Nexstar agreed to purchase Tegna in a $6.2 billion deal that could receive regulatory approval only if the national ownership cap is relaxed or eliminated, Nexstar said in a news release and conference call Tuesday. If the deal is consummated, Nexstar would control 265 TV stations, become the largest owner of affiliates for "all four of the biggest networks, and reach 80% of U.S. households. The current rule caps audience reach for a single station owner at 39%, but the FCC has a proceeding that will possibly change the cap. Reply comments in the proceeding are due in docket 17-318 Friday. Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said he doesn't “want to presume where [FCC Chairman Brendan Carr] will come out in his national ownership proceeding” but also that Nexstar feels “very, very positive about moving forward to the regulatory approval process.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the FCC’s $80 million data breach forfeiture in a unanimous opinion handed down Friday (see 2508150014). T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations by Sprint, which it later acquired. Judges appeared skeptical of T-Mobile's arguments when the case was heard in March (see 2503240048). T-Mobile is reviewing the decision, a spokesperson said Friday.
The Canadian broadband market is similar to the U.S., with most people having internet service that’s at least 100 Mbps for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads, experts said during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. However, speakers noted that, as in the U.S., Canada still faces a digital divide. Similar to the $42.45 billion BEAD program, Canada is making about $4.4 billion available for broadband under its current fund, they said. The smaller fund reflects, in part, that the population of Canada is 41.3 million, versus 340.1 million in the U.S.
The FCC is facing persistent calls from one unsuccessful bidder for Paramount Global to revisit the approval of the company's sale to Skydance Media, but we're told the commission is unlikely to heed them. The agency didn't comment Wednesday.
The three U.S. tower companies said their industry's outlook appears positive, with the big three major carriers continuing to expand their networks. SBA Communications became the last to report on Monday.
Ending the collection of biennial ownership data through Form 323 would eliminate virtually the only source of information about broadcast-ownership diversity, several civil rights and public interest groups told us. The FCC Media Bureau on Tuesday announced an 18-month pause on collecting Form 323 and seemed to indicate that the requirement to submit the data will be permanently deleted (see 2507300070). Halting Form 323 collection would be “yet another structural policy decision to brush civil rights under the rug, to obscure discrimination in the broadcast industry,” said Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez in an email. “It's a shameful and brazen dereliction of the FCC's duty to serve all Americans.”
The Trump administration has so far raised many questions about its approach to tackling cybersecurity, former acting NTIA Administrator Evelyn Remaley said during a USTelecom webinar Tuesday. Other experts said the administration is mostly on the right track, though they conceded its policies remain a work in progress.
Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., on Friday accused FCC Chairman Brendan Carr of abusing his power by pushing Verizon and other companies to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs to win approval of transactions before the commission (see 2505160050). Verizon’s proposed buy of Frontier was held up as Carr sought assurance on DEI (see 2505160024). Ivey spoke during a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) conference.
AT&T expects to see up to $8 billion in tax savings for 2025-2027 as a result of the recently enacted reconciliation package and will invest $3.5 billion of those savings in its network, the carrier said Wednesday as it reported Q2 results. AT&T also reported 401,000 postpaid phone net adds for the quarter, 243,000 AT&T Fiber net adds and 203,000 AT&T Internet Air adds.
Leaders of two 911 advocacy groups in Tuesday interviews offered slightly diverging plans for pushing Congress to address funding for next-generation 911 tech upgrades. Republican lawmakers decided against allocating any future spectrum auction revenue for that purpose in the budget reconciliation package both chambers passed last week (see 2507030056). President Donald Trump signed the measure Friday, authorizing an 800 MHz spectrum auction pipeline through Sept. 30, 2034 (see 2507070045). A Hill briefing Tuesday with the NG9-1-1 Institute and Intrado on emergency communications issues barely touched on the funding issue.