FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said on X late Thursday that he met at DOJ headquarters with Gail Slater, the new DOJ Antitrust Division chief, and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson. “The three of us got together to talk about the work that we are taking across government right now to smash the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights to everyday Americans,” Carr said. “Across government, we’re taking action.”
A Project Rise Partners purchase of Paramount Global would mean fair and balanced news coverage, representatives told FCC acting Media Bureau Chief Erin Boone and other staffers, according to a docket 24-275 filing posted Thursday. It recapped a meeting at which PRP -- chaired by Daphna Edwards Ziman, head of independent network Cinemoi, and Moses Gross, managing trustee of Malka Investment Trust -- reiterated its arguments that Tencent's investment in Skydance Media raises national security concerns and that Skydance Media buying Paramount could mean higher consumer prices (see 2503060035). PRP told the FCC it "will seek a return to the vision and practice of CBS’s -- the Tiffany Network’s -- formative titans, Bill Paley and Walter Cronkite, free from bias, dedicated to excellence and presenting the news in the way that it is." It said it would return "to the principles underlying the dormant Fairness Doctrine [and] provide an organizational structure that allows and considers public input to capture all viewpoints and prevent news coverage distortion."
With Comcast and Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network having reached a carriage agreement Monday, YES is withdrawing its program carriage complaint against Comcast and its motion for a temporary injunction to head off a blackout (see 2503310020), the network said Tuesday (docket 12-1). Writing on X late Monday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr applauded the carriage deal: "Going dark wouldn’t have been in anyone’s interest."
Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien met with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to urge that the agency memorialize Skydance Media's pro-worker commitments in any approval of Skydance buying Paramount Global, said a filing Tuesday in docket 24-275. Barring that, the FCC should encourage the parties to agree on protecting workers post-transaction, the Teamsters said. The union said it hasn't heard from Skydance about union proposals such as "applying Paramount's current collective bargaining agreement to all New Paramount employees." Multiple unions have pressed the FCC to codify labor-related promises Skydance has made (see 2411010034).
Comcast wants to send the New York Yankees' regional sports network "to the Siberia of a tier and overcharge fans for it," while it carries its own SportsNet New York (SNY) in its expanded basic package, the Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network said Monday in a carriage complaint (docket 12-1). YES said Comcast's "my-way-or-the-highway demand" -- coming atop Comcast's previous dropping of MSG Networks -- looks to be part of a plot "designed to elevate the least popular of the three New York area regional sports networks into prime position." YES said Comcast is offering carriage only on its higher-priced, less-penetrated digital basic tier.
California state lawmakers have introduced bills to keep film and TV production jobs from leaving, Sheppard Mullin blogged Tuesday. State senate and assembly bills (SB-630/AB-1138) would diversify the types of productions that qualify for California’s Film and Television Tax Credit program to include animation, as well as game shows and other unscripted programs, it said. The also would increase the tax rebate from 20% for most productions in the state, it said. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has also unveiled plans to raise California's current tax credit cap.
Viewers now rely on streaming platforms' suggestions more than recommendations from friends and family in deciding what to watch, Ampere Analysis blogged Tuesday. It said its study of 56,000 consumers across 30 markets globally found that 26% use the streaming platforms' algorithm picks, vs. 23% relying on word-of-mouth suggestions.
New York and Connecticut officials are urging Comcast and Yankee Entertainment and Sports (YES) Network to come to an agreement before MLB's opening day Thursday. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said Tuesday that the sides "need to get back to the table and work out a deal immediately so we can all watch Opening Day in peace.” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that with the current Comcast/YES agreement expiring Tuesday, the sides "need to stay at the table and resolve this dispute without impacting fans." Hochul said that absent a resolution, she would direct the state Department of Public Service "to call public hearings on how consumers are being affected, securing refunds for disruptions and whatever else it takes to resolve broadcasting disruptions for all New Yorkers.” Comcast and YES didn't comment Tuesday.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan on Friday denied allegations that the video platform discriminates against Christian programmer Great American Media on its YouTube TV streaming service. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said earlier this month that the agency had received complaints from GAM and wanted YouTube to brief it on the YouTube TV carriage negotiation process, "including the potential role of viewpoint-based discrimination" (see 2503070052). "We don't discriminate on the basis of that sort of content," Mohan said during a Semafor podcast (see at the 31-minute mark). He said YouTube was "in productive conversations" with GAM. YouTube makes carriage decisions "the way you would imagine" -- based on business considerations and audience demand, he said, adding that the company will explain that "in detail" to the FCC. He said GAM has a YouTube channel, and the YouTube app has "orders of magnitude" greater reach than YouTube TV.
Public interest concerns and politics "aren’t mingling well these days" at the ostensibly independent FCC, wrote Clay Calvert, American Enterprise Institute nonresident senior fellow-technology policy studies. Calvert wrote Wednesday that President Donald Trump, in his legal campaign against CBS and 60 Minutes, "views his personal interest as concomitant with the statutory public interest." FCC Chairman Brendan Carr "might make such [a] coalescence a reality." Calvert cited the agency's investigation of Skydance Media's proposed purchase of CBS parent Paramount Global and how it expanded an investigation of 60 Minutes' 2024 campaign coverage. That means Trump's interests as a private litigant suing CBS over campaign coverage "are now deeply entangled with the investigatory and enforcement powers [of] a federal regulatory agency whose leader (Carr) ... the private litigant promoted."