Regulation

The FCC issued public notices this week on the license renewal process for both radio and television operators.  The Public Notice on television renewals was perhaps more significant, as it addressed several issues and procedures for the television renewal process which begins with the filing of renewals for stations located in Maryland, D.C., Virginia and West Virginia, to be submitted to the FCC no later than June 1 of this year.

TV broadcasters on ch. 6 can breathe a a little easier, at least temporarily. The FCC has decided to defer a decision on scrapping its rules requiring low-power FMs and noncommercial educational FMs to protect TV ch. 6 from interference. The FCC had proposed doing so as part of an FM rule update approved this week, but decided to hold off.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), chairman of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, on Thursday proposed a ban on most merger activity amid the coronavirus pandemic. “As millions of businesses struggle to stay afloat, private equity firms and dominant corporations are positioned to swoop in for a buying spree,” the Rhode Island lawmaker said during a teleconferenced speech at an event held by the Open Markets Institute

The latest COVID-19 legislative package will apparently not include a couple of things that would have helped media outlets facing plunging ad dollars and a public’s increased reliance on critical news and information. A compromise bill was struck Tuesday (April 21) on a $480 billion successor bill to help small businesses. Broadcasters and newspapers, with the help of some legislators, had pushed for the next COVID-19 aid bill to include billions of dollars in federal advertising expenditures-for PSAs or census response campaigns — to be directed specifically to local media outlets.

Recently, FCC staff dismissed a request by the organization Free Press asking the FCC to investigate the broadcast of the President’s press conferences on the coronavirus and programs where commentators supported the President’s pronouncements. The FCC concluded that, in covering a breaking news story like the pandemic, it would be impossible for a broadcaster to fact check every statement made in a press conference and correct any misstatements in anything approaching real time, as there is so much room for interpretation of any statement made on these ongoing matters.

The NAB is clearly unhappy with the prospect that the FCC will open up the entire 6 GHz band for sharing with unlicensed wireless. Patrick McFadden, the group’s associate general counsel, left nothing but scorched earth beneath the Open Technology Institute, Facebook, tech companies in general, conservative groups and others in a blog post over the hot-button issue of opening up that spectrum, a proposal the FCC is voting on this week.

Pandemic or no, the FCC has signaled that it is business as usual for the 2020-23 TV station license renewal cycle, with the exception of public filing notices for the initial round of applications. That is according to the Media Bureau, which issued a reminder Monday (April 20).

Over half of the members of the House (240) have signed on to a letter to the Trump Administration asking it to direct federal government advertising dollars to local news media. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas) and Bill Flores (R-Texas) had circulated the letter last week seeking their colleagues’ signatures,

Potential vice presidential pick Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is one of four senators, two Democrats, two Republicans, who are calling for more local broadcasters and newspapers to be included in future COVID-19 small business assistance legislation, pointing out they are essential businesses in helping communities stay safe and informed.

The Trump campaign has targeted a small Wisconsin station in a libel suit over a super PAC ad. Its fellow broadcasters need to step up now by coming to its defense and fending off a critical assault on their First Amendment rights.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has asked the chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee to speak out against Free Press’s emergency petition to the FCC to stop what that group said was “right-wing personalities” spreading disinformation about the pandemic.

This week, the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Significant Viewing was published in the Federal Register, setting a comment deadline of May 14, with reply comments due by June 15.  The NPRM asks for comments as to whether the FCC should update its rules for establishing whether or not a TV station is “significantly viewed” in a market other than the one in which it is located, and whether the FCC has the statutory authority to make changes to these rules that have largely been in effect since 1972.

The Solicitor General of the United States, on behalf of the FCC, has asked the Supreme Court to review a U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision overturning most of its media ownership deregulation decision, hammering the circuit for what the FCC suggested was serial obstruction of what it had concluded was in the public interest.

Broadcasters face new and complex political file requirements resulting from a series of decisions the FCC made in late 2019 that have resulted in what one attorney calls “a political quagmire.” While there are calls for the commission to reconsider its decisions, for now companies are required to comply with new and complex political file requirements.

House members call on colleagues, President Trump, to support local media during pandemic.

Still regaining his strength (he lost 12 pounds during the ordeal) and with a slight cough and what he calls a “shipwreck survivor” beard, the former FCC commissioner details his harrowing medical journey.

Donald Trump’s campaign sued the Wausau-Rhinelander, Wis., CBS affiliate on Monday after it continued to air an ad from a pro-Joe Biden super PAC that attacks the President’s response to the coronavirus crisis. The spot features a graph mapping coronavirus cases in the U.S. over the past two months, with audio of comments Trump has made downplaying the threat of the virus.

Broadcasters are giving new meaning to the phrase “dynamic spectrum access” in arguing that an FCC proposal to free up WiFi spectrum in the 6 GHz band could take away electronic newsgathering spectrum just when a pandemic-sequestered nation needs it most. That came in phone calls last week between National Association of Broadcasting executives and FCC officials.

A federal judge says there’s “sufficient good cause” to hear plaintiff Eko’s request for an injection on May 4 instead of June 29.

A federal judge ruled this week that MGM must release unaired footage from The Celebrity Apprentice to entrepreneurs who claim they lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after President Trump and his children endorsed a multilevel marketing company on the reality show prior to the president’s election.

The college, in Lynchburg, Virginia, is led by Jerry Falwell Jr., has filed criminal trespassing against journalists from ProPublica and the New York Times for stories on the school’s remaining partially open. Falwell said the university is conducting classes online and obeying social distancing directives.

The longtime force in telecommunications regulation and policy was involved in the banning of cigarette advertising on broadcasting, the regulation of cable and rules prohibiting broadcasters from discriminating in employment on the basis of race. He was 96.

Unaired footage from Donald Trump‘s Celebrity Apprentice should be handed over to entrepreneurs who claim they were ripped off when Trump and his children repeatedly endorsed a troubled multilevel marketing company on the reality-TV show, a judge said.