Changes to applications concerning the $8 billion Paramount Global/Skydance Media deal constitute major amendments that warrant a further pleading cycle, the FCC Media Bureau said Friday in docket 24-275. Revised petitions to deny are due Dec. 16, with revised oppositions to petitions due Jan. 2 and revised replies Jan. 13. The bureau said changes to the applications indicate Skydance CEO David Ellison would hold voting control over the corporate entities that ultimately would run the combined companies. The initial pleading cycle saw arguments from labor unions for labor-related conditions on any license transfer approvals (see 2410080033).
Consumer complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls have declined more than 50% since 2021, the FTC said in its national Do Not Call Registry data book released Friday. "Illegal calls remain a scourge, but the FTC's strategy to pursue upstream players and equip the agency to confront emerging threats is showing clear signs of success," said Sam Levine, director-Bureau of Consumer Protection. The FTC said it received about 1.1 million complaints about robocalls in FYB 2024, down 1.2 million from the previous year. Complaints about calls related to debt-reduction, though, increased more than 85% from last year.
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Friday approved a waiver of quarterly tower inspection rules for Cooperative Energy (CE) after the co-op system installed self-diagnostic technology. “Our action today should encourage other tower owners to invest in state-of-the-art technologies so that they, too, will become capable of continuous monitoring of both their lighting systems and control devices,” the order said. The bureau noted that CE serves 11 co-ops in Mississippi and has 85 towers subject to inspection requirements. CE uses the FCC-approved Vanguard Monitoring System and its network operations centers to receive alarms from that system, the bureau said.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff to discuss templates for wireless emergency alerts, said a filing Wednesday in docket 15-91. “The Bureau proposed two types of WEA templates for 9-1-1 outages, a static version and a fillable version that can be amended to include certain outage-specific information,” the filing said: “APCO expressed a preference for WEA templates for 9-1-1 outages that can be customized to include critical information such as the location of the outage, an alternative method to reach 9-1-1, and an embedded URL.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Thursday granted five more licenses in the 900 MHz broadband segment to PDV Spectrum. All the licenses are in Texas. The FCC approved an order in 2020 reallocating a 6 MHz swath in the band for broadband, while maintaining 4 MHz for narrowband operations (see 2005130057).
The FCC’s draft order on creating a standardized process for authorizing content-originating FM boosters necessary for geotargeted radio ads is expected to be unanimously approved during the commissioners' Nov. 21 open meeting, industry and agency officials told us.
The cost of internet service rose 1.1% between October 2023 and last month, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index unadjusted data released Wednesday. BLS said October prices for all items were 2.6% higher year over year before seasonal adjustment. NCTA blogged Wednesday that the 1% drop in internet prices between September and October marked the third month in a row and the fourth out of the past five that internet prices were less than previous months. "Over the last few years, when inflation was much higher, broadband prices consistently bucked the trend and didn’t mirror the jumps in prices that many other core goods and services saw that drove inflation, a trend that still holds true today," it added. BLS said smartphone prices in October fell 9.9% year over year, while prices for computers, peripherals and smart home assistants were down 5.4%. The cost for cable, satellite and streaming TV service was down 0.3% year over year, while wireless phone service was down 0.4%. TV price tags were down 4.5%, the cost of residential phone service was up 1.9% year over year and video purchase/subscription/rentals rose 5.6%.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr posted his support Wednesday of President-elect Donald Trump's announcement that Space-X CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” “Delete, delete, delete,” commented Carr on a post from Musk about the new department.
Members of the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance cast the FCC’s recent order allowing FirstNet to use unassigned parts of the 4.9 GHz band as a win for public safety agencies. Industry experts said the order is unlikely to be reversed in the Donald Trump administration since it was approved with the support of FCC Republicans Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington. Opponents have threatened litigation (see 2410220027).
The FCC’s expedited review of Audacy’s bankruptcy restructuring and quick acceptance of applications for Skydance’s proposed buy of Paramount Global highlight “the disparate treatment” of Standard General in its failed purchase of Tegna, Standard said in a filing in U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit Friday. Standard’s filing argued that the court should deny motions to dismiss its lawsuit against the FCC, Allen Media CEO Byron Allen and several unions and public interest groups. Standard has argued those entities conspired to block its purchase of Tegna. The Media Bureau accepted applications from Skydance to buy Paramount Global in eight days, while it took 48 to accept Standard’s initial filings to buy Tegna, the motion said. The Paramount transaction involves private equity, similar to Standard’s deal, and is widely expected to prompt job cuts, the filing said. “The straw objectors from the Standard General-TEGNA proceedings have not objected to the Paramount deal,” the filing said. The FCC didn’t require Audacy to show that its transaction wouldn’t lead to job cuts, while it highlighted possible newsroom cuts in Standard/Tegna, the filing said. “The FCC’s recent approval of the license transfers in the Audacy matter confirms to me that the FCC is applying its rules arbitrarily and unlawfully, leaving me with even less confidence that I will be treated fairly and lawfully when I next appear before the FCC,” said Standard founder Soohyung Kim in a declaration filed with the court. “Seeing the different treatment between that matter and the Standard General-TEGNA transaction review has left me to believe that FCC review turns more on who the owner is than on the nature of the transaction.”