FCC Chairman Brendan Carr signaled a possible broadcast hoax or news distortion probe of PBS and NPR in a letter sent Wednesday to those entities, as well as the BBC. The letter came a day after the agency opened a proceeding that appeared to be aimed at encouraging broadcasters to more frequently preempt shows, as they did with Jimmy Kimmel Live! President Donald Trump again called for Kimmel’s firing in a social media post Thursday.
At their November meeting Thursday, the FCC approved a rollback of cybersecurity rules, an NPRM seeking comment on modernizing the telecommunications relay service, and a direct final rule order deleting 21 public safety provisions. The commissioners also approved a proposal for upper C-band rules.
The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment by Dec. 10 on possible agency oversight of network/affiliate contracts, broadcaster preemption rights and future rulemakings on programming agreements, said a public notice Wednesday.
Nexstar and Tegna want the FCC to waive the nationwide TV station ownership cap, along with local ownership limits in 23 markets, if those rules remain in effect when the agency decides on the companies' $6.2 billion merger, said transfer of control applications submitted Tuesday.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the agency could look at driving “inefficiencies” out of the USF program and NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth clarified the agency’s focus for the BEAD program in separate Q&As onstage Tuesday at NTCA’s Telecom Executive Policy Summit. NTIA rules restricting the broadband funding that BEAD participants can receive are aimed at preventing bids that rely on “speculative, hypothetical funding” to complete their obligations and at avoiding defaults, Roth said. NTIA said Tuesday that it approved 18 state BEAD proposals (see 2511180007).
The FCC could soon look at strengthening broadcast affiliate stations’ right to preempt network programming, Chairman Brendan Carr told a group of reporters outside an NTCA event Tuesday. In a press conference the same day, President Donald Trump suggested that Carr should take action against ABC.
Sinclair has purchased an 8.2% stake in E.W. Scripps as part of an effort to buy the entire company, Sinclair told the SEC in a filing Monday.
Telecommunications relay service (TRS) companies and consumer groups are mainly supportive of the FCC’s TRS NPRM, and industry attorneys told us it's expected to receive unanimous approval at the agency’s Nov. 20 open meeting. However, consumer groups told us that any rulemaking stemming from the proceeding needs to take legacy users of analog TRS into account.
Several former FCC chairs, commissioners and staffers of both parties have signed a petition from Tech Freedom and Protect Democracy calling on the agency to rescind its broadcast news distortion policy. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has used the policy to perform “extraordinary intrusions” into editorial decision-making, said the petition, signed by former Republican FCC Chairmen Mark Fowler, Alfred Sikes and Dennis Patrick, former Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler, three Republican ex-commissioners, and several past eighth-floor aides.
Gray Media executives said in a Q3 earnings call Friday that the recent Democratic electoral wins will increase broadcasters' political ad revenue and that the company is waiting on the outcomes of FCC proceedings on ownership rules and pending Gray transactions to provide a clearer picture of the options for mergers and acquisitions. “Things are changing faster than I've ever, ever seen it, and for the first time in the history of our business, we are really operating in the wild, wild West,” said co-CEO Hilton Howell. “No one knows what the rules actually are.”