A DOJ request last week for additional information about Nexstar's proposed $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna means the transaction will face serious scrutiny at the agency, antitrust attorneys and industry officials told us in interviews. “This is an indication that the deal might not necessarily be in trouble, but that they’ve got plenty of work to do to get it through,” said Bona Law's Steven Cernak.
HTDNet urged caution as the FCC considers what steps it should take to close a “gap” in its Stir/Shaken authentication rules (see 2507170032). In a filing posted last week in docket 17-59, the carrier described itself as a small, Virginia-based provider that offers “business-class VoIP, network and IT solutions” to other companies. As a provider "that relies on upstream carriers for network interconnection, we respectfully urge the Commission to ensure that new rules remain proportionate, technically feasible, and economically sustainable for small and mid-sized VoIP providers," it said.
Inmate Calling Solutions filed its annual prison-calling report at the FCC on Friday in docket 23-62, but all relevant data was redacted for competitive reasons, it said. “Public release of this information could significantly damage ICSolutions’ competitive position by divulging the Company’s proprietary contract and subcontractor information,” it said. “This data represents a disclosure of internal business processes or arrangements that could help a competitor understand ICSolutions’ management of its operating costs or strategic plans and thereby adversely affect its competitive advantage.”
CBS again faced controversy Monday over its editing of a 60 Minutes interview, this time with President Donald Trump, leaving FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Democrats at odds over whether the changes constituted a violation of the commission’s news distortion rules. The volley of barbs compared the removal of pieces of Trump's interview -- at his request -- to 60 Minutes’ controversial October 2024 editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2410100050). Harris' campaign didn't seek edits to her 60 Minutes interview, which is itself the subject of an ongoing FCC news distortion probe and a lawsuit from Trump that CBS settled in July (see 2507020053).
SBA Communications on Monday became the last of the three major U.S. tower companies to report Q3 earnings, releasing results after the close of the financial markets. In recent calls, American Tower and Crown Castle executives were positive on the outlook for their sector as U.S. carriers continue to deploy 5G.
The further NPRM on robocalls and caller ID that the FCC adopted at its October meeting (see 2510280024) could "significantly reduce" certain compliance burdens on companies that call and text consumers, Eversheds Sutherland wrote last week. However, because of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 McLaughlin Chiropractic decision, companies can't rely exclusively on FCC orders to provide guidance and precedent, the firm said. That means that despite the FCC proposing to amend and streamline rules, companies should still expect a wave of Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigation in coming years as plaintiffs challenge long-standing rules, it added. McLaughin held that district courts aren't bound to a federal agency's interpretation of a statute in civil enforcement proceedings.
The FCC has asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay Consumers’ Research’s legal challenge to the USF because of the federal shutdown, said a motion filed Friday in docket 25-60535. The request for stay is unopposed, it said. The agency wants the court to stay the case until 14 days after the shutdown ends and extend all deadlines to the date the stay is lifted. The next filing deadline in the case is currently Nov. 10. The reduction in the FCC and DOJ workforces caused by the shutdown “has effectively eliminated the ability of counsel who have worked on and are familiar with this case to handle the litigation while the lapse in appropriations continues,” the filing said.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected arguments from providers of incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS) that it's required to transfer a case challenging the FCC’s 2024 IPCS to the 5th Circuit, said an opinion Friday. “We see no basis for concluding that we must transfer the petitions,” the ruling said. “And, at least for now, we have no request to exercise our discretion to transfer the petitions. We also see no reason to do so on our own at this time.” On Tuesday, the FCC approved an IPCS order on rate caps that it has said will render moot provider challenges to the 2024 order (see 2510280045).
The federal shutdown is keeping the FCC from processing transfer-of-control applications, but broadcasters are expecting a wave of station deal approvals when it ends, they told us in interviews. Being unable to file paperwork doesn’t delay negotiations, broadcasters told us. “We can’t file anything because nothing’s open right now,” said Circle City Broadcasting CEO DuJuan McCoy, who announced an $83 million deal Tuesday to purchase WRTV Indianapolis (ABC) from E.W. Scripps. “When you're doing deals, you worry about what you can control, and that's signing a deal, negotiating a deal and locking it up.”
The way the U.S. licenses satellites is often "slow, bespoke, and overly burdensome," and it should instead use shot clocks and presume that non-geostationary orbit systems that follow the FCC's rules are in the public interest, the LEO Policy Working Group (LPWG) urged Thursday. Composed of satellite industry and regulatory experts, the group issued a report and series of recommendations aimed at better spectrum sharing and coexistence, helping foster competition and better employing low earth orbit (LEO) connectivity in federal broadband programs to aid in closing the digital divide.