FTC Chairman Joe Simons wants to double the size of his agency’s tech task force (see 1902280077), supplement privacy and enforcement efforts, and hire more technologists and economists, he told the House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee Wednesday. The House’s FY 2020 budget bill includes $349.7 million for the FTC (see 1906260081 and 1906240061), up about $40 million from what Congress allocated in the FY 2019 spending bill passed in February. More than half of the additional $40 million might be needed to cover mandatory compensation increases and other agency operations, Simons said. The rest could fund the priorities he listed. Simons and Chopra didn't take questions after the hearing.
Telecom, fiber and satellite parties interested in expanding their broadband footprints in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands met with aides to FCC commissioners and officials at the agency's Wireline Bureau over the past few weeks to share their concerns over a new wave of awards in the Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund and the Connect USVI Fund in docket 18-143. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai issued a draft order this month on how the agency will allocate $950 million in USF dollars to providers for rebuilding and strengthening broadband networks in those territories after the devastating hurricanes Maria and Irma hit within a two-week period in 2017 (see 1909050043).
The biggest hurdles to independent programming getting on MVPD platforms are the retransmission consent rules regime and the skyrocketing retrans fees being paid to broadcasters, indie programmers and MVPDs said at a Multicultural Media Caucus Hill briefing Wednesday. Fixes could include the Modern TV Act (HR-3994) and using the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act renewal (STELAR) to change the video marketplace, some said.
TAMPA -- Public, educational and governmental access programmers should get creative in how they raise money and in other parts of their operations, amid revenue and other challenges, NATOA was told Wednesday. There's declining cable revenue in many localities, as the number of traditional pay-TV subscribers shrinks and cable ISPs focus more on broadband, plus uncertainty about what regulators including the FCC might do next. To seek alternative ways of getting money means turning to concepts in other sectors: branding, fundraising, working with IRS-deemed 501(c)(3) affiliates, getting corporate and other sponsorships, and asking people to make donations.
Widespread 5G will mean many more Americans will have another choice of broadband provider, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Wednesday. Carr said the FCC needs to continue its push to get the rules right for broadband deployment. But Carr didn’t discuss next steps or comment on regulatory changes sought by CTIA and the Wireless Infrastructure Association, which the FCC put out for comment (see 1909130062).
Leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees are optimistic about the potential for progress on several of their top telecom policy priorities when Congress returns in mid-October from its upcoming two-week recess, including work to marry House and Senate-passed anti-robocall bills and an upcoming House package of broadband mapping legislation. And Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., voiced his willingness to compromise on some aspects of Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization. Congress is to recess at the end of this week and both chambers will reconvene Oct. 15.
DALLAS -- Broadcasters and broadcast attorneys are pinning their hopes on the FCC's appeal of Monday's 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion (see 1909230067) to undo the “monkey wrench” the ruling threw into broadcast ownership deregulation, according to panel discussions and interviews at the 2019 Radio Show.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote to the FTC Tuesday asking it to release a complete version of its 2012 report on potential anti-competitive behavior at Google. Half the report was inadvertently released in 2015, but the remaining pages are important for knowing whether the platform deceived consumers, he said during a Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing Tuesday.
The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee approved a resolution Tuesday urging the FCC to launch a rulemaking on unresolved real-time text technical issues. In December 2016, FCC commissioners approved 5-0 a common standard for the transition from text technology (TTY) to real-time text (RTT) (see 1612150048). DAC members said some tricky issues remain.
Tech companies cheered Tuesday's ruling that the right to be forgotten by search engines doesn't apply outside the EU. The case involved a dispute between Google and French privacy authority CNIL (Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertes) over whether a subject's request to have links to web pages containing personal data delisted must be honored worldwide. The CNIL said the European Court of Justice didn't buy its approach to that right, but it provided some clarity. One privacy lawyer predicted the ruling won't change much, but a reputation protection firm said it could affect job-seekers for many years.