut down a monopolization lawsuit over the TV ad placement market, arguing a federal appeals court improperly gave a green light to claims it illegally refused to do business with rival Viamedia Inc.

The FCC has voted to deny an appeal of its decision that eight station groups failed to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith and has further decided to propose fining each of the 18 stations at issue over $500,000 apiece. It is the first time the FCC has ever issued a forfeiture order for a failure to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith, as its rules require.

President Trump has announced his intention to nominate Nathan Simington to fill the seat being vacated by Michael O’Rielly, whose renomination was withdrawn by the president apparently because O’Rielly was critical of Trump’s effort to regulate social media. Simington is currently senior adviser at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Should public TV stations that use a portion of their spectrum to provide noncommercial data services have to pay fees for that service? That question is before the FCC in a rulemaking proceeding, with groups including PBS, America’s Public Television Stations and the Public Media Venture Group arguing that the fees are hindering development of ATSC 3.0 “broadcast internet” datacasting.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has circulated a notice of proposed rulemaking establishing new disclosure requirements for TV and radio content sponsored by foreign governments. “With some station content coming from the likes of China and Russia, it is time to update our rules and shed more sunlight on these practices,” he said, urging his colleagues to vote to approve his proposal ASAP.

The FCC is moving away from administrative hearings to a more document-heavy approach to testimony and evidence when called for. That came in a report and order voted Friday (Sept. 11) and released Monday (Sept. 14) that codifies the use of a written hearing process. In the past, such hearings — program carriage disputes have periodically been designated for hearing — have featured live testimony before an administrative law judge (the FCC has only one of those), cross examination and a decision that is only a recommendation to the commission.

Leonard Asper, president & CEO of Anthem Sports & Entertainment, has sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai taking aim at the retransmission consent regime, prompted by the retrans disputes between Dish and Scripps (it was settled last week)  and Dish and Cox Media Group (Apollo).

The Democrat-controlled House Communications Subcommittee has scheduled an FCC oversight hearing for Sept. 17 and if its title, “Trump FCC: Four Years of Lost Opportunities,” is any indication, the FCC commissioners should prepare for some tough questions.

She can’t talk about taking the position. But right now, she’s very focused on Trump’s Section 230 executive order and the state of the U.S. digital divide.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City agreed with a federal judge in Connecticut who tossed the lawsuits two years ago, saying many of the claims were frivolous or filed after the statute of limitations expired. Stamford, Conn.-based WWE denied the suit’s allegations.

The FCC released a Public Notice late Friday afternoon announcing the annual regulatory fees for 2020 are due by 11:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 25, and setting out the procedures for payment.

The Justice Department plans to bring an antitrust case against Google as soon as this month, after Attorney General William Barr overruled career lawyers who said they needed more time to build a strong case against one of the world’s wealthiest, most formidable technology companies, according to five people briefed on internal department conversations.

The FCC’s order on this year’s annual regulatory fees was released by the FCC this week. The commision rejected calls to forgive broadcast regulatory fees because of the economic fallout of the pandemic, noting that only Congress could pass such relief, as the FCC is required by law to collect fees sufficient to cover the costs of its operations.

Since becoming the overseer of Voice of America in June, Michael Pack has fired subordinates, disbanded advisory boards and declined to renew the visas of foreign journalists who work under him. Political appointees frequently make personnel changes when they take on a new role. But Pack, who heads the U.S. Agency for Global Media, has offered a unique justification for his actions: He is rooting out potential spies. Now, a segment of staffers who had seethed quietly over Pack’s attempts to reshape the agencies are in open revolt over his unsupported accusations about “spies.”

In comments to the House, the association’s CEO Gordon Smith says the digital giants’ dominance of advertising marketplace, control of online content put radio and TV broadcasters at competitive disadvantage.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) has introduced a bill, the Broadcast Diversity in Leadership Act, to promote broadcast diversity by creating the incubator program the FCC tried to introduce as part of its broadcast dereg order that was remanded by a federal appeals court. The difference is that while the FCC incubator program was radio only, Walden’s is for TV as well.

The FCC isn’t particularly alarmed by the prospect that for some TV watchers, shows like The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul and Killing Eve could be going away. On Monday, the FCC’s Media Bureau denied AMC’s request for a standstill order to preserve its current program carriage agreement with AT&T. As a result, upon the imminent expiration of the deal, AMC could go dark on AT&T platforms including DirecTV and AT&T TV Now. At the moment, that accounts for a quarter of AMC households.

Telecom giant AT&T plans to push for changes to a federal law that protects companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter from liability for users’ posts. “There is no longer any reason that the nation’s most powerful online platforms should enjoy legal immunities unavailable to similarly-situated traditional companies,” AT&T EVP Joan Marsh said Monday in a blog post.

Joe Simons has come under White House pressure for resisting the president’s fight against alleged political bias in social media.

As in any year, as summer ends, regulatory activity picks up — and this year appears to be no different. Each year, in September, regulatory fees are due, as the FCC is required to collect them before the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year.  We expect that the final amount of those fees, and the deadlines and procedures for payment, should be announced any day.