By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 2-9-23 Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) have reintroduced a bill that would reregulate cable franchise fees. The Protecting Community Television Act would “clarify” that the 5% cap on a cable franchise fee applies only to monetary “assessments” and not in-kind contributions. “In 2019, the FCC allowed [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 2-7-23 President Joe Biden took Big Tech to task, and got in a shot at cable fees, in his State of the Union speech Feb. 7, with Big Tech getting the brunt of the criticism. He said that hidden surcharges or “junk fees” add up to hundreds of dollars [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 2-1-23 Social media, including short-form video site TikTok, continues to be in the hot seat in the new Congress, particularly as it relates to children’s health. Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), who last Congress introduced the Stop Online Suicide Assistance Forums Act (it has Democratic support), which would make it [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-31-23 Groups representing the nation’s libraries and other anchor institutions say that the FCC’s new draft broadband map misrepresents public libraries. The Federal Communications Commission says the map represents the parameters set up by Congress. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, the American Library Association and the [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-24-23 The Justice Department is apparently giving broadcasters some help with one of their top Washington priorities – Big Tech’s dominance as an ad platform. As expected, the DOJ on Jan. 24 said it was filing an antitrust suit against one of the biggest of Big Tech – Google [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-19-23 A group of technology associations has joined forces to tell the Supreme Court that Google and others should have the right to moderate online content.  To treat such moderation as an endorsement rather than an organizing function would be a big mistake, they added, because it would strip [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-18-23 President Joe Biden’s principal telecom adviser has launched an inquiry into the impact of data collection, storage, and use on the civil rights of marginalized communities. As part of that inquiry, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on Jan. 18 asked for public comment on how “the [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-17-23 Broadband operators, including those represented by ACA Connects and NCTA–The Internet & Television Association, have asked the Federal Communications Commission to either clarify or reconsider two requirements in their rules implementing consumer broadband labels that they say may not pass legal muster otherwise. Congress mandated the labels so [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-12-23 President Joe Biden took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal to launch a sweeping attack on Big Tech, saying the government needs to step in. In his op-ed for the newspaper, the president took aim at “some” Big Tech players – he did not name names [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-11-23 A pair of U.S. senators from Nevada said the Federal Communications Commission’s new draft map of broadband availability is “deeply flawed” and could cost their state millions in government subsidies. The FCC is under orders from Congress to come up with better maps.  It released a draft late [...]