The popularity of Fox's WTXF Philadelphia TV station is immaterial to whether the license applicants, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and Fox, have shown the character required of broadcast licensees, Fox critics said in docket 23-293 this week. The filers backed the Media and Democracy Project's request for nonpublic evidence submitted in court cases against Fox by voting machine companies (see 2403040080). Signatories to the filing include former FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes, former Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and William Reyner, former regulatory counsel for News Corp. and Fox. The filing was in response to filings by the Philadelphia Phillies professional baseball team, 76ers professional basketball team and Flyers professional hockey team in support of the Fox affiliate station.
Cable news network Newsmax plans a public stock offering and listing on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq later this year or early in 2025, it said this week.
Free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) viewing is starting to rival gaming and cable TV in prime time, Xumo and FASTMaster Consulting said. They said a third of U.S. adults report regularly watching FAST channels during prime time. In addition, the average FAST viewer spends 100 minutes watching FAST channels in the evening, they said, while gamers typically spend 102 minutes on gaming and cable TV subscribers view cable programming for 118 minutes during the same time frame. Moreover, 47% of pay-TV subscribers say they also regularly watch FAST, compared with 46% of cord cutters and 35% of cord nevers. The findings come from a survey Xumo commissioned. FASTMaster conducted the survey that gathered responses from 4,000 U.S. adults between Q3 2023 and Q1 2024.
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.