FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is pressuring YouTube parent Google in a looming carriage dispute with Fox Corp. "Get a deal done Google!" Carr wrote Tuesday on social media. "Google removing Fox channels from YouTube TV would be a terrible outcome. Millions of Americans are relying on YouTube to resolve this dispute so they can keep watching the news and sports they want -- including this week’s Big Game: Texas @ Ohio State."
The cable industry is urging the FCC to adopt shot clocks for review of rights-of-way permits and to bar moratoriums on right-of-way access. In a meeting with FCC Wireline Bureau staff, NCTA, Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Enterprises representatives also pushed for a prohibition on onerous requirements or conditions to receive right-of-way permits, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-84.
The FCC Media Bureau is restoring language in the agency’s ATSC 3.0 rules that it said was inadvertently deleted in 2023, according to an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The language in question involved the requirements to show public interest for non-expedited applications to deploy ATSC 3.0, the order said. The provisions were accidentally removed from the Code of Federal Regulations when the FCC modified the 3.0 rules for multicast streams in 2023, it said. The FCC at the time “never stated or implied” that it “intended to rescind these subsections.” The bureau said it's restoring the rules without seeking comment, effective immediately, because fixing the error falls under the “good cause” exemption to the Administrative Procedure Act.
The FCC Wireline Bureau notified the Universal Service Administrative Co. on Wednesday that it has approved USAC’s FCC Form 471 program integrity assurance review procedures. The procedures are part of the schools and libraries cybersecurity pilot. The approval is subject to further modification and instruction from the bureau, said the notice in docket 23-234.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Wednesday on a waiver request by Securaplane Technologies for a range-controlled radar system that operates in 5.8 GHz spectrum but could “radiate non-spurious emissions into the 5.35-5.46 GHz restricted frequency band.” Comments are due Sept. 26, replies Oct. 14, in docket 25-260. The system provides intrusion detection sensors installed in aircraft wheel wells “to detect movement within two to eight feet of the device,” OET said. It’s “part of a security system typically armed moments before the aircraft is parked and vacated and is automatically disabled when airborne.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is pushing back against a probe by Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., of the federal government’s review of Skydance's $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global (see 2507290066). Other congressional Democrats have also made corruption claims about the FCC’s July approval of the deal, in part citing Paramount’s settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CBS over its editing of an October 2024 interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2507250029).
Gavin Wax, a former FCC 10th-floor aide who was at one time rumored to be in the running for a commissioner seat, has moved on to the State Department, he posted on LinkedIn Monday. Wax is starting a new position as chief of staff to acting Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Darren Beattie.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
Satellite operators are in a tug-of-war with terrestrial interests -- and at times with one another -- over the 12.7 GHz band, according to reply comments this week in docket 25-180. Initial comments in the proceeding also saw satellite industry interest in opening the 12.7 GHz band to satcom (see 2507290045). The FCC adopted a Further NPRM in May asking about opening the 12.7, 42 and 51.4-52.4 GHz bands, as well as parts of the W band, to satellite communications (see 2505280055).
The push by the first Trump administration to create a fourth national wireless carrier -- after Sprint exited the market when T-Mobile bought it -- could be over, industry experts said following the announcement that AT&T was buying much of EchoStar’s spectrum portfolio for $23 billion (see 2508260052).