Pay-TV industry interests are pushing the FCC for more time to implement "all-in" video pricing disclosure rules. FCC commissioners will vote on the proposed rules at Thursday's open meeting (see 2402210057). MVPD interests are lobbying on implementation timelines, according to docket 23-203 filings Friday. DirecTV said it would need more time and asked for at least a 12-month deadline or maintenance of the current nine-month deadline for all-in disclosures in advertisements but allowing an additional six months for customer bills. It said solely regulating cable and satellite TV hurts their competitiveness with online services. At least give operators a 12-month window for compliance, ACA Connects told aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez. It said changing customer bills "is a complex undertaking that can involve many sequential steps," especially if the providers use third-party software platforms. Pricing requirements won't address the "underlying dysfunction" in the video marketplace, and urged the FCC against adoption. Pointing to arguments that the rules just apply to cable and direct broadcast satellite, One Ministries said virtual MVPDs should be regulated along with MVPDs. Without it, virtual MVPDs "will continue to discriminate against local 'mom and pop' independent TV stations by not carrying them and only carrying the major network TV stations in the various TV markets," it said.
Both sides in a dispute involving alleged violations of good faith retransmission consent rules between Nexstar and Hawaiian Telecom want the full FCC to overturn aspects of a Media Bureau $720,000 notice of apparent liability issued against Nexstar last month. In the NAL, the bureau agreed with Hawaiian Telecom that Nexstar violated FCC rules by proposing renewal terms that would have barred HT from filing complaints with the FCC, but rejected as being outside the FCC’s authority HT’s initial claims that the broadcaster also violated the rules by refusing to extend an existing retrans agreement. The FCC can’t order a broadcaster to grant retransmission consent, the NAL said. “The Bureau’s decision incorrectly concludes that in the absence of authority to order a broadcaster to grant retransmission consent, the Commission cannot review bad faith conduct that results in a blackout,” HT said in its application for review Thursday. That decision “will serve as dangerous precedent” that “will likely lead to more frequent blackouts because the very existence of a blackout will exempt the broadcaster’s conduct from Commission scrutiny,” HT said. In its own application for review filed Friday, Nexstar argued the bureau shouldn’t have found any good faith violations and said the proposed $720,000 forfeiture is too high and should be canceled or reduced. The provisions against filing complaints with the FCC were part of Nexstar’s proposal to settle HT’s initial good faith dispute concerning Nexstar’s refusal to extend an existing retrans agreement, Nexstar said. That proposal was “eminently reasonable, and any such settlement would have been deficient without a prohibition on further litigation of the matter,” the broadcaster said. The proposed forfeiture “far exceeds the Bureau’s delegated authority” was arrived at in an “illogical way” by treating a contract proposal as a continuing violation from the date it was first proposed until the date the contract was executed, Nexstar said. Such a policy “perversely incents future parties to delay negotiations in the interest of elevating the potential liability to their counter-parties,” Nexstar said. The NAL also increased the forfeiture using “a draconian upward adjustment that is based on no apparent rationale other than that Nexstar is a large and successful broadcaster,” the filing said. “Even if the Bureau could justify a conclusion that a violation occurred,” the proposed forfeiture “far exceeds the gravity of the conduct, not to mention the Bureau’s delegated authority and notions of reasoned decisionmaking,” said Nexstar.
Sixteen Pennsylvania House of Delegates Democrats and Drexel University law professor Tabatha Abu El-Haj are supporting calls for the FCC to approve the license renewal of Fox’s TV station WTXF Philadelphia, according to ex parte filings in docket 23-293 last week (see 2403060088). “If the FCC removes FOX 29’s broadcasting rights, it will deny Pennsylvanians a local outlet that helps increase political engagement,” said Abu El-Haj's letter. “The FCC should not go down this dangerous path and allow FOX 29 to get back to serving the state of Philadelphia without distraction.” The TV station “provides high-quality, unbiased coverage of Philadelphia and Delaware County’s news and reports on important issues affecting some of the most vulnerable groups in our state,” said the legislators' letter.
NAB filed a challenge Friday to the FCC's Dec. 26 quadrennial review order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, joining a number of similar challenges filed in other circuits (see 2402250001). The cases are all to be consolidated in the 8th Circuit under the order of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (see 2403050075). The FCC failed to meet its statutory obligation to review ownership rules every four years, exceeded its authority by tightening rules rather than relaxing them, and violated the First Amendment by limiting stations from airing multiple top-four networks on multicast channels, alleged NAB in its petition for review (docket 24-1055). The new rules are content-based restrictions on television stations outside the FCC's authority, said the petition. The FCC also ignored the will of Congress and violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not considering evidence in the record on competition faced by broadcasters. “The record shows that advertisers are increasingly diverting resources away from local radio and television stations in favor of digital promotions,” the petition said. “But the Quadrennial Order disregards these bedrock changes in the media and advertising landscape.” The court should vacate and set aside the order, NAB said.
Representatives from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation asked the FCC to exclude motor vehicles from the definition of “IoT product” under the draft cyber mark order, set for a vote Thursday (see 2402220059). “While there is no existing cybersecurity labeling requirement for motor vehicles,” they are “subject to domain-specific cybersecurity guidance, standards, and international regulations,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 23-239. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “has the authority to promulgate motor vehicle safety regulations on cybersecurity, and has enforcement authority to secure recalls of motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment with a safety-related defect, including one involving cybersecurity flaws,” the alliance said. The group met with the Public Safety Bureau and staff for Commissioners Anna Gomez, Nathan Simington and Geoffrey Starks.
CTIA supports a public notice by the FCC Wireless Bureau Thursday seeking comment on how to make unassigned licenses in the agency's inventory available for use absent general auction authority (see 2403070062). CTIA appreciates Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s “focus on spectrum auctions as an ‘indispensable’ tool for promoting economic growth and national security,” emailed Scott Bergmann, senior vice president-regulatory affairs. The notice “only underscores the importance of Congress moving rapidly to restore the FCC’s auction authority and create a pipeline of licensed spectrum to ensure our wireless leadership.”
Competitive Carriers Association President Tim Donovan Friday called on Congress to restore FCC auction authority. The lapse “creates challenges for the wireless industry and frustrates America’s goals to remain the global wireless leader,” he said. “Competitive carriers must have access to spectrum to meet our nation’s insatiable demand for wireless connectivity, especially as carriers deploy 5G and prepare for 6G services.” Auction authority lapsed a year ago.
NTCA raised concerns about a recent petition seeking amnesty for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund or Connect America Fund II recipients (see 2402280078). In a Friday letter to the FCC, the group warned that granting amnesty "without any conditions or consequences would put at risk what the auction programs could still achieve, result in an inefficient allocation of valuable broadband funding resources, and create perverse incentives that reward gaming in the form of attempts to 'hop' between funding programs." NTCA suggested the commission instead grant a waiver for RDOF or CAF II recipients that pay an "early buyout" of "default liability for the abandoned locations" and bar the recipient and "its affiliates or subsidiaries seeking grant funding thereafter to serve those same locations." The letter was posted in docket 10-90.
The Affordable Broadband Campaign urged the FCC not to immediately grant broadband providers forbearance from Communications Act Section 254(d) requirements in its net neutrality proceeding. The group's chair, Vernonburg Group Chief Policy Officer Greg Guice, said granting forbearance of Section 254(d), which governs USF contributions, is "unnecessary and not supported by the record," per an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 23-320 (see 2310190020). The group urged the FCC to start a proceeding "focused on whether and how the contribution obligation would be undertaken." The group met with Wireline Bureau staff.
Users of the FCC’s Commission Registration System (CORES) must use a new two-step login process before accessing the system starting March 29, said a public notice from the Office of Managing Director in Friday’s Daily Digest. CORES users should make sure ahead of the change that they have access to email accounts associated with their usernames, the PN said.