Monty Tayloe

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, President-elect Donald Trump's pick as agency chair, has signaled he would be receptive to banning pharmaceutical advertising on broadcast television, but attorneys, analysts and industry officials told us any attempt to do so would face an uphill battle. “I think it probably requires that two-step, where Congress passes a law, or maybe [the Department of Health and Human Services] HHS can do it, but there is precedent where that happens and the FCC enforces it,” Carr said during a recent interview with radio host Dana Loesch. Losing pharma ads would be a “major hit” for TV broadcasters, as the industry represents nearly a third of local TV ad spending, said BIA Advisory Services Managing Director Rick Ducey. In 2023, pharmaceuticals spent $2.4 billion on broadcast TV ads, according to Media Radar.

Incarcerated people’s calling service providers and law enforcement groups want the FCC to reconsider provisions of its implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act, but a coalition of public groups said the industry arguments are incorrect and procedurally wrong, comments filed in docket 23-62 posted Tuesday show. Most of the filings focused on October petitions for reconsideration of the FCC’s order from NCIC Communications and HomeWAV, and aimed at the agency’s categorization of costs and fees, handling of provider expenses, and timing of the order’s changes to prison calling rules.

A plan for cutting regulations and federal institutions such as the FCC could target broadband access programs and media regulations, but it's likely that a wave of litigation will stymie it, administrative law professors and attorneys told us. Future Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) heads Vivek Ramasawamy and Space X CEO Elon Musk laid out their plans in a Wall Street Journal opinion column. “It's not to say that maybe some of these changes shouldn't be happening, but, you know, they're taking a wrecking ball to fix something that requires a little bit more finesse than that,” said University of Idaho law professor Linda Jellum. Asked about possible DOGE cuts at the FCC, incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr last week told reporters, “There's no question, there's tons of room for driving more efficiency at the FCC." He didn't elaborate.

A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit did not appear receptive Monday to a low-power TV broadcaster’s oral argument (docket 24-1004) that Congress didn’t intend to limit the 2023 Low-Power Protection Act’s effects to smaller markets (see 2407050020).

The incoming Republican administration and Congress will likely work at rolling back many of the current FCC’s policies through a combination of agency action, court decisions and the Congressional Review Act (CRA), attorneys and analysts told us in interviews. The CRA's threat also will likely limit the current FCC's agenda, they said. “The CRA is kind of looming over anything the FCC wants to try to do before the administration switches over,” said Jeffrey Westling, American Action Forum director-technology and innovation.

The FCC’s draft order on creating a standardized process for authorizing content-originating FM boosters necessary for geotargeted radio ads is expected to be unanimously approved during the commissioners' Nov. 21 open meeting, industry and agency officials told us.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr posted his support Wednesday of President-elect Donald Trump's announcement that Space-X CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” “Delete, delete, delete,” commented Carr on a post from Musk about the new department.

Broadcast executives during Q3 earnings calls were hopeful for ownership deregulation and progress on ATSC 3.0 from a Republican-controlled FCC, but FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr -- the perceived front-runner to chair the agency -- said Thursday that scrutinizing broadcasters is among his priorities. “We're very excited about the upcoming regulatory environment,” said Sinclair Broadcast CEO Chris Ripley during Sinclair’s call Wednesday. “It feels like a cloud over the industry is lifting ... and ... some much-needed modernization of the regulations will be forthcoming.” In a news release Thursday, Carr said when the transition to the next administration is complete “the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth while advancing our national security interests and supporting law enforcement.”

The union representing FCC employees, the National Treasury Employees Union, said it's ready to work with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration but warned that it would oppose efforts against federal workers. The Trump White House is expected to implement plans laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and the Trump campaign’s Agenda 47, reducing the federal workforce and reclassifying many career civil servants, making it easier to fire and replace them with political appointees, academics and analysts told us. The NTEU “will make every effort to work in good faith” with the Trump administration, said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald in a release. “However, we are fully prepared to work with our allies in Congress and use all the tools we have to fight any and all actions taken by his administration that would harm frontline federal workers, our ability to represent them or their ability to serve the American people.”

The group behind recent FCC complaints against CBS and ABC over their news coverage filed an equal time complaint against NBC and its station WNBC New York Monday over Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ weekend appearance on Saturday Night Live (see 2411040057). The complaint from the Center for American Rights echoes points first raised by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and calls for “a substantial fine” against NBC. “Broadcasters cannot abuse their licenses by airing what amounts to a free commercial promoting one candidate the weekend before the presidential election,” said CAR President Daniel Suhr in a news release. FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington backed the complaint Monday, saying “I urge Commission leadership to take these credible allegations seriously,” but multiple broadcast attorneys told us NBC appears to have satisfied the FCC’s rules.