The Chicago Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox, in partnership with Standard Media, will launch the Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) in October, the teams said Monday. They said the network would carry the teams' games and other sports programming. The network has agreements with cable providers, and will be available via streaming and free, over-the-air broadcast.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr condemned a draft NPRM that requires disclosures for political ads containing AI-generated content (see 2405220061). The NPRM is an attempt to “tilt the playing field” against some forms of political speech just ahead of the 2024 election, he said. Carr tied the proposal to reports that Democratic campaigns aren’t using AI as much as Republicans. "This effort echoes a [Democratic National Committee]-backed initiative at the Federal Election Commission to impose new regulations on AI-generated political speech before voters hit the ballot boxes this fall,” Carr said in a statement Thursday. “The FCC’s attempt to fundamentally alter the rules of the road for political speech just a short time before a national election is as misguided as it is unlawful.” He acknowledged bipartisan concern about AI-generated political content but said the FCC’s proposal is outside its authority and that broadcast-only disclosure rules will drive such content online. “Applying new regulations on the broadcasters ... but not on their largely unregulated online competitors only exacerbates regulatory asymmetries,” he said. Carr also expressed concern that the NPRM is an effort to control speech. “Is the government really worried that voters will find these ads misleading in the absence of a regulator’s guiding hand?” Carr asked. “Or is the government worried that voters might find these ads effective?” The FCC and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s office didn’t comment.

Broadcasters are blind to the threat that YouTube poses as they maintain traditional TV models for their streaming ventures, reserving quality content for paid platforms and using libraries for free, ad-supported TV, nScreenMedia's Colin Dixon wrote Monday. They see streaming "as an extension of how they have always produced TV entertainment," he wrote. YouTube's "democratic approach to entertainment is eating their lunch," claiming more TV viewing time than the combined viewing of broadcaster apps Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, Max and Paramount+, he said. Broadcasters are struggling against YouTube’s wide pool of creative talent and ability to reach diverse audiences. Their future "appears uncertain in the face of YouTube’s continued dominance."

Lionsgate has officially spun off its motion picture group and TV studio segments and film and TV library, creating Lionsgate Studios, it said Monday. The spinoff was enabled by Lionsgate Studios' business combination earlier this month with Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company. Lionsgate said the transaction is part of its larger plan to separate its studio and Starz businesses.

The FCC received no submissions from U.S.-based foreign media outlets for its latest semi-annual report to Congress, it said Thursday. The latest report covers Oct. 13 to April 11. The last several editions -- since May 2021 -- have listed no submissions (see 2211100055). The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act requires the reports.

Disney's entertainment streaming business -- not counting ESPN+ -- reaching profitability in the company's most-recent quarter "is a huge milestone for Disney and for the entire studio streaming ecosystem," Ampere Analysis' Guy Bisson wrote Tuesday. That $47 million operating profit came two quarters earlier than Disney predicted the entire direct-to-consumer business would reach profitability, he said. Disney was the only major studio to go so far with streaming, pulling back key content for its streaming platform, and "there is no going back from here," Bisson said. The move to profitability -- with other studios likely to follow in coming quarters -- "takes a huge amount of downward pressure off content spend," Bisson said. Streamers are moving to a "mix and match approach" of offering their originals while also seeking high-quality titles to license, he said. With linear viewing in decline, and spending on ads shifting to streaming, increased streaming profitability could accelerate that shift, he said. "As the 'proof of concept' is now signed, sealed and delivered, the industry will move even faster to transition away from traditional outlets."

The FCC's recent regulatory proceedings on multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD), "intentionally or not," unfairly skew "what would otherwise be a robustly competitive marketplace toward Internet-based providers," Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long wrote Wednesday. He said "an up-to-date, honest understanding of ... the video distribution marketplace in 2024" would have the FCC shelve certain pending rulemakings that only further chill competition. Those include rulemakings about requiring rebates for programming blackouts due to stalled retransmission consent talks and others barring certain conditions in MVPD-programmer contracts. "If the Commission truly wanted to maximize overall consumer welfare, it would focus broadly on eliminating legacy one-sided regulations in order to allow competitive forces in the marketplace to do their job," Long wrote.

Comments are due June 6, replies July 8, on the FCC's proposed prohibition of most-favored nation and alternative distribution method provisions in carriage agreements between independent programmers and multichannel video programming distributors, said a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register (docket 24-115). The FCC commissioners approved 3-2 an NPRM last month regarding indie programmers that proposed the restriction on carriage agreement terms and sought comment on bundling practices broadly (see 2404190063).

The Disney/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery sports streaming joint venture (see 2402070006) "will eventually dominate the distribution market for live sports and will drive out competition," programming distributors and programmers along with advocacy group allies said Thursday in a letter to House and Senate Commerce and Judiciary committee chairs and ranking members. Consumer interests are never served when an important industry like live sports "is effectively controlled by three programming giants which decided to combine forces instead of competing against each other," they said. The letter requests a hearing on pay TV. Behind the letter were Fubo TV, DirecTV, Dish Network, Newsmax, Sports Fan Coalition, American Economic Liberties Project, Open Markets Institute and Electronic Frontier Foundation. House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, raised similar concerns in a letter last month to the JV members (see 2404170067).

The FCC should issue an NPRM seeking comment on a proposed report about content vendor diversity, Allen Media, the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Black Women’s Roundtable, and attorney David Goodfriend of I Street Advocates said in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 22-209. A petition for rulemaking on the proposal was already the subject of a round of comments in 2022 (see 2207250060). The proposed report “will be effective and not burdensome,” the filing said. The proposal would collect data from FCC regulatees that operate media companies -- such as Disney and Google -- about their vendors. “No vendor, including small vendors, will be required to submit data, but the data that is submitted will add to the publicly available information.” The data would “be consistent, according to FCC-adopted definitions and thus can be compared easily with each other, unlike the anecdotal information available now.” Creating the report would be in line with provisions in the Cable Act authorizing the FCC to adopt rules specifying how regulatees encourage minority and female entrepreneurship, the filing said.