The Trump administration put the spotlight on violent media after last month's school shooting in Parkland, Florida, but experts see big First Amendment hurdles to FCC or congressional action aimed at addressing such content. One big issue is defining violent media in a way that can be consistently and reliably applied, emailed broadcast lawyer David Oxenford of Wilkinson Barker, noting that the same violent act is seen very differently in the context of a live-action show versus a Looney Tunes cartoon. The White House last week hosted a closed-door meeting on media violence, focusing largely on video games (see 1803080067).
Better consumer education and prodding law enforcers via language in appropriations bills urging strong enforcement were suggestions Wednesday at a discussion on streaming video piracy. A coalition of studios, broadcasters, MVPDs and online providers went to DOJ with referrals about streaming piracy operations, and the agency is looking at "a variety of candidates" for criminal action, said MPAA Senior Vice President-Government and Regulatory Affairs Neil Fried. DOJ didn't comment. Fried said law enforcement funding to tackle such IP-related issues needs to be adequate, and report language in appropriations bills making such enforcement a priority also would help.
Broadcast and MVPD interests agree on streamlining the triennial carriage election letter process, but there's no agreement on how, judging by replies in docket 17-317. That echoed what the FCC already saw in its NPRM proposing changes to its Part 76 rules to allow more use of electronic delivery of MVPD communications (see 1802160005). Any such simplification of the must-carry and retransmission consent election notification process is good, and the FCC needs to be sure to avoid simply shifting regulatory burdens to MVPDs, NCTA commented, posted Tuesday. It said broadcasters' putting their elections in their online public files would require MVPDs to search legions of such files for new election requests, and ending the broadcaster obligation to send election notifications swaps one regulation for "an even more burdensome" one. NTCA had similar objections.
Tech giants need to be more heavily regulated, said NCTA CEO Michael Powell. "Governments can no longer coddle and cater" to such large and heavily influential companies, he said Tuesday at Cable Congress 2018 in Dublin, according to prepared remarks. He touched on fake news, tech addiction, consumer concerns about privacy and other tech criticisms increasing coming to the fore in Washington (see 1803050040). Critics cast the comments as the cable ISP industry trying to shift regulatory focus away from itself.
The law is clearly on the side of Boeing and SOM1101 on transferring two pending Boeing non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) applications to SOM1101, that smaller entity's owner Greg Wyler said in an interview. He said Boeing and his SOM1101 wouldn't have sought the transfers (see 1712070055) if they weren't confident of the legal basis. An FCC staffer told us the International Bureau is still early in its evaluation of the Boeing/SOM1101 request, and of proposed NGSO application amendments by O3b and OneWeb.
Liberty Media, through its SiriusXM operations, bought a portion of iHeartRadio corporate debt large enough to fund most of any iHeart restructuring it might pursue, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei said Thursday in an earnings call. He said Liberty Media sees "potentially substantial synergies" with Sirius in the form of shared personalities and cross promotions. FBN Securities analyst Robert Routh wrote investors that Liberty and Sirius XM -- of which Liberty has majority control -- combined are apparently considering a total investment of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion that would have them each owning about 20 percent.
Who runs OneWeb is increasingly being debated before the FCC. Corporate governance experts told us corporate law on the answer is vague, despite assertions by some non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) operators that Executive Chairman Greg Wyler controls the company. But satellite lawyers said corporate governance rules are irrelevant since FCC rules precisely spell out who's deemed to have control and Wyler fits that bill. Various satellite operators opposed Boeing's request to transfer two of its NGSO applications to Wyler and his new company, SOM1101, on the grounds FCC rules prohibit one entity from holding attributable interests in two pending NGSO systems (see 1802130019).
The FCC should waive for five years its Section 79.2(b) emergency information accessibility requirement that dynamic image crawls used during breaking news and emergencies be conveyed aurally since there’s no good technology for broadcasters doing so today, its Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) said Wednesday. Instead, voluntary best practices put together by broadcasters and advocacy groups "is the best and only way to pursue this," said NAB Associate General Counsel Larry Walke.
Comcast's bid for Sky likely won't raise the same types and levels of regulatory concern that initially met Fox's bid for Sky, experts told us. Unclear is whether the Fox bid -- now that it has pledged a firewall to protect Sky News operations (see 1802120031) -- still carries those regulatory concerns. Comcast announced the $31 billion proposal Tuesday. Fox said it "remains committed" to the cash offer it made in 2016, saying "no firm offer has been made" by Comcast.
Satellite, terrestrial and tech interests had numerous recommendations for Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada, as the agency asked for input on releasing spectrum for commercial mobile services, license-exempt applications, satellite services and wireless backhaul services through 2022. The docket SLPB-006-17 comments were posted Friday. Intelsat said ISED should await outcomes of the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference on a variety of WRC-19 agenda items -- such as non-geostationary fixed satellite service (FSS) use of the 37.5-39.5, 39,5-42.5, 47.2-50.2 and 50.4-51.4 GHz bands -- before making decisions that might not be compatible with WRC-19. SES said ISED's conclusion that the 3.7-4.2 GHz band should be considered for mobile use is "unfounded" and that such mobile use could negatively affect downlinks there. It said if any additional services are introduced in the 24.75-25.05 GHz or 25.05-25.25 GHz bands, FSS needs to retain access on a co-primary basis. It also pushed for making the entire V-band available for satellite FSS use and for removing the restriction on FSS in the 39.5-40 GHz band to government use only. Telesat Canada said the current FSS allocation at 24.75-25.25 should be retained if spectrum is released in the 24.25-27.5 GHz band for terrestrial use. It also said the satellite industry has interest in the E-band and higher spectrum. ISED should make spectrum above 24 GHz available for flexible use across platforms (HAPS), including high altitude platform stations and consider licensing schemes that would let HAPS be used in the band to support 5G, Facebook said. It also backed making the 64-71 GHz band available for license-exempt use and for identifying other mid-band frequency for license-exempt use, such as the 6 GHz band. The Wi-Fi Alliance said spectrum sharing is possible in the 6 GHz band, and other bands could potentially be made available for sharing in the future. It also backed making the 5350-5470 MHz band available for license exempt operations in Canada and said it was essential that ISED continue to allow license-exempt operations in the millimeter wave spectrum. It said the agency should consider making the 5.9256-7.125 GHz band available for license-exempt use. Allowing commercial mobile broadband in the 814-824 MHz band, paired with 859-869 MHz, would mutually benefit the U.S. and Canada by maximizing the spectrum available for commercial mobile broadband in this band along the shared border, Sprint said. Microsoft said there should be "significantly more" license-exempt spectrum released in the 5, 6, 60 and 70 GHz bands.