By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 9-1-20 Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) has introduced a bill, the Broadcast Diversity in Leadership Act, to promote broadcast diversity by creating the incubator program the FCC tried to create as part of its broadcast dereg order that was remanded by a federal appeals court. The difference is that [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 9-1-20 Broadcasters are arguing that the FCC does not need to have statistics on how repealing or modifying its broadcast ownership rules impact media diversity to make those changes. The National Association of Broadcasters is arguing that point in a brief to the Supreme Court filed Thursday (Aug. [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 8-10-20 Broadcasters are ramping up the pressure, and the rhetoric, in their attempt to get the FCC to hold off on increasing the regulatory fees it charges TV and radio stations, especially during a pandemic that has done a number on revenue. The FCC supports itself through its [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 8-10-20 Broadband operators are asking the FCC to clarify that they don’t have to pay the entire cost of a replacement pole when they are seeking attachments to build out broadband to unserved communities, something the agency itself is pushing for in trying to close the digital divide. [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-29-20 The main takeaways from the prepared testimony of the four tech giants testifying before Congress Wednesday (July 29) is that their companies are quintessentially American success stories, companies that took risks and failed as well as succeeded and in the process innovated and built businesses that provided [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-23-20 The FCC is holding its first ever auction of mid-band spectrum for 5G. It is the auction of 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz band. It is the most-ever flexible-use licenses available in [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-23-20 The MIC Coalition is telling the Justice Department not to pull the plug on longstanding music licensing consent decrees, saying that particularly in the time of pandemic that could add chaos to catastrophe. That came in comments in advance of next week's DOJ public workshop on the decrees and [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-22-20 The News Media for Open Government Coalition is renewing its call for passage of a bill to protect journalists. The Journalist Protection Act, which was introduced in a previous Congress, would "make it a federal crime to intentionally cause bodily injury or threaten a journalist in a manner designed to intimidate [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-21-20 U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) CEO Michael Pack's rip-and-replace approach to the agency's Open Technology Fund last month has run into a big legal problem – a court has concluded he likely does not have the authority to do so. OTF is an independent nonprofit funded [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-17-20 The Federal Trade Commission has released a report on the use of social media bots – algorithmically driven computer software – in online advertising and finds them to be thriving, out in the open, and easy, cheap and effective to sell, buy and use. The report came at the [...]
