Having received FCC approval for 7,500 of its second-generation satellites in 2022 (see 2212010052), SpaceX is now asking the FCC to green-light 22,488 satellites the agency deferred on. Those additional satellites, plus "several small-but-meaningful updates" to the orbital configuration of the already-approved second-gen low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, would "improve space sustainability, better respond to evolving demand, and more efficiently share spectrum with other spectrum users," it told the FCC Space Bureau in an application posted Tuesday.
The Media Bureau will open a filing window for applications for new noncommercial educational TV stations from Dec. 4 to Dec. 11, said a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. Effective Friday, the FCC won’t accept petitions to amend the Table of Allotments for new NCE channels, the PN said. Additionally, during the NCE window, there will be a freeze on petitions from full-power and Class A TV stations seeking to change channels or make minor and major changes, the PN said.
Financier BIU can't show any FCC error in how the agency handled a private contractual dispute between BIU and satellite company Spectrum Five, the respondent commission said Thursday as it urged denial of BIU's petition for review (see 2409100005). In a docket 24-1189 brief Wednesday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the FCC said its Enforcement Bureau's denial of BIU's request that the agency reopen Spectrum Five's complaint against Intelsat was in line with the agency's "long-standing practice of non-involvement in private contractual disputes." The FCC said BIU has given no reason why it can't pursue its contract claims in state court, which is the proper forum. The commission said that while BIU alleges that Spectrum Five's Intelsat complaint was withdrawn due to fraud, the fraud allegations "hinge on the contested interpretation of loan agreements that the Commission properly refrained from resolving."
NEW YORK -- 2025 isn't a “cliff” for the broadcast TV industry despite falling retransmission consent revenue, ad sales declines and growing streaming competition, said executives at the NAB Show New York Wednesday. “We're not at the cliff,” said Nexstar President-Broadcast Andy Alford. “I think 2025 is going to have its challenges,” but “there is lots of opportunity for 2025 to be a good year." Said CBS News and Stations President Jennifer Mitchell during a TV NewsCheck-hosted panel, “Despite year-over-year declines heading into 2025 there is a lot of optimism.”
Satellite imaging company Pixxel Space Technologies hopes to launch its Honeybee-00 demonstration satellite, which is to be part of its planned hyperspectral imaging constellation, in June, it told the FCC Space Bureau in an application posted Tuesday. Pixxel asked for a waiver of the requirement that the probability of human casualty from portions of the satellite surviving reentry be zero. It said simulations show its propulsion tanks could survive reentry and cause "a 1:19,100 chance of human casualty," but the tanks can't be readily replaced this far along in the manufacturing process. It said in the future Pixxel will use propulsion tanks that fully burn up on reentry.
The FCC should cement Paramount Global's and Skydance Media's "general labor-friendly statements with specific, binding merger conditions" that maintain minimum levels of union-created content and station-level employment, labor unions said Tuesday in docket 24-275. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Hollywood Local 399, Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East said Paramount and Skydance have maintained that New Paramount will have strong demand for union-created programming and good partnerships with organized labor. But they also have indicated that the $8 billion Skydance/Paramount deal, announced in July (see 2407080025), could prompt significant job cuts, the unions said. Worker-related merger conditions, the union filing said, would be in line with the FCC Media Bureau's hearing designation order in Tegna/Standard General (see 2302240068), which emphasized that jobs and journalists relate directly to localism and the public interest.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should grant TikTok's request for a full-court review of a three-judge panel’s decision that Section 230 doesn’t protect its algorithmic recommendations (see 2408280014) (docket 22-3061), tech associations said in an amicus brief filed Tuesday. Signees included CTA, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, NetChoice, TechNet and the Software & Information Industry Association. Chamber of Progress, Engine and the Interactive Advertising Bureau also signed. TechFreedom signed a separate amicus brief supporting TikTok. The three-judge panel remanded a district court decision dismissing a lawsuit from the mother of a 10-year-old TikTok user who unintentionally hanged herself after watching a “Blackout Challenge” video on the platform. The platform can’t claim Communications Decency Act Section 230 immunity from liability when its content harms users, the panel found. That decision threatens the internet “as we know it,” the associations said in their filing: It jeopardizes platforms’ ability to “disseminate user-created speech and the public’s ability to communication online.” TechFreedom Appellate Litigation Director Corbin Barthold said the panel wrongly concluded that “because recommendations are a website’s own First Amendment-protected expression, they fall outside Section 230’s liability shield. A website’s decision simply to host a third party’s speech at all is also First Amendment-protected expression. By the panel’s misguided logic, Section 230’s key provision -- Section 230(c)(1) -- is a nullity; it protects nothing.”
The American Petroleum Institute supports rule changes for the citizens broadband radio service band to make it more usable by API members, the group said in comments on an August FCC NPRM (see 2408160031). “In many cases without the ability to build reliable wireless infrastructure, these company operations would lack the communications necessary to operate effectively,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-258: “In general, API members have seen benefits from the existing availability of CBRS spectrum and support the Commission’s endeavor to make the use more friendly to enterprise and small business usage.” The deadline for initial comments on the NPRM had been Monday, but the Wireless Bureau recently extended it to Nov. 6 (see 2409270026).
The American Radio Relay League requested a waiver of the commission’s Part 97 rules to communicate with military stations as part of Pearl Harbor Day commemorations Dec. 7 and 8. ARRL said it made the request on behalf of the Battleship Iowa Amateur Radio Association. “The frequencies and time periods selected will not impact any public or private communications, government or non-government,” said an undocketed filing posted Tuesday. The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a similar waiver last year (see 2311270044).
As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida, the FCC Wireless Bureau on Tuesday approved waivers for Federated Wireless and Google of rules that require environmental sensing capability systems to protect federal incumbents in Florida in the citizens broadband radio service band from harmful interference. The waivers are similar to those the companies received during other recent storms (see 2409260035).