FCC commissioners, along party lines, released a notice of inquiry Wednesday examining how easy -- or not -- it is to cancel cable, broadband, satellite TV and voice services and whether cancellation should be as simple and straightforward as enrolling often is. The NOI, adopted 3-2 Oct. 10, also raises the idea of the FCC requiring live customer service representatives. Comments are due Nov. 22, replies Dec. 9, in docket 24-472.
The cable industry and broadcasters are adopting dueling talking points on the FCC's 10th floor concerning the proposed reporting requirement when retransmission consent talks fail and lead to a blackout, according to docket 23-427 postings Tuesday. In meetings with the offices of FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, NCTA, Comcast, Charter and Cox Communications representatives said that while the NPRM (see 2401170072) proposes reporting on blackouts that last more than 24 hours, it should focus on longer blackouts because that would be less disruptive to negotiations. The cablers also argued against reporting the number of subscribers affected. However, if reporting such numbers eventually is required, then the FCC should keep figures confidential. In meetings with Rosenworcel and Starks aides, NAB asserted that a blackout reporting requirement would exceed the FCC's limited statutory authority relating to retransmission consent, and wouldn't provide consumers with meaningful information. NAB said disruptions increase during key congressional or FCC deliberations on retrans issues. A public database of retrans blackouts "will serve as an 'attractive nuisance' that MVPDs cannot resist, triggering increased disruptions and harming consumers," it said. NAB has had similar meetings with the offices of Carr and Simington.
The California Public Utilities Commission is mulling ways it can support broadband adoption in the wake of the federal affordable connectivity (ACP) program ending, Communications Division Director Rob Osborn said during the California Broadband Council’s meeting Tuesday. The state is making significant progress advancing its broadband-for-all goals, reported Scott Adams, deputy director of the California Department of Technology (CDT) broadband and digital literacy office.
NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt denounced threats of government action against broadcast licenses after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sent CBS legal threats and a court affidavit indicated the Florida Governor's Office was behind that state’s efforts to prosecute TV stations that carried an abortion rights ad (see 2410180050). Although Trump has publicly called for federal action against broadcast licenses nearly every other week since his September debate with the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, NAB was silent on the issue until now.
Incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS) providers and public interest groups urged the FCC to revise its proposed rules on rate caps for video IPCS (see 2409200019). Commissioners adopted the Further NPRM in July along with an order lowering rates for audio IPCS and establishing interim rate caps for video IPCS. Providers opposed establishing service quality standards and expanding the definition of a correctional facility in comments posted Tuesday in docket 23-62. Public interest groups sought additional data, allowing more refinement of interim rate caps.
A staunch opponent of giving FirstNet access to the 4.9 GHz band says the FCC decision to do that will head to court. The approved order, released Tuesday, said its aim is "more robust use" of the band, with FirstNet able to use unassigned spectrum in the band. Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) Chairman Kenneth Corey called the FCC order "unlawful, unnecessary, and an affront to public safety communications professionals across the country." He added, "This decision will be challenged and will be litigated."
Satellite operators are lobbying the FCC heavily about protecting earlier-round non-geostationary orbit systems from later-round NGSOs, but the industry is split on metrics. Meeting with the offices of all five FCC commissioners, Intelsat reiterated its backing for a 3% threshold in throughput degradation for long-term interference protection and a sliding-scale in degradation for short-term protection, according to a post in docket 21-456 Monday. It said Intelsat opposes a 0.4% flat degradation. Amazon's Kuiper said that there's industry consensus on numerous issues and that the agency should reject O3b's "bespoke and complicated formula" for calculating short-term interference threshold and instead go with the absolute short-term threshold within the range suggested by it -- 0.1% -- and SpaceX -- 0.4%. Kuiper said O3b's "overly protective" short-term threshold incentivizes incumbents to make unreasonable coordination demands and use its protections against new competitors. In meetings with the offices of the four regular commissioners, O3b said the 0.4% absolute change would hurt NGSO customers and competition. That approach, O3b added, would let later-round systems put higher levels of short-term interference on incumbents than a system in the same processing round could, under current processing round rules. O3b reiterated its call for a Further NPRM seeking input on the different short-term interference metric proposals (see 2410150045).
As the FCC eyes fostering independent video programming, it should examine how broadcasters' forced bundling and forced tier and penetration requirements distort competition and harm indie programmers and multichannel video programming distributors, according to the American TV Alliance. In a docket 24-115 filing posted Monday recapping a meeting with FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer, ATVA said programmers' increased ownership of or affiliation with VOD services incentivizes those programmers to be even more aggressive with bundling and related requirements than in the past. FCC commissioners in April adopted an indie programming NPRM, 3-2 (see 2404190063)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continued his calls this week for government against CBS over editing of a 60 Minutes interview with his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2410170051). “When will CBS release their Transcript of the fraudulent Interview with Comrade Kamala Harris?” Trump posted Monday on Truth Social. “This may be the Biggest Scandal in Broadcast History!” In an interview with Fox News' Howard Kurtz Sunday, Trump said he was seeking to subpoena CBS’ records about the interview that ran earlier this month. In addition, he said that 60 Minutes should be taken off the air. When Kurtz responded that FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has said the agency would never yank a broadcaster’s license because of a politician’s objections to an interview, Trump appeared unfamiliar with her statement. “Really?” he responded, before reiterating his objections. Trump’s accusations against 60 Minutes are “false,” the program said in a statement Sunday night. 60 Minutes “gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response,” the statement said. Harris’ answer on 60 Minutes “was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment,” the program said. In a post on X Monday, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington appeared to suggest that 60 Minutes' editing was unlikely to run afoul of the FCC's news distortion rules. "Broadcast news distortion is an extraordinarily narrow complaint category," Simington said. "CBS could easily remove the predicate for any further discussion by releasing the transcript." In a Fox interview last week, Simington appeared to lean the other way (see 2410180058), describing the news distortion complaint against CBS as not "facially ridiculous." He also promised to look into the matter in an online post that Trump shared.
The FCC added five state attorneys general to the commission’s privacy and data protection task force Monday. Massachusetts' Andrea Campbell (D), Maine's Aaron Frey (D), Vermont's Charity Clark (D), Delaware's Kathy Jennings (D) and Indiana's Todd Rokita (R) joined AGs from five other states and the District of Columbia on the task force, enabling collaboration among the AGs and FCC Enforcement Bureau on privacy and cybersecurity investigations, the FCC said. “Success on this front requires strong partnerships between federal enforcement officials and state leaders,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.