By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-11-21 A bipartisan pair of legislators have introduced a bill that would eliminate some "outdated" regulations including the must-carry/retransmission consent regime that broadcasters use to secure payments from MVPDs for their local programming/signals and the compulsory copyright license. Broadcasters were not happy, while MVPDs were pleased with the prospect [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-11-21 As advertised, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), joined by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), has re-introduced a bill to close the digital divide by connecting everyone to the Internet at high speeds – 1 Gig is the goal. "Internet access will have the same dramatic impact on rural [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-10-21 In a 70-30 vote that included 20 Republicans, the Senate has confirmed Merrick Garland to be the nation's next attorney general and he has pledged to use that post for strong antitrust enforcement…. At his confirmation hearing, Garland pledged that he will be a strong enforcer of antitrust [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-10-21 Facebook has filed motions to dismiss the antitrust lawsuits brought by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general. Most of the nation's state attorneys general, joined by the Federal Trade Commission, last December filed a lawsuit charging that Facebook is an unlawful monopoly guilty of anticompetitive conduct. [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-10-21 Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) has introduced the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act, which would create a federal data privacy law enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. DelBene said a patchwork of different state laws only leads to confusion and that a national standard is necessary to [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-10-21 Political opposites Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have teamed up to try and boost the fortunes of news operations. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act would give "news content creators" – print, broadcast, or digital – an antitrust safe harbor to negotiate collectively with digital [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-9-21 A bill has been introduced in Congress by a trio of Democrats that would remove "roadblocks" to municipal broadband buildouts by preempting state laws limiting or preventing those buildouts. The Community Broadband Act would "ensure their residents have broadband access by removing roadblocks for public-private partnerships and locally [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-9-21 Facing the sunsetting of third-party cookies across all browsers in less than a year, cookies have helped power the online advertising ecosystem that supports free web content, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab has released for comment proposed standards for "responsible addressability" and "predictable privacy." IAB is [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-8-21 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to be a popular pen pal for legislators concerned about its treatment of ad and web content. In a letter Monday (March 8), more than two dozen House Energy & Commerce Committee Democrats called on him for some answers about the social media [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-8-21 The Biden and Trump Justice Departments have at least one thing in common: Both support opening up the entire 6-GHz band for WiFi, a move pushed by cable operators and computer companies. The Federal Communications Commission, under then-chairman Ajit Pai, voted unanimously last April to allow all 1,200 [...]