Sinclair made an unsolicited offer to buy all outstanding shares of E.W. Scripps in a deal that it said could proceed under existing broadcast-ownership rules, according to an SEC filing Monday. “We are confident that under existing rules, including the national cap, the transaction can be completed in a timely manner with limited select divestitures,” the company said in the filing. The proposal includes provisions “to reinforce the combined company’s journalistic independence.”
A social media post by President Donald Trump on Sunday condemning proposals to do away with the national cap on TV station ownership drew a flurry of responses Monday from NAB, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook and Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, who wants the cap to remain in place. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has been widely seen as likely to do away with the cap, but he has also been clear about his deference to Trump. “If this would also allow the Radical Left Networks to ‘enlarge,’ I would not be happy,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “ABC & NBC, in particular, are a disaster - A VIRTUAL ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY. They should be viewed as an illegal campaign to the Radical Left. NO EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS. If anything, make them SMALLER! President DJT.”
The ITU's existing equivalent power flux density (EPFD) power limits on non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites protect SES' ability to offer service while giving NGSOs regulatory certainty, company representatives told the office of FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez last week. In a filing posted Friday, (docket 25-157), SES said that with thousands of NGSOs launched in the last five years, and NGSO total capacity exceeding geostationary orbit capacity, it's hard to see how the EPFD limits are too protective of GSOs. The EPFD limits might be 25 years old, but they're not automatically outdated, SES argued. In addition, the company said its EPFD concerns "are not hypothetical," as it has seen a yearlong harmful interference incident from an NGSO system operating well in excess of the EPFD limits. The NGSO operator is working to fix the problem, but the interference still hasn't been fully corrected, it added.
The FCC Space Bureau has approved Vast Space's request to operate a non-geostationary orbit demo spacecraft, Haven-Demo, which is intended to demonstrate the functionality of some components and systems that will be used in Vast's forthcoming Haven-1 habitable space station. The Haven-1 is being designed for a three-year mission, the company said.
The Streaming Innovation Alliance and NAB went back and forth over sports rights in dueling online posts last week. In a blog post Monday, NAB said Thanksgiving TV traditions such as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and NFL games are threatened by tech companies. “As Big Tech giants try to rewrite the rules of media, they are pulling cherished cultural moments off the public airwaves and locking them behind digital paywalls,” the broadcast group said. The FCC should roll back broadcast-ownership rules to prevent “the very events that once brought us together” from becoming “increasingly fragmented across streaming platforms like Amazon, Netflix and Apple.”
The Democracy Forward Foundation has asked a federal court to compel the FCC to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests for emails and messages from Chairman Brendan Carr and his staff related to the agency's actions against media companies. “DFF filed FOIA requests to shed light on the actions and priorities of FCC leadership, particularly given the agency’s use of its authority to restrain protected speech and expression,” said the complaint, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
PBS didn’t air the BBC documentary that was the focus of recent letters from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a PBS spokesperson told us Friday. Carr sent letters last week to PBS, NPR and the BBC seeking information about whether a BBC documentary on the Jan. 6 riot aired in the U.S. and warning of possible FCC enforcement action (see 2511200061). President Donald Trump threatened legal action over the documentary, and the BBC apologized for misleading edits in it. “We did not air any of the video in question and have replied to the FCC with that information,” the PBS spokesperson said.
The California Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to start a rulemaking to update the state's Lifeline program. CPUC had been scheduled to vote that day on submitting the state's final BEAD proposal to NTIA (see 2511180007), but that was delayed until the agency's Dec. 18 meeting.
Grandfathered fixed satellite service earth station licensees that qualify for protection from citizens broadband radio service operations need to renew their registrations by Dec. 1 for it to be valid in 2026, according to an FCC public notice Thursday (docket 17-258).
The FCC sought comment Friday on a revised application from Airspan for a waiver to offer dual-band radios that operate across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2511170043). Comments are due Dec. 22, replies Jan. 5, in docket 25-234.