The DOJ Antitrust Division told a federal court Friday to reject news outlets' arguments that antitrust laws play no part in protecting viewpoint competition in news markets, citing the consumer welfare and personal freedom benefits of such competition. The nonprofit Children's Health Defense alleged in its suit that defendant news outlets' collaboration with tech giants, while ostensibly about combating online misinformation, actually involved censoring and excluding competing online news publishers from such platforms as Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, which violates antitrust law. The defendants are Washington Post Co., Associated Press, Reuters and BBC. Their claim that the rule of law exempts viewpoint collusion from antitrust laws "would free major news organizations and dominant digital platforms to block competitive threats that offer alternative, competing viewpoints," DOJ told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a statement of interest Friday (docket 1:23-cv-02735). "Controlling precedent shows that the Sherman Act protects all forms of competition, including competition in information quality." The DOJ said it took no position on the application of the law to the facts alleged in the complaint.
Amazon shuttering its Freevee streaming service is not a surprise, given that it has become irrelevant, with free, ad-supported video now standard on Prime Video, nScreenMedia's Colin Dixon wrote Tuesday. Part of Freevee's challenge is that while free, ad-supported TV competitors like Tubi, Pluto TV and the Roku Channel have sufficient usage to register in Nielsen's Gauge, Freevee doesn't, Dixon said. In addition, most Freevee watching was clearly within Prime Video and on Fire TV devices, he said, noting that Amazon would have kept the service if it had been used a lot on competitor devices.
Paramount Global shareholders shot down a shareholder proposal recommending that the company compile a report on the potential risks of omitting "ideology" and "viewpoint" from its equal employment opportunity policy, Paramount said in an SEC filing Tuesday. The National Center for Public Policy Research submitted the proposal at the company's annual meeting last week.
Trump Media and Technology Group's Truth+ streaming service is now available globally, it said Monday. Truth+ offers streaming channels and video on demand, as well as carrying the Newsmax cable news network, Trump Media said. The company -- which is majority owned by President Donald Trump -- also operates the social media platform Truth Social.
Sept. 30 is the deadline for MVPDs with six or more full-time workers to file Form 396-C equal employment opportunity program annual reports, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Monday.
The FCC shouldn’t take up a proposal to give broadcasters expedited waivers of media ownership rules in exchange for their promises to reduce retransmission consent rates by 50% over three years, said Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long in a post Monday. The proposal, from Cincinnati Bell Extended Territories and Hawaiian Telcom Services Co., was filed in the FCC’s “Delete” docket in June. It amounts to “forward-looking, government-imposed pricing mandates” on retransmission consent rates “that could persist for a decade or more,” Long wrote. The proposal would also use administrative contracts that couldn't be reviewed in court and would bind broadcasters and MVPDs, he said. “These so-called voluntary ‘social contracts’ would impose enforceable, multiyear pricing constraints -- effectively, rate regulation -- while circumventing judicial scrutiny.”
AT&T said Wednesday it completed the sale of its 70% stake in DirecTV to TPG, the asset management firm that now owns the entire MVPD. The $7.6 billion transaction was announced last year. TPG said that with DirecTV now wholly owned, it can invest faster in the direct broadcast satellite company's video service offerings.
Paramount Global and Mediacom have renewed their distribution agreements, keeping Paramount networks on Mediacom channel lineups, Paramount said Tuesday. The company said that as part of the renewal, Mediacom can offer the Paramount+ Premium streaming plan to its subscribers.
The Department of Homeland Security "is working with" DOJ on a potential prosecution of CNN for the cable network's reporting, President Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday. At an event in Florida, Noem said CNN's reporting about an app used for crowdsourcing the location of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities operations, and we're going to actually go after them and prosecute them."
Social contracts with cable operators could offer "a measured approach" toward easing TV ownership restrictions, according to altafiber and Hawaiian Telecom. In docket 25-133 Friday, they laid out the basics of such social contracts, which involve cable operators getting flexibility in setting rates for regulated product tiers and services, and, in exchange, the cablers agreeing to benefits, including negotiated rates, limited future regulated rate increases and free services to schools and libraries. Earlier in June, altafiber and Hawaiian Telecom pushed in meetings with FCC staff for social contracts for broadcasters in the event of changes to the broadcast-ownership cap, with the contracts including such agreements as reductions in retransmission consent rates that broadcasters charge MVPDs.