Broadcasters clashed with Microsoft, MVPDs and unlicensed spectrum advocates responding to an FCC Further NPRM on ATSC 3.0, in filings in docket 16-142 Wednesday. Broadcast entities such as NAB and One Media want transitioning broadcasters to have the option to use vacant channels, but Microsoft, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge said that request is a spectrum grab. Such “a dramatic giveaway” to broadcasters is a legal violation “inconsistent” with the public interest and spectrum policy, and is “likely unnecessary to facilitate the voluntary ATSC 3.0 transition,” Microsoft said. The sides also disagree about the standards to be applied to broadcaster waivers of the 3.0 order’s simulcast requirement.
The Trump administration is looking at what approach it should take on a spectrum plan, said Kelsey Guyselman, policy adviser to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, at an FCBA 5G session Wednesday. Guyselman and other speakers also stressed the importance of cybersecurity in a 5G world. The Obama administration took an active role in spectrum, pushing sharing over exclusive use licenses in many cases, but the Trump administration has been relatively quiet 13 months in (see 1712270032). “We’ve been thinking a lot about that and how to approach that,” Guyselman. “There’s not just sort of the traditional low-hanging fruit anymore.”
Commissioners approved 5-0 an NPRM on spectrum above 95 GHz for new services and technologies, opening a “spectrum horizons” proceeding. Industry has shown little interest (see 1802200058), but Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday the FCC shouldn’t be deterred. After the meeting, commissioners clashed over the lack of scheduled auctions for any bands.
ISPs are likely to get more stringent on policing copyright infringement by subscribers in light of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision on Cox Communications earlier this month (see 1802010026), with one possible result increased termination of subscribers, experts told us. People involved in Digital Millennium Copyright Act compliance at ISPs are likely to engage in more terminations to show the operator is assiduously following its own policies, said internet lawyer Lawrence Walters.
The FCC approved a notice proposing rules implementing Section 7 of the Communications Act, designed to speed review of “innovative” technologies and services, over objections by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn Thursday. Chairman Ajit Pai said the goal is simple -- get out of the way of innovation. “Bureaucratic inertia” is a common barrier, he said. The agency has been taking steps on his watch to promote innovation, from approving the first LTE-unlicensed devices to approving ATSC 3.0 standards to greenlighting a power-at-a-distance wireless transmitter, Pai said: “We have stood on the side of innovation, but these are ad hoc measures.”
Google and Microsoft were among the top 50 companies in EU lobbying spending in 2017. Google dropped from sixth in 2016 to 18th, ahead of Microsoft at 26th, LobbyFacts.eu said. Google was in the top 10 as of Wednesday, with an outlay of 5.25 million-5.5 million euros ($6.5 million-$6.8 million), upping the spending it reported to the EU transparency register to pass Microsoft (4.5 million-4.75 million euros). Google outpaced Microsoft and Facebook among lobbying organizations with the most high-level meetings at the European Commission, EU Integrity Watch reported. Continued strong lobbying on digital single market and digital economy issues by companies is increasingly accompanied by U.S.-style corporate tactics, European civil society organizations said.
At Dish Network, “we obviously have concerns” about Disney’s proposed $66.1 billion buy of much of 21st Century Fox (see 1712140003), said Chairman Charlie Ergen, much as he previously expressed worries about AT&T/Time Warner (see 1711090004). Ergen, on a Wednesday earnings call, implied strongly that he thinks DOJ should challenge Disney/Fox in the courts, as it’s doing with AT&T/TW.
Parties opposed an FCC plan to retarget Lifeline USF to facilities-based providers and impose certain other funding restrictions, in comments being posted this week in docket 17-287 on an NPRM and notice of inquiry (see 1711160021). "This package of proposals runs the risk of harming over eight million Lifeline households and millions more eligible veterans, older Americans, and households with school-aged children,” said Olivia Wein, National Consumer Law Center attorney, in a release Wednesday highlighting NCLC comments filed with many other groups. The FCC plan "to restrict and reduce Lifeline services will cut off whole communities from these necessary connections," commented the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, urging rejection of "proposals to radically disrupt the Lifeline program."
Sinclair will offload stations into a divestiture trust to bring its proposed buy of Tribune under the 39 percent FCC national ownership cap. The final combination, under the UHF discount, would reach 37.3 percent of households, Sinclair said in an amendment to deal filings Wednesday. In three markets, Sinclair will seek to take advantage of the FCC’s new openness to common ownership of two top-four stations in the same market, and offloads other stations to bring the deal into compliance with current rules.
The looming fight on Capitol Hill over President Donald Trump’s bid to cut federal funding to CPB in the president's FY 2019 budget proposal is shaping up to end the same way as did the administration’s CPB elimination proposal for FY 2018, with lawmakers instead maintaining CPB’s existing appropriations level, congressional appropriators and public broadcasting supporters told us. The administration proposed cutting federal funding to CPB and 21 other entities beginning in FY 2019 as part of a bid to cut the deficit by $3.6 trillion (see 1802120037). The House and Senate Appropriations committees cleared FY 2018 federal budgets last year maintaining CPB annual funding at $445 million (see 1705230041, 1707200065 and 1709070064).