NAB, legal counsel for Pearl TV and the general counsel of Meredith met last week with staff of the FCC Media Bureau to discuss the transition to NextGen TV and recommend a change in what broadcasters submit to the agency as part of their ATSC 3.0 license applications to allay concerns over possible contractual indemnification issues.
The National Association of Broadcasters says its opponents have given the FCC no reason to deny NAB’s request that it clarify its disclosure requirements for third-party political ads and follow NAB’s “rationally tailored approach.”
When Dish Network lost 18 Apollo Global-owned Cox Media Group stations on Jan 18 (formerly Northwest Broadcasting stations), it managed to keep 13 Cox Media Group stations from going dark on its lineup thanks to a temporary restraining order issued by Illinois state court. But in the latest turn of events, Cox is suing Dish for copyright infringement for the continued carriage of those stations, which include Atlanta’s WSB and Orlando’s WFOX.
Sinclair Broadcast Group has settled the lawsuit stemming from its failed $3.9 billion takeover of Tribune Media. The merger was scuttled after the FCC referred it to an administrative law judge, making it untenable. Tribune responded by terminating the deal and filing suit against Sinclair in August 2018, alleging breach of contract.
The Justice Department is planning to hold a conference to discuss the future of a current federal law which largely exempts online platforms from legal liability for the material their users post, sources familiar with the plans said on Friday.
Exclusives
February Regulatory Dates For Broadcasters
With the holiday season getting smaller in the rear-view mirror and many parts of the country dealing with ice, snow, and single-digit temperatures, broadcasters could be forgiven for dreaming about the sunshine and warmth that come with spring. Before spring arrives, however, broadcasters need to tend to important regulatory matters in February.
That ‘Super’ Time Of The Year Is Near
Given the value of the Super Bowl franchise, it is not surprising that the NFL is extremely aggressive in protecting its golden goose from anything it views as unauthorized efforts to trade off the goodwill associated with the game. Accordingly, with the coin toss almost upon us, advertisers must take special care before publishing ads or engaging in promotional activities that refer to the Super Bowl.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday left in place a ruling that allows Illinois residents to proceed with a lawsuit accusing Facebook of violating a state biometric privacy law by compiling “faceprints.”
A century-old fixture of entertainment contracts that was triggered by a silent movie star’s arrest for rape and murder is now under the microscope thanks to fired public TV host Tavis Smiley’s #MeToo-era lawsuit.
Comcast Tries To Squash Antitrust Lawsuit
Comcast has moved to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed by Altitude TV by shooting down claims that the cable operator has refused to deal with the Denver-based regional sports network and that the cable op has a monopolistic pay-TV position in the market.
At about the same time that Chief Justice John Roberts was being sworn in to preside over the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump, a pair of legislators, one a current and one a former House impeachment manager, were introducing a bill that would make the default setting that “real time or near-real time [access] on the internet,” either audio or video, of all appeals courts, including the highest court in the land, would be allowed.
House Energy & Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) signaled Wednesday that the government needs to start looking at the employment and ownership diversity of over-the-top content providers.
A federal judge in New York has allowed a shareholder lawsuit against CBS Corp. to proceed based on the specificity of statements made by disgraced former chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves at a 2017 Variety conference.
Monitor Tower Lighting Or Be Prepared To Pay
The FCC announced that Scripps Broadcasting has agreed to a $1.13 million settlement to resolve violations of tower lighting monitoring rules. What makes this case especially interesting is that the party who is paying the fine and instituting a years-long compliance plan wasn’t even the party responsible for the wrongdoing.
The Washington law firm is among the first to launch a website sporting a “.law” domain name.
The FCC’s Media Bureau has dismissed a market modification request by independent WRNN for lack of sufficient supporting data, but invited the station to resubmit it with the requisite info. WRNN is an independent station that had been transmitting out of Kingston in upstate New York and is now co-located atop One World Trade Center in Manhattan and licensed to New Rochelle.
Drugmakers and the administration headed to court Monday in a fight over a Trump rule that would require companies to disclose the list prices of their drugs in television advertising.
Scripps Broadcasting has agreed to pay $1,130,000 to settle an FCC investigation into TV tower lighting issues with stations it purchased from Cordillera Communications. The investigation was prompted by the crash of a small plane into a Cordillera TV tower in Kaplabn, La., in 2018.
The FCC has set comment dates for its proposal to allow cable operators to provide notice to customers about potential service or rate changes “as soon as possible.” Initial comments are due Feb. 6 and replies Feb. 21. The FCC voted unanimously on Dec. 12 to propose eliminating the requirement that cable operators provide their subs at least 30 days notice of a TV station channel coming off their systems, changing it to notice “as soon as possible” given that retrans deals are often struck in the 11th hour.
A Broadcaster’s 2020 Regulatory Calendar
As he does every year, attorney David Oxenford has put together a Broadcaster’s Regulatory Calendar for 2020. While this calendar can’t be seen as an exhaustive list of every regulatory date that your station will face, it highlights many of the most important dates for broadcasters in this year.
The Price Point | NAB Won STELAR On The Ground
Broadcasters were victorious in their fight against the pay TV industry the same way they have won so many other issues, by taking their case directly to Senators and members of Congress in their home districts.
NEW YORK (AP) — CNN has settled a lawsuit with a Kentucky teen who claimed media organizations falsely labeled him as a racist following a well-publicized encounter with a Native […]
The White House is warning federal agencies against over-regulating artificial intelligence as part of fresh guidance on how to govern the next-generation technology. The Trump administration’s 10 regulatory principles are guidelines for agencies that may be tasked with crafting AI regulations, as well as a signal to companies that the White House is wary of saddling the burgeoning tech with expansive rules.
Defending a sexual harassment lawsuit, Rose testifies about his studio nickname and flirting with CBS Morning co-anchors. But the plaintiffs say he needs to be even more forthcoming.
The streaming service has created a legal defense fund to battle CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC to “protect streaming of local broadcast TV.”
