The FCC Enforcement Bureau is prioritizing privacy and robotexting matters alongside robocalls, increasingly scrutinizing confidentiality requests, and may begin paying particular attention to foreign ownership, said panelists Monday on an FCBA CLE. “Robocalling is number one at the top of the pop charts, but No. 2 is consumer privacy, said Kristi Thompson, chief of the EB’s Telecommunications Consumer Division. The division is busy “handling a multitude of privacy-related enforcement actions and investigations,” she said.
NAB’s call for an FCC task force on ATSC 3.0 appears to have broad support and is aimed at both the FCC and the consumer electronics industry, said both supporters and critics of ATSC 3.0 in interviews (see 2301260049). “A ‘NextGen Broadcast Acceleration Task Force’ is a good first step along with a firm signal to the marketplace that 1.0 service will end on a date certain,” emailed One Media Executive Vice President-Strategic and Legal Affairs Jerald Fritz. An FCC 3.0 task force could gather more information on the transition and where 3.0 and broadcast TV are going, said frequent 3.0 opponent Michael Calabrese, of New America’s Open Technology Institute.
FCC media ownership data shows little growth in diversity, but federal broadband infrastructure funds and advertiser and lender commitments to diversity make this a time of opportunity for minority- and women-owned media companies, said panelists Tuesday at the Communications Equity and Diversity Council’s Media Ownership Diversity Symposium. Meruelo Media CEO Otto Padron called the FCC’s biennial media ownership data “an extinction report,” but Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins said “this is the first time being a minority-owned company or black-owned company has netted us a positive economic opportunity.”
The FCC’s sixth biennial report on media ownership shows efforts to increase broadcast ownership diversity led to little improvement, and sweeping policy changes in that area aren’t expected soon, said diversity advocates in interviews. The report, released earlier this month, is based on broadcast ownership forms from 2021, while the previous report was based on data from 2019. Following release of both the new report and the previous one, diversity advocates made similar calls for the return of the minority tax certificate (see 2109070051).
Broadcasters are united in their opposition to proposed retooling of the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content rules, according to reply comments posted by Tuesday’s deadline in docket 20-299.
Standard General founder Soohyung Kim is “optimistic” regulators will approve the company's proposed $8.6 billion buy of Tegna before Feb. 22, the merger agreement date on which Tegna can choose to pull out of the deal or trigger a 50% increase in the ongoing ticking fee, increasing the purchase price, he said on a press call Monday. Friday was the end of an FCC comment period on concessions offered by Standard (see 2301170064), and the company told the agency it doesn’t object to those concessions being codified as merger conditions, though it resisted requests from MVPDs and public interest groups. New Tegna would be the nation’s second-largest broadcaster by revenue, Kim said.
Standard General’s proposed concessions aren’t enough to prevent higher retransmission consent rates or collusion between Standard and Cox Media Group owner Apollo Global Management, said comments filed in docket 22-162 in response to the FCC’s request for feedback.
Broadcasters largely support a proposal to allow higher digital FM power levels, though some are cautious about possible interference, according to comments posted last week in docket 22-405 on a petition for rulemaking from NAB and Xperi (see 2210270061). The petition asked the agency to amend its rules on in-band/on-channel (IBOC) digital audio broadcasting to adopt an updated formula to determine digital FM power levels for stations. “Comprehensive interference protection for existing, incumbent analog stations must be adopted as part of any potential rule changes to digital FM power levels,” said broadcaster Howard Toole. Commenters also supported a 2019 request from NAB, Xperi and NPR to permanently authorize FM radio stations to utilize IBOC with asymmetric sideband power levels.
Nexstar and Charter settled their legal battle over a retransmission consent agreement for Mission Broadcasting’s WPIX New York, according to a filing Monday in the superior court of Delaware. Nexstar reached a settlement in a related court proceeding with Comcast in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York last month (see 2212200057). Both breach of contract cases began after Nexstar sought to apply clauses to WPIX’s retransmission consent contracts after Mission acquired WPIX. Nexstar operates all of Mission's stations through sharing arrangements. In Monday’s filing, Nexstar and Charter asked the court to stay the proceeding in anticipation of the companies requesting a voluntary dismissal in the wake of the settlement. Nexstar and Charter didn’t comment on the terms of the settlement.
Tech Freedom, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and others disagree whether a Federal Election Commission proposal to broaden the definition of internet political advertising is an assault on free speech or a needed update to political ad regulation, according to comments posted this week in docket REG-2023-01. The new definition would potentially include payments to social media influencers -- such as cable and broadcast hosts -- and other indirect online promotion.