Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed cloture Thursday on Democratic FCC nominee Anna Gomez, teeing up likely floor votes leading to her confirmation during the first full week of September. That means movement on Gomez and the resulting shift to a 3-2 Democratic FCC majority will be slower than her supporters wanted but provides a clear timeline for the changeover to take place, officials and observers told us. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others filed a cloture petition on Gomez earlier this month in hopes Schumer would hold floor votes on the nominee before Congress left for the month-plus August recess (see 2307200071).

Linear network revenue is down, but Comcast is offsetting that via Peacock subscription and advertising growth, Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong said as the company announced its Q2 results Thursday. He said Comcast is reallocating some linear network resources to the streaming service. The ad market is likely to remain soft in the second half of the year, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said. Advertising revenue for the quarter was $993 million, down 10.7% from the same quarter in 2022, Comcast said.

Broadcasting has “a black eye on Wall Street” after the FCC blocked the private equity-backed Standard/Tegna deal, said Beasley Media CEO Caroline Beasley at a Media Institute lunch Thursday. Beasley said the FCC should relax local ownership caps on radio to preserve local broadcasting: “We need interest from private equity, we need investment in our space.”

Commenters raised concerns on an April petition by the Shortwave Modernization Coalition (SMC) asking the FCC to launch a rulemaking to amend its eligibility and technical rules for industrial/business pool licensees to authorize licensed use of frequencies above 2 MHz and below 25 MHz for fixed, long-distance, non-voice communications (see 2305010053). Through experimental use of 2-25 MHz band frequencies “SMC members have developed and refined technologies to, among other things, enhance spectrum sharing in the band without materially increasing the risk of harmful interference to other authorized … users,” SMC said.

The Senate Commerce Committee passed two kids’ privacy bills Thursday, for the second year in a row (see 2211160078 and 2207270057).

NTIA issued its second notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the tribal broadband connectivity program Thursday, making nearly $1 billion available for Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities. The agency made $980 million available for high-speed infrastructure deployment, telehealth and distance learning, and use and adoption efforts on tribal lands. Eligible entities have until Jan. 23 to apply for the new funding.

The Senate Commerce Committee easily advanced the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (S-1669) Thursday, but the measure still faces hurdles to enactment, especially in the House. Congress was on track to not act on two other communications policy matters seen as potentially ripe for action before lawmakers were expected to depart Thursday night for the month-plus August recess (see 2307200071): a push for Senate confirmation of Democratic FCC nominee Anna Gomez and House consideration of the Commerce Committee-approved Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565).

Here are last week’s most-read stories on court proceedings affecting telecom, tech and media that were covered in-depth by our sibling publication Communications Litigation Today. Current subscribers can click the reference number hyperlink or search the story title. Nonsubscribers can gain access by signing up for a complimentary preview.

California faces higher-than-expected construction costs as it works to complete the state’s middle-mile network, said Mark Monroe, deputy director-California Technology Department (CDT) Broadband Middle-Mile Initiative, at a partly virtual California Broadband Council meeting Thursday. And many more miles of fiber will be needed than originally planned, he said. Other state broadband officials said it’s important to keep funding the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) as California makes gains enrolling households.

AT&T is working with the EPA to address questions about its legacy lead-sheathed telecom cable (see 2307210004) but questions the health risk to the public, CEO John Stankey said Wednesday as the company reported Q2 results. In April, AT&T’s stock price fell more than 10% after free cash flow (FCF) was below analyst expectations. AT&T reported FCF of $4.2 billion, up $1 billion in the first-half of 2023 compared with last year, and projected full-year FCF of $16 billion or better. AT&T’s stock price rose less than 1% Wednesday, closing at $14.90.