The Copyright Office (CO) last week gathered feedback from broadcasters, streamers and songwriters on the potential redesignation of the entity that administers digital streaming royalties under the Music Modernization Act (MMA) (see 2208150042). President Donald Trump signed the MMA into law in October 2018, establishing the mechanical licensing collective (MLC). The MMA -- a years-long negotiation and legislative compromise among music industry, broadcast and streaming entities -- modernized the royalty payment system for the digital era. The MMA requires the CO to review the MLC’s designation every five years. The first review began in January, and reply comments are due June 28. The MIC Coalition, which includes NAB, CTA, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the Digital Media Association, didn’t take a position on the MLC’s redesignation. But the coalition recommended the CO require the MLC to incorporate performance rights organization data into the musical works database to help members more efficiently handle payments. The MLC’s current database lacks comprehensive information for all four performing rights organizations, they said. The National Music Publishers’ Association and Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), organizations that hold MLC board seats, recommended renewal. NMPA said it opposes proposals that "erode the proper functioning or funding of the MLC as explicitly laid out in the statutory text.” The MLC has “succeeded in fulfilling all of its obligations with the lowest operating budget of any known license administration collective in the music publishing industry,” said NMPA. The MLC’s operating costs, as a percentage of royalties it processes, was 3% in 2023, it said. Collective management and performing rights organizations typically take a 10%-20% commission, NMPA said. NSAI acknowledged there are areas for improvement but said the MLC has “exceeded everyone’s expectations in its first four years of operation. It is efficiently and effectively licensing, collecting and distributing royalties in a way our industry has not seen before.” Songwriters of North America said the existing MLC should be renewed, but the organization needs to address issues with the transfer and accuracy of the database.
DOD is starting part of its work on the national spectrum strategy on its own. At a meeting Wednesday, it will launch an initiative investigating dynamic sharing in the lower 3 GHz band, as a continuation of the Partnering to Advance Trusted and Holistic Spectrum Solutions (PATHSS) process. DOD announced the meeting last month (see 2404080063), but it has received relatively little attention. A former NTIA official saw no reason for concern.
The FCC reminded competitive LECs they must submit interstate tariff revisions by July 17. A Wireline Bureau public notice posted Tuesday in docket 21-41 encouraged CLECs to file revisions "after the competing incumbent LEC's interstate access charge tariffs become effective on July 2."
Congressional Republicans’ recent renewed interest in ending federal funding for NPR is a major issue in a memo from House Commerce Committee GOP aides and in written testimony from witnesses ahead of a Wednesday Oversight Subcommittee hearing on recent claims of pro-Democratic Party bias at the public broadcasting network (see 2405010081). Several Republican lawmakers filed legislation or are eyeing crafting measures aimed at ending NPR’s federal funding (see 2404190060), including the Defund NPR Act (HR-8083). The Commerce Oversight hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
The National Religious Broadcasters and the American Family Association filed a joint petition for review asking that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturn the FCC’s February Equal Employment Opportunity order. The EEO order requires that broadcasters file workforce diversity information with the agency using Form 395-B. The Media Bureau issued a public notice Monday announcing that the EEO order would take effect June 3 but said the compliance date hasn't yet been set because the information collection is still under the OMB Paperwork Reduction Act. The bureau will issue a subsequent PN announcing the compliance date, it said. The form was "suspended for 20 years for good reason and revived on highly questionable grounds,” NRB President Troy Miller said in a release late Friday. Requiring the information to be public and attributable to individual broadcasters, the FCC is “opening the door to third-party weaponization of the public file to target specific broadcast stations,” NRB said. The EEO order “violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment and the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment,” said the brief petition. Bringing back Form 395-B exceeds the FCC’s authority and is “an abuse of discretion,” the order said. America First Legal Foundation, a litigation nonprofit led by Stephen Miller, adviser of former President Donald Trump, is representing NRB and AFA in the case. It often represents conservative causes and entities. The petition for review comes on top of two appeals of the order filed at the FCC by religious broadcasters and groups objecting to the planned updating of Form 395-B to recognize nonbinary gender (see 2405010070).
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative’s decision to abandon digital trade demands at the World Trade Organization will lead to more restrictive international data flows, tech and open-internet advocates said Monday. USTR Katherine Tai in October withdrew U.S. support for Trump-era proposals at the WTO, which addressed data localization restrictions and other impediments to data flow in places like China. Tai said the USTR withdrew to allow Congress to better regulate domestically. Her decision has left a vacuum where the U.S. used to influence data governance frameworks around the world, said Natalie Dunleavy Campbell, a senior director at Internet Society. This “highly regulated approach to the internet” resembles policies in places like China and Russia, and it will influence other countries to shift in the same direction, she said during a Congressional Internet Caucus Academy panel. Hopefully, the USTR will shift toward a more balanced set of rules that helps foster the benefits of the internet but provides domestic regulatory policy space to “deal with real harms,” said Lori Wallach, director of Rethink Trade. The administration hasn’t “articulated the reason for the pullback very well,” and the U.S.’s position on international data flows doesn’t appear to be heading in a “positive direction,” said Jonathan McHale, vice president-digital trade at Computer & Communications Industry Association. USTR didn’t comment.
Worldwide spending on telecom and pay-TV services reached $1.5 trillion in 2023, up 2.1% over 2022, but slower growth is expected this year, according to the IDC Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker. IDC projected an increase of 1.4% in 2024. “The progress of the global market slowed during the latter half of 2023,” IDC said: “This deceleration primarily resulted from slower-than-anticipated progress in the Americas, where a combination of sluggish economic growth, relatively high inflation, and saturated markets created an unfavorable environment for market development.” Growth was stronger in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where operators “were allowed by the regulators to increase their tariffs in line with inflation using a Consumer Price Index model,” the report said.
Charter Communications sought New Hampshire conditions on Consolidated Communications' transfer of indirect ownership and control of its local subsidiaries to Condor Holdings, a subsidiary of private equity firm Searchlight. Charter didn’t oppose the deal but asked the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission for conditions related to wholesale intercarrier relationships. Statements from Consolidated and Condor about maintaining the status quo "are ultimately meaningless unless there is a specific minimum period of time that ensures the continuity of existing wholesale intercarrier relationships,” said Michael Scanlon, Charter vice president-circuit operations, in written testimony Friday (docket DT 23-103). First, the PUC should require that Consolidated "honor existing interconnection agreements and their terms, including those of any tariffs or pricing guides" for three years after the deal closes, the Charter official said. Second, force Consolidated to process "number ports so as to meet or exceed [PUC] and FCC porting requirements with at least the same level of quality and intervals as they did pre-Transaction,” he said. Third, require that the company use existing operations support and billing support systems for at least 36 months after the deal closes. "It should also maintain at least the same intervals, quality of service, accuracy, and flow-through,” Scanlon wrote. Additionally, still under the third proposed condition, Consolidated should agree that, before migrating away from any existing systems related to wholesale, it should file a plan for the state commission to seek comment on, then approve, delay or deny. If approved, the company should provide CLECs with training on the new system, the Charter official said. If the migration results in “significant negative impacts to wholesale providers occur due to the migration, CLECs should be able to seek Commission approval of payment by Petitioners of all documented costs directly related to the migration." Under a fourth proposed condition, the PUC should require the company to "sufficiently staff its wholesale customer support centers with adequately trained personnel dedicated exclusively to wholesale operations; maintain updated escalation procedures, contact lists, and account manager information; and assign a single point of contact to [Charter New Hampshire] to address interconnection agreements, systems, and other issues,” said Scanlon: And the company should agree not to recover any transaction or rebranding costs through wholesale rates.
Standard General and its founder Soohyung Kim filed a civil complaint Wednesday charging that Allen Media CEO Byron Allen, Dish CEO Charlie Ergen and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, along with lawmakers, unions and public interest groups, were partners in a conspiracy and race discrimination aimed at sinking Standard's $8.6 billion purchase of Tegna last year (see 2306010077). The filing was made in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “The FCC Chairwoman and her personal staffer blocked the deal at the behest of Mr. Allen, who used business allies and six-figure political donations to destroy Mr. Kim’s chances of acquiring TEGNA,” the complaint said.
Most industry groups opposed the FCC's decision restoring net neutrality rules and reclassifying broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a Communications Act Title II service Thursday. Most disagreed with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on the order's legal standing, warning it could likely be overturned if a challenge is brought (see 2404250004). The Wireless ISP Association will "carefully review" the order and "determine what legal recourse we should take," Vice President-Policy Louis Peraertz said. Several consumer advocacy groups praised the order.