The FCC should use a still-open 2017 proceeding to eliminate the national ownership cap, NAB said in a letter to the agency Wednesday. The rule bars any single TV broadcaster from owning stations that, as a group, reach more than 39% of the total number of U.S. TV households. “This outmoded rule prevents broadcasters -- but not any other video service providers -- from competing for audiences and vital advertising revenues across the county,” NAB said.
Broadcasters attending the 2025 NAB Show in Las Vegas will be discussing industry competition, rising prospects for ownership deregulation, the potential of the FCC’s “Delete” docket, and their perennial hopes for monetizing ATSC 3.0, broadcasters, brokers and broadcast attorneys told us. The show runs from Saturday until Wednesday, April 9. There are “increasing drumbeats from every direction” pointing to ownership deregulation and the potential for station deals, Tideline Partners media broker Gregory Guy said in an interview. “I fully expect that 2025 will be the most important year this century for broadcast, radio and television.”
A White House executive order issued Thursday ends federal employee union bargaining rights at a host of federal agencies, including the FCC, citing national security concerns. Laws that allow for collective bargaining enable “hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management. This is dangerous in agencies with national security responsibilities,” said a White House fact sheet on the order.
A wave of retirements has hit the FCC, likely owing to a combination of early retirement offers, the transition in administrations, return-to-office requirements and increased pressure on federal workers, according to interviews with FCC employees and union officials.
A broad swath of commenters from all over the political spectrum condemned the FCC’s news distortion proceeding as unconstitutional in comments filed by Monday’s deadline, while the complainant, the Center for American Rights, insisted the proceeding against CBS is justified. The FCC should use the Skydance/Paramount deal to “address the deeper disease” of “relentless bias” by CBS, CAR said.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday that the FCC won’t approve mergers and acquisitions for companies with diversity, equity and inclusion policies, according to Bloomberg. He also met with a conservative influencer Wednesday who has been involved in online campaigns against corporate diversity policies.
The FCC’s Wireline Bureau released a series of orders on delegated authority Thursday with the goal of making it easier for carriers to move away from legacy copper networks, said a news release and a number of filings. Outdated agency rules “have forced providers to pour resources into maintaining aging and expensive copper line networks instead of investing in the modern, high-speed infrastructure that Americans want and deserve," said Chairman Brendan Carr in the release.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges didn’t appear to greatly favor either side in arguments Wednesday on the FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review order, but broadcast industry officials and attorneys said they saw it as a positive sign that the panel apparently embraced the idea that broadcasting is under threat. Aren’t FCC rules intended to promote viewpoint diversity “short-sighted” if they lead to broadcasters going out of business and no longer offering news? asked Judge Duane Benton of FCC attorney James Carr. “Isn’t AM radio dying?” Benton asked at another point. “I hear they’re not even going to put it in new cars.”
The FCC’s outage reporting rules and its history of assessing large penalties for violations are leading to public safety answering points (PSAPs) being heavily burdened by notifications, said attorneys, trade groups and public safety associations. New rules that go into effect April 15 are likely to exacerbate the issue, they said during an FCBA virtual panel discussion Monday.
The FCC’s “In Re: Delete Delete Delete” proceeding could draw a huge number of response filings and is expected to require numerous subsequent rulemakings to lead to actual changes, said industry officials and academics. “Every single regulated entity will sit on Santa's lap and ask for presents,” said TechFreedom Senior Counsel Jim Dunstan. “It will take months just to sift through all the asks and determine how to proceed.”