A restored minority tax certificate would be a useful tool for minority and female would-be broadcast station owners, but the main barrier is lack of access to capital, agreed panelists at the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment’s virtual symposium Friday. “We have to look at how you create more access to investment capital and other instruments that will allow owners to have the resources to participate in this industry,” said Sara Lomax-Reese, CEO of AM station WURD Philadelphia.
The FCC’s Communications Decency Act Section 230 rulemaking proceeding (see 2010210062) opens the door for a potential Biden administration to pursue its own interpretation of the technology industry’s liability shield, tech observers and legal experts told us. Rather than drop the proceeding, initiated by President Donald Trump’s social media executive order, a Democratic FCC could take an activist approach with it, they said.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey and other Democratic committee leaders are expected to ask the FCC to stand down work on any further controversial matters during a potential transition from President Donald Trump’s administration if Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s leads hold in several marginal states, communications sector observers told us. No similar call from Senate Commerce Committee Democrats is expected, since the party doesn’t have control of the chamber, and the majority in the next Congress remains in doubt (see 2011050056), lobbyists said.
TV broadcasters are making a comeback from the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic due to more political ad revenue than expected, but many are declining to provide guidance for 2021, according to earnings calls and investor releases this week from the CEOs of Gray Television, Meredith, Fox, Graham Media, Sinclair Broadcast and Nexstar.
The Office of Engineering and Technology is keeping up with demand, as much of the FCC spectrum agenda flows through his office, said Ron Williams, chief of OET’s Laboratory Division. There’s a lot going on “behind the curtain to make sure the show goes on,” he told FCBA Thursday. “I know sometimes it seems like it’s hard to get an answer, but I’ve been chartered to streamline the processes.”
State commissioners can influence broadband policy even with limited telecom authority, said NARUC broadband task force members at the association’s virtual annual meeting Thursday. Utility regulators’ telecom role “has diminished significantly” in most states, but they can still “play the role of honest broker,” said Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander, who next week becomes NARUC president. Collaboration with federal government is a must, said other commissioners.
The satellite industry is resisting the unified licensing draft order on Nov. 18's agenda (see 2010270065), urging the FCC to go back to some proposals it floated in the NPRM but ultimately rejected. Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup told us SIA and individual companies are lobbying the eighth floor. The draft NPRM on satellite use of 17 GHz band, also on the agenda, is considered comparatively uncontroversial.
E.W. Scripps’ $2.65 billion buy of Ion’s stations (see 2009240044) is seen likely to get FCC approval. It could hit some regulatory hiccups over the deal’s 26-station divestiture to a newly created company run by the leadership of frequent Scripps media broker Methuselah Advisors, broadcast officials said in recent interviews. Future FCC action on the UHF discount (see 2009250065) could also affect the newly created company, but the deal is expected to eventually be approved, possibly with adjustments, said media brokers, attorneys and broadcasters.
T-Mobile agreed to pay $200 million to settle an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation of waste, fraud and abuse connected with Sprint receiving Lifeline subsidies for 885,000 subscribers who weren’t using the service, said an order and consent decree Wednesday (see 2011040016). T-Mobile bought Sprint earlier this year. The payment “is the largest fixed-amount settlement the Commission has ever secured to resolve an investigation,” said an FCC news release. “While we inherited this issue with our merger, we are glad that it is now resolved,” T-Mobile emailed.
Split control of Congress is now very likely to continue for another two years, based on votes counted through Wednesday afternoon. Observers we spoke with noted that continued uncertainty about the presidential race makes it hard to predict whether there’s a realistic possibility of a split Congress making progress on telecom policy. Not knowing whether President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden would win the White House is clouding expectations (see 2011040049).