Senate GOP aides said Friday afternoon that chamber leaders aimed to hold an initial vote Saturday on a motion to proceed to the chamber’s combined budget reconciliation package, which includes the Commerce Committee’s revised proposal for an 800 MHz spectrum pipeline and restoration of the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through Sept. 30, 2034 (see 2506060029). Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, secured backing last week for the spectrum proposal from a pair of Armed Services Republicans after he strengthened the original proposal’s carve-outs excluding the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands from potential FCC auction or other reallocation (see 2506250054).
EchoStar is making previously delayed interest payments to holders of company notes. In an SEC filing Friday, EchoStar said it notified the trustees of secured notes that it would make scheduled interest payments, originally due May 30 and June 2, including interest on the defaulted payments. Earlier, EchoStar cited uncertainty around its spectrum licenses due to FCC issues as its reason for not making the scheduled payments (see 2505300001).
The elimination of federal funding for PBS stations would be a blow to the ATSC 3.0 transition, said commercial and noncommercial broadcasters and advocates for public TV stations and 3.0. The transition would survive the loss of PBS station participation, but removing it from the equation would affect the reach of 3.0 datacasting, emergency communications and the broadcast positioning system (BPS), commercial broadcasters told us.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, locked down support Wednesday from a pair of top Armed Services Committee Republicans for the panel’s spectrum budget reconciliation package language after strengthening the original proposal’s exclusion of the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands from potential FCC auction or other reallocation (see 2506060029). Cruz’s office also reemphasized his view that the revised proposal’s language to encourage states to pause enforcement of AI laws no longer threatens jurisdictions’ eligibility for the enacted $42.5 billion in BEAD funding (see 2506230043) in the face of Democratic assertions to the contrary.
Expect more litigation from content companies targeting generative AI platforms over their use of images and video, both as inputs and outputs, copyright and intellectual property experts told us. Earlier this month, Disney and Universal sued AI platform Midjourney, alleging that the company uses the studios' intellectual property in its training data and the images that its platform produces (see 2506110043).
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
The implications of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring judicial deference to agency environmental reviews of infrastructure projects remain unclear, experts said Wednesday, weeks after the ruling in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado. While the decision was unanimous, it had many twists and turns that make it difficult to know what its effect will be, panelists said during a Washington Legal Foundation webinar.
The FCC Media Bureau issued a public notice late Wednesday seeking comment on eliminating or modifying the national broadcast-ownership cap. The item sought comment about changing the cap, modifying the UHF discount and treating ownership of non-top-four affiliate stations differently under the rules. If the FCC “retains a national audience reach cap, should common ownership of stations that are not affiliated with major national broadcast networks (i.e., ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX) be excluded from the cap?” the notice asked.
What the apparent collapse of a previously tight relationship between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump means for Musk's SpaceX is uncertain, space industry and FCC watchers told us. Some believe SpaceX will face a chillier reception from regulatory agencies, including for FCC proceedings that SpaceX is intensely interested in, such as the agency's probes into EchoStar's use of the 2 GHz band and its terrestrial 5G network buildout (see 2505130003). Others don't see the feud meaning much. The FCC and FAA -- which regulates SpaceX's launch operations -- didn't comment.
Amazon is now eyeing Monday to launch its second batch of 27 Kuiper satellites, it said this week. The launch had originally been planned for Friday (see 2505290004).