Regulation

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

The owner of the NBC affiliate in Wausau, Wis., gives four big reasons why a judge should throw out a libel claim concerning the president’s coronavirus response.

The FCC consent decree is largest ever paid by a broadcaster and stems from its negotiations to buy Tribune. “Sinclair’s conduct during its attempt to merge with Tribune was completely unacceptable,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Today’s penalty, along with the failure of the Sinclair-Tribune transaction, should serve as a cautionary tale to other licensees seeking commission approval of a transaction in the future.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and NAB President-CEO Gordon Smith will participate in a keynote conversation Wednesday, May 13, during the NAB Show Express Welcome event. The industry’s top regulator and the head […]

CNN sent a cease-and-desist letter to President Trump’s reelection campaign over what it describes as a “false, misleading and deceptive” use of the network’s coverage in its recent campaign ad. According to the network, the cease-and-desist was drawn up by Rick D. McMurtry, who is associate general counsel for CNN’s parent company WarnerMedia. The letter takes issue with the campaign’s use of the CNN coverage in it’s “American Comeback” ad.

This afternoon, the FCC released a brief Order looking toward the day when life in the U.S. hopefully returns to normal, and broadcast stations begin rehiring furloughed workers. In the two-page order, the FCC waived the requirement in its EEO rule that broadcasters and MVPDs engage in “broad outreach” when filling each full-time job position. Making clear that this relief is restricted to the circumstances of COVID-19, the FCC limited application of the waiver to the rehiring of station employees that were laid off due to the pandemic, and only where the employee is then rehired within nine months of being laid off.

TV station group Howard Stirk Holdings (HSH) has agreed to pay $100,000 and adopt a compliance regime to settle an FCC charge that it had breached its duty to negotiate retransmission consent agreements in good faith. HSH admitted to the good faith violation as part of the settlement. The FCC’s Media Bureau chief, Michelle Carey, said it would be in the public interest to adopt the consent decree and settle the matter.

The FCC has unveiled a new logo in anticipation of its upcoming move out of its current headquarters. The new seal was the winner in an agency-wide contest among commission employees and contractors, who voted on the submissions. The winning logo was submitted by Umasankar Arumugam, picked by a vote of employees and contractors.

New Jersey Broadcasters Association President-CEO Paul Rotella tells the commission that any increase in annual fees for TV and radio stations is not warranted and that this is not the appropriate time to put any further financial burdens on broadcasters.

The American Television Alliance told the FCC that the problems with a competitive communications marketplace are retrans blackouts, retrans fees and broadcast consolidation in spite of FCC rules that are supposed to limit it, consolidation that drives retrans fees higher and has driven some smaller MVPDs have been pushed out of that marketplace.

The organizations — the Big 4 affiliate groups, the RTNDA, the Media Institute and the Society of Professional Journalists — say that the paid anti-Trump ad it aired was the very stuff of American politics and fully protected by the First Amendment.