California state lawmakers have introduced bills to keep film and TV production jobs from leaving, Sheppard Mullin blogged Tuesday. State senate and assembly bills (SB-630/AB-1138) would diversify the types of productions that qualify for California’s Film and Television Tax Credit program to include animation, as well as game shows and other unscripted programs, it said. The also would increase the tax rebate from 20% for most productions in the state, it said. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has also unveiled plans to raise California's current tax credit cap.
Viewers now rely on streaming platforms' suggestions more than recommendations from friends and family in deciding what to watch, Ampere Analysis blogged Tuesday. It said its study of 56,000 consumers across 30 markets globally found that 26% use the streaming platforms' algorithm picks, vs. 23% relying on word-of-mouth suggestions.
New York and Connecticut officials are urging Comcast and Yankee Entertainment and Sports (YES) Network to come to an agreement before MLB's opening day Thursday. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said Tuesday that the sides "need to get back to the table and work out a deal immediately so we can all watch Opening Day in peace.” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that with the current Comcast/YES agreement expiring Tuesday, the sides "need to stay at the table and resolve this dispute without impacting fans." Hochul said that absent a resolution, she would direct the state Department of Public Service "to call public hearings on how consumers are being affected, securing refunds for disruptions and whatever else it takes to resolve broadcasting disruptions for all New Yorkers.” Comcast and YES didn't comment Tuesday.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan on Friday denied allegations that the video platform discriminates against Christian programmer Great American Media on its YouTube TV streaming service. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said earlier this month that the agency had received complaints from GAM and wanted YouTube to brief it on the YouTube TV carriage negotiation process, "including the potential role of viewpoint-based discrimination" (see 2503070052). "We don't discriminate on the basis of that sort of content," Mohan said during a Semafor podcast (see at the 31-minute mark). He said YouTube was "in productive conversations" with GAM. YouTube makes carriage decisions "the way you would imagine" -- based on business considerations and audience demand, he said, adding that the company will explain that "in detail" to the FCC. He said GAM has a YouTube channel, and the YouTube app has "orders of magnitude" greater reach than YouTube TV.
Public interest concerns and politics "aren’t mingling well these days" at the ostensibly independent FCC, wrote Clay Calvert, American Enterprise Institute nonresident senior fellow-technology policy studies. Calvert wrote Wednesday that President Donald Trump, in his legal campaign against CBS and 60 Minutes, "views his personal interest as concomitant with the statutory public interest." FCC Chairman Brendan Carr "might make such [a] coalescence a reality." Calvert cited the agency's investigation of Skydance Media's proposed purchase of CBS parent Paramount Global and how it expanded an investigation of 60 Minutes' 2024 campaign coverage. That means Trump's interests as a private litigant suing CBS over campaign coverage "are now deeply entangled with the investigatory and enforcement powers [of] a federal regulatory agency whose leader (Carr) ... the private litigant promoted."
Comments on the FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking on loud commercials are due April 10 and replies April 25 in docket 25-72, said a public notice Tuesday. Unanimously approved at the Feb. 27 open meeting, the NPRM asks for comments on the agency’s enforcement of its Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act rules and potentially extending them to streaming services (see 2502270058.
Project Rise offered an "unserious" bid to buy Paramount Global, and the issues it has raised with the FCC (see 2503060035) are an attempt to slow the Skydance Media/Paramount deal and force Paramount's board to consider that rival offer, Skydance said Monday (docket 24-275). It said Project Rise lacks standing to object to the transaction, and its "broadsides" lack factual support or merit. Skydance said its "fully funded plan will infuse Paramount with additional capital and combine Skydance’s talented, American management team and storytelling prowess with Paramount’s venerated brands," while Project Rise is offering "an unfunded and unrealistic proposal backed by a leadership team without relevant experience."
A consortium seeking to buy Paramount Global is raising red flags regarding rival Skydance Media's proposed Paramount deal. In a docket 24-275 filing posted Thursday, Project Rise Partners (PRP) said the FCC should examine the risks that the Skydance/Paramount deal raises about perpetuating practices of bundling networks in a way that inhibits the creation of programming content and about the influence of the Chinese government over one of the major national broadcast networks. The FCC also should consider the dangers the Skydance deal raises of higher consumer prices and undermined integrity of broadcast news, PRP said. It said it wants to create "a greenhouse for new content, including conservative, progressive, niche voices, and unrestrained freedom of expression" and "is intent on modernizing, diversifying, and expanding brands like BET, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Showtime rather than eliminating them." Pointing to Chinese company Tencent Holdings' investment in Skydance, PRP said the FCC should look into how Tencent is operating in the U.S. directly or indirectly, adding that Tencent could be operating through Skydance. House China Committee Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., has called for a Committee on Foreign Investment investigation of the Skydance deal because of Tencent's investment (see 2501160055). The co-chairs of PRP are Daphna Edwards Ziman, head of independent network Cinemoi, and Moses Gross, managing trustee of Malka Investment Trust.
Today's video distribution marketplace is working efficiently, with multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) lacking undue market power and facing growing competition, Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long wrote Thursday. The idea of rules applying exclusively to traditional MVPDs "cannot withstand even the slightest scrutiny," he added. Virtual MVPDs aren't subject to the FCC's proposed programming blackout rebate requirement and are outside the scope of the Stop Sports Blackouts Act. If that bill (see 2501310062) becomes law, it would hasten MVPD subscriber losses and "further tilt the regulatory status quo toward ascendant streaming options, and lead to less competition overall," Long said. He added that the FCC's proposed blackout rebate would also make distributors the automatic responsible party and incentivize programmers to ramp up their demands more than they would otherwise.
Media ownership regulations should shift to being technology-neutral and recognizing that there is now an "integrated video-distribution market" that includes broadcast, cable and streaming, said International Center for Law & Economics Senior Scholar Eric Fruits in a blog post Wednesday. “Market power should be assessed based on a company’s share of this broader market, not just its dominance within a particular technological segment,” wrote Fruits, who is also an economics professor at Portland State University. “Instead of different rule books for different technologies, we need a unified framework based on competition principles.” This would involve sunsetting legacy rules tied to specific transmission mediums and basing any ownership rules on actual market share across all platforms, he said. “The focus should be on antitrust enforcement, rather than preemptive structural regulations.” If viewers “readily switch among cable, broadcast, and streaming based on content, rather than delivery method, regulations should treat these services as competitive alternatives,” Fruits wrote. Making that shift wouldn’t be simple but would allow “a media landscape in which competition would be waged on a level playing field and where consumers, not regulatory distinctions, determine which services succeed.”