Regulation

The telecommunications division of the U.S. Department of Commerce is backing the idea of raising the speed definition of broadband but was silent about taking it to a much higher level sought by a few fiber broadband companies. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration alerted the FCC last week that it supported raising the definition of broadband to 100/20 Mbps. The current threshold is 25/3 Mbps, which many view as outdated. NTIA’s letter didn’t address raising the broadband speed level to 100/100 Mbps – creating a symmetrical standard supported by regional fiber companies like Allo Fiber, Google Fiber and Ting Internet.

Ted Hearn: “Did the FCC just say that Nexstar and Amazon do not compete in the video programming marketplace? Didn’t Amazon Prime announce today that it will begin showing ads on TV shows and movies starting on Jan. 29? Financial pressure on TV station owners isn’t new, but it isn’t going away, either. But that didn’t seem to bother the FCC. The FCC’s new rulebook is long and complex, technical and tedious – which means a full understanding of the new rules won’t surface until the agency reviews proposed transactions or issues enforcement rulings against a TV station that pushed the limits.”

MSNBC is seeking approval from the FCC to skip providing audio descriptions for the blind during the Rachel Maddow Show and other live network programming. The commission has rules pursuant to a 2010 law that require some cable networks to furnish audio descriptions, but MSNBC says that because so many hours of its programming are live, the network met the criteria for an FCC exemption.

In what will be a closely watched legal salvo, the publisher claims the generative artificial intelligence giant was using its writing “without permission to develop their models and tools.”

NTIA adjusts its guidance on the multibillion-dollar Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment subsidy program.

At this time of year, everyone seems to be making a list of the best (or worst) events of 2023, or predictions for what the new year will bring. Here, we will look at the dates that are already set for 2024. While this calendar should not be viewed as an exhaustive list of every regulatory date that your station will face, it highlights many of the most important dates for broadcasters in the coming year – including dates for EEO Public Inspection File Reports, Quarterly Issues Programs lists, children’s television requirements, annual fee obligations and much more.

In a blow to broadcasters and a victory for cable, the FCC has reaffirmed and toughened its network and TV station ownership limits, saying that despite a proliferation of alternative video options, including streaming video, limits on network and local station ownership remain necessary to promote the public interest goals of competition, localism and viewpoint diversity “given the unique obligations broadcast licensees have as trustees of the public’s airwaves to serve their local communities.” In wrapping up its 2018 review of whether network and local TV station ownership limits and regs are in the public interest, a Democratic majority of commissioners said they were.

Disney said in a lawsuit filed Friday that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, often referred to as CFTOD, has been so slow in fulfilling its public records duties that it has failed to respond completely to a request the company made seven months ago when it paid more than $2,400 to get emails and text messages belonging to the five district board members appointed by Gov Ron DeSantis.

The FCC under Democratic control has decided to tighten its TV station ownership rules. Under the rules, the FCC will make it harder for one station to affiliate with more than one Big Four broadcast network. Stations say that the FCC’s approach is unjustified given the intense competitive pressure they face for advertising revenue. The FCC decision, released Tuesday afternoon, was a substantial victory for the cable TV industry, which has tied current station ownership rules to a rise in signal blackouts and higher retransmission consent fees.

A dispute in Poland over control of public media deepened on Tuesday, as a body dominated by the former nationalist government designated a new television boss despite the current administration having appointed somebody else to the role.

A federal judge on Friday gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit against the social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, in which workers claim that the company promised but never paid millions of dollars in bonuses. (Noah Berger/AP)

Cable lobbying group NCTA–The Internet & Television Association is asking the FCC to reject a proposal made by Google Fiber, ALLO and Ting to increase the government’s definition of “broadband’ to a symmetrical 100 megabits-per-second speed.

After weeks of intense lobbying, the Federal Communications Commission has reportedly adopted new media ownership rules, and it appears TV station owners have been dealt a setback. The news came in a post on the X microblogging site by a reporter for Communications Daily, an industry newsletter that follows FCC activity closely. “The FCC has approved the 2018 Quad Review order 3-2. I’m told the order still extends top 4 prohibition to LPTV and multicast streams, only change is language highlighting the waiver process,” Monty Tayloe wrote on Friday.

John Schneider may now be insisting he never threatened the life of President Joe Biden, but the Secret Service beg to differ. The federal agency charged with protecting POTUS, the Vice President and their immediate families, as well as major political candidates and high level government officials, on Thursday opened a probe into statements the former Dukes of Hazzard star made online against the President and his son Hunter Biden.

Ahead of next Wednesday’s fast-approaching deadline, broadcasting and pay TV industry representatives are using the limited time left to pitch the FCC on their preferred substance of potentially new media ownership rules. Broadcasters are urging the FCC to loosen some current rules and allow for more TV station ownership consolidation at the local level. Meanwhile, cable and satellite TV companies think current rules have loopholes that need to be closed to reduce the number of signal blackouts and moderate their payments to stations for carriage.

CBS parent Paramount Global is reportedly in merger talks with Warner Bros. Discovery – in yet another sign that legacy media institutions continue their search for sufficient scale to compete with Netflix, Apple, and Amazon in the streaming video space. If CBS is in play, that could draw others into a bidding contest, including Comcast, according to a CNBC report. If Comcast came away the winner, the Philadelphia-based media conglomerate would own the NBC and CBS networks. However, FCC rules do not permit the common ownership of two Big Four broadcast networks without a wavier — a restriction that dates to 1946.

Attorney General Letitia James’ office said an investigation into complaints from customers found that SiriusXM forced subscribers to wait in an automated system before often lengthy interactions with agents who were trained in ways to avoid accepting a request to cancel service. “Having to endure a lengthy and frustrating process to cancel a subscription is a stressful burden no one looks forward to, and when companies make it hard to cancel subscriptions, it’s illegal,” the attorney general said in a statement.

The FTC proposed sweeping privacy changes on Wednesday that could curb how social media, game and learning apps use and monetize youngsters’ data.

New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill that would prohibit social media companies from allowing minors under 18 to have social media accounts without parental permission. The measure, which advanced Monday in New Jersey’s Assembly Health Committee, also would require social platforms to verify all users’ ages. Lawmakers in Utah and Arkansas recently passed similar laws, but those measures are currently facing court challenges.

The good news for broadcasters is that while 2024 will be a major year for political advertising (and the extensive Political File paperwork that comes with it; notice how everything positive in broadcasting comes with a regulatory cloud?), it is an off-year for regulatory deadlines.  2024 marks a brief respite between FCC license renewal cycles, the off-year for biennial ownership reports, and television broadcasters completed their three-year must-carry elections in 2023.

It’s not just TV stations that want deregulation from the FCC. So do radio stations. Facing stiff competition from Amazon, Facebook, and Google for ad dollars, radio broadcasters Connoisseur Media and Mid-West Family Broadcasting are saying the FCC needs “to relax the current local radio ownership rules particularly for companies like theirs, that already provide significant local service, and would increase such service if allowed to own more stations in their markets.”

The tech industry organization NetChoice on Monday sued to block a Utah law that requires social media companies to verify users’ ages, prohibits those companies from allowing minors under 18 to have accounts without parental permission, and bans the companies from serving ads to minors. (Henry Wang/Pixabay)

A Manhattan jury found Majors, 34, guilty of one misdemeanor assault charge and one harassment violation stemming from his March confrontation with then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. She said he attacked her in a car and left her in “excruciating” pain; his lawyers said Jabbari was the aggressor. Marvel and Disney immediately dropped the Creed III star from all upcoming projects following the conviction, said a person close to the studio. (Seth Wenig/AP)

In April author Demetrious Polychron published a book called The Fellowship of the King that he claimed was a sequel to The Lord of the Rings. He planned for the book to be the first in a seven-part series. The author then filed suit against both Amazon and the Tolkien estate, claiming the streaming series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power had borrowed from his sequel and infringed his copyright. It can now be reported for the first time that a California judge summarily dismissed Polychron’s lawsuit with prejudice in August.

The inquiry is perhaps the most substantial regulatory consequence to date of X, which has seen a rise in incendiary content on the platform, according to researchers.

Senior Capitol Hill Republicans that oversee the communications sector say they want FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to correct “deeply misleading” testimony about the Affordable Connectivity Program, a $14 billion broadband subsidy program.