Regulation

The grim coronavirus pandemic has brought one welcome change that the Supreme Court should make permanent: Oral arguments, conducted for the moment via teleconference, have been broadcast live, bringing Americans closer than ever to a key organ of their government.

“The FCC’s anachronistic ownership rules place local broadcasters at a decided disadvantage against other competitors in the complex, fast-evolving, highly competitive video marketplace,” the Big 4 affiliate groups told the Supreme Court.

In April, the FCC proposed to expand the video description requirements to network-affiliated stations in television markets 61 through 100 starting Jan. 1, 2021, followed by an additional 10 TV markets each year for the next four years.  This proposal was just published in the Federal Register, setting a deadline for the filing of comments of June 22, 2020, with reply comments due by July 6.

Democratic FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Jessica Rosenworcel condemn the $48 million settlement, saying the agency’s Republican majority ignored the FCC’s own rules and bent the facts to assist Sinclair “with sweeping its past digressions under the rug.”

Under the proposed deals, Lori Loughlin, 55, hopes to spend two months in prison and her husband Mossimo Giannulli, 56, is seeking to serve five months. But U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said Friday at the famous couple’s video hearing that he will decide whether to accept or reject the plea deals after further consideration of the presentencing report.

Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in connection with their involvement in the college admissions scandel. Loughlin has agreed to serve two months behind bars and Giannulli has agreed to serve five months under the deal that must be approved by the judge. They are scheduled to plead guilty Friday via video conference.

Gray Television has filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court backing the FCC’s appeal of a federal court’s smackdown of its broadcast deregulation decision. Gray told the court it was imperative that it hear the FCC appeal, reverse the Third Circuit, and allow the FCC’s “media modernization” to proceed.

FCC watchers have been itching to get a look at the consent decree between Sinclair and the FCC resolving multiple investigations, but will have to wait a few days more, according to an FCC spokesperson, who said the FCC is waiting for commissioners to finish their statements before releasing it.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice lawyers are asking a New York federal judge to allow an immediate appeal of her decision that a suit accusing him of repeatedly violating the First Amendment can move forward — and they want to pause the proceedings in her courtroom while that appeal plays out.

Thanks to a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit filed Monday from a direct-to-consumer teeth-straightening company, Cesar Conde won’t be getting much of a honeymoon as the newly installed chief of the newly formed NBCUniversal News Group. “SmileDirectClub gave NBC every opportunity to retract this defamatory report and correct the record voluntarily,” said the action against NBCUniversal Media and reporter Vicky Nguyen that hit the docket in the Tennessee courts from the teledentistry organization over a critical February report from NBC News. “NBC chose not to so,” says the $2.85 billion-seeking suit

The FCC is proposing to help promote broadcasting as a new competitive broadband pipe by making it clear that legacy broadcast TV ownership regulations do not apply to broadcast-delivered internet services like over-the-top video and data. That is according to FCC commissioner Brendan Carr, who has been working on a draft declaratory ruling and notice of proposed rulemaking he says the FCC plans to vote on at its June public meeting.

Broadcasters have advised the FCC not to finalize its cost catalog for reimbursable C-Band moving expenses until broadcasters have vetted satellite operator transition plans and to be prepared for COVID-19-related boosts in those expenses.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has introduced a Senate bill that would allow TV stations that are part of a larger broadcast group to qualify, individually, for COVID-19 small business “forgivable” loans. The Local News and Emergency Information Act of 2020, mirrors language in the House HEROES Act, but Republicans have signaled the omnibus Democrat-backed aid bill would be DOA in that body. However, there is support from both sides of the aisle for the broadcast aid bill.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told a virtual NAB Show audience Wednesday that their legacy public service commitment is “showing up in spades” during the pandemic. Fresh from the FCC’s May 13 public meeting, Pai was able to appear at the NAB Show Express virtual convention to be interviewed by NAB President Gordon Smith only a couple of hours later.

The FCC is not suspending its regulatory fee increase on broadcasters during the pandemic, as some broadcasters had asked. The commission today voted to propose collecting $339 million in regulatory fees for 2020. That includes the fee increase for broadcasters continuing to increase the fee DBS operators pay to get it closer to that paid by cable MVPDs.

The FCC voted today to allow broadcasters to substitute online disclosures of certain FCC applications — rather than having to make them on-air, in newspapers, or both — but with tweaks to the draft order that should please broadcasters concerned the FCC would clutter up their video apps.

Media outlets, from TV stations to radio and newspapers, would be eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program as part of an expansion of access to U.S. Small Business Administration loans if a new coronavirus relief plan from the House of Representatives is passed.

Broadcasters are pushing back on an FCC proposal to change how they notify viewers of certain applications those stations file with the FCC, arguing, for one thing, that it could put them at a streaming disadvantage to online video providers without such FCC regulation. The FCC is scheduled to vote on a final item at its May 13 public meeting teleconference.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons indicated on Monday that the agency was looking at privacy complaints regarding Zoom Video Communications Inc. In a teleconference with lawmakers, Simons made reference to concerns that Rep. Jerry McNerney of California had about Zoom. While not addressing the question of Zoom directly, Simons said the agency takes its complaints seriously.

Some broadcasters are asking the FCC to postpone any consideration of an increase in broadcast regulatory fees —radio and TV — during the current pandemic. Paul Rotella, president of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association (the state is one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 virus) wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to say he had grave concerns about the FCC’s plan to consider the fee boost at the May 13 public meeting (by teleconference).

A Quibi attorney argued on Thursday that the company would suffer “immense harm” if forced to disable its Turnstyle feature pending the outcome of a patent lawsuit. Eko, a New York-based video company, filed suit in March, alleging that Quibi had stolen its method of rotating video between horizontal and vertical orientations. Eko is seeking an injunction that would force Quibi to disable the feature while the suit is being litigated.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has vetoed a bill that would have imposed a new tax on digital ad revenue. “With our state in the midst of a global pandemic and economic crash, and just beginning on our road to recovery, it would be unconscionable to raise taxes and fees now,” he said Thursday