The FCC’s Communications, Equity and Diversity Council may lobby for affordable connectivity program funding, according to comments at Tuesday’s CEDC meeting, the second under a new charter that lasts until 2025. The CEDC has 10 months to prepare recommendations for the FCC on implementing digital discrimination rules and getting the most for underserved communities out of federal broadband infrastructure funding, Chair Heather Gate said. “We must make recommendations to the FCC directly, but we should not be afraid to make recommendations that the FCC can communicate with other agencies,” Gate said. “We may also ask the FCC to communicate our recommendations with the White House or Congress."
The Democratic Party’s switch to Vice President Kamala Harris as its candidate for the White House is expected to provide a huge boost to broadcasters’ political advertising haul from the 2024 election, TV and radio executives said during recent Q2 earnings calls. Broadcasters also see sports returning to traditional airwaves, and Nexstar CEO Perry Sook predicted pay TV is arriving at an “inflection point” that could arrest plummeting subscriber numbers and drooping retrans dollars. Outgoing Tegna CEO Dave Lougee disagreed during what he said would be his final earnings call before retiring. “The innings of net retrans as the growth driver have certainly come to the later stages,” he said. Mike Steib will succeed Lougee next week.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, are urging the FCC and DOJ Antitrust Division to “closely scrutinize” the Venu Sports streaming platform joint venture from Disney subsidiary ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery (see 2402070006). “This massive new sports streaming company would be poised to control more than 80% of nationally broadcast sports and more than half of all national sports content, putting it in a position to exercise monopoly power over televised sports,” the lawmakers said in an eight-page letter to DOJ Antitrust Chief Jonathan Kanter and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released Wednesday. “The market power of [Venu's] three giant parent companies would enable it to discriminate against competitors and increase prices for consumers.” The streaming deal’s description as a joint venture “should not prevent antitrust and telecommunications regulators from giving it the scrutiny it deserves,” the lawmakers said: The FCC and DOJ Antitrust should “oppose it if it violates antitrust or telecommunications laws or regulations.” They suggested the FCC examine whether the Venu Sports proposal represents “a violation of the national ownership cap” given its “duty to prevent a single entity from reaching more than 39% of households, and its broader mandate to promote competition in the public interest.”
The FCC treats its quadrennial review process “like a basketball center blocking shots,” broadcasters say as they challenge the FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review order in an opening brief in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The broadcasters argue that the 8th Circuit should vacate not only the 2018 QR order, but also local TV and radio ownership limits, because the FCC has failed to justify retaining them. The agency “never seriously examines whether its rules are in the public interest as a result of clear competition; instead it simply swats at certain alternative proposals,” says the filing from NAB, Zimmer Radio, Tri-State Communications, Nexstar and Beasley Media. Though the brief was filed Monday, as of Tuesday afternoon, it was still inaccessible on the 8th Circuit’s website because the clerk of the court must approve filings before they go public. “Congress directed the Commission to determine whether its broadcast ownership rules remain necessary in light of competitive changes; that undertaking requires a fresh look each time, and an affirmative, reasoned justification if the Commission determines the limits are still necessary,” the brief says. “The Commission failed that task.” The petitioner brief and an intervenor brief from the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliate station groups argue that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Chevron deference means the 8th Circuit should rule that the agency has violated Section 202h of the 1996 Communications Act. A collection of radio broadcasters also filed as intervenors. The QR order “disregards the deregulatory nature of section 202(h) and ignores competition from non-broadcast sources,” the joint brief says. The broadcasters also argue that the QR order’s inclusion of channels hosted on multicast stations or low-power stations under the Top Four prohibition violated the First Amendment. “The Commission may not regulate broadcasters’ programming choices -- the Communications Act does not authorize it, and the First Amendment forbids it,” the joint filing says. “It is long past time for the FCC to modernize its broadcast ownership rules; these are relics from a bygone era, created before the internet, smartphones, social media and streaming,” NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt says in a release. “NAB's brief succinctly demonstrates to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that the FCC has failed to justify that these rules remain necessary to serve the public in light of the immense competition broadcasters face in today's media marketplace."
Expect a Donald Trump White House and FCC to focus on deregulation and undoing the agency's net neutrality and digital discrimination rules, telecom policy experts and FCC watchers tell us. Brendan Carr, one of the two GOP minority commissioners, remains the seeming front-runner to head the agency if Trump wins the White House in November (see 2407120002). Despite repeated comments from Trump as a candidate and president calling for FCC action against companies such as CNN and MSNBC over their news content, many FCC watchers on both sides of the aisle told us they don’t expect the agency to actually act against cable networks or broadcast licenses under a second Trump administration.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is widely seen as the favorite to become FCC chair in a second Donald Trump presidency, and former FCC staffers and communications industry officials told us they expect a Carr-led FCC would prioritize policies he wrote about in the telecom chapter of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. For example, the chapter lays out plans for rolling back Section 230 protections for tech companies, deregulating broadband infrastructure and restricting Chinese companies.
Industry lawyers continue to assess the potentially seismic implications of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and the other Chevron case decided last week (see 2406280043). Yet the after-effects are being seen already. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday directed parties in the net neutrality challenge to file not later than July 8 supplemental briefing material addressing the effect of the Chevron decision “on our analysis” of a motion to stay the order (see 2406280060).
Thursday’s 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision in SEC v. Jarkesy could have large implications for future FCC enforcement actions, with academics, FCC attorneys and the three dissenting justices saying they expect it to prompt a storm of litigation for federal agencies.
The U.S. needs to move toward a firm date for the end of mandatory simulcast of ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals and fully transition to ATSC 3.0, but it's too early to say when that date should be, NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said Thursday at the NextGen Broadcast Conference in Washington. Conference-goers applauded the call for a transition deadline, and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr echoed it, saying he would support a proceeding about the issue. Carr also suggested gauging broadcast and wireless industry interest in an "incentive auction 2.0" for low-band spectrum.
ISPs and industry groups told the FCC that while competition and access remain strong in the broadband marketplace, additional regulation could harm future investment and deployment. Those views were included in feedback the FCC sought about its biannual State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace report to Congress (see 2404220050). In comments, some wireless groups urged making additional spectrum available. MVPDs and broadcasters said the FCC should recognize the increasing competition they face from streaming video and accordingly relax regulations. Comments were posted Thursday and Friday in docket 24-119.