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, Multichannel News, 9-1-20 Broadcasters are hitting back hard on critics of the FCC's proposal to facilitate TV station's flexible use of their new ATSC 3.0 broadcast transmission standard to become a broadband as well as broadcast player, saying efforts to impose new regs, or exhume old ones, are cynical and unnecessary. [...]

By Gary Arlen, Multichannel News, 8-25-20 In what could be a preview of Biden administration technology policy, three former Democratic policymakers are recommending the creation of a new independent federal regulatory agency - the Digital Platform Agency (DPA) - to oversee Big Tech’s expanding presence in American business and life. The agency would focus [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-25-20 Cable operators are telling the FCC that retrans regulations should apply to carriage negotiations that include ancillary "broadcast internet" services. That came in comments by NCTA-The Internet & Television Association on the FCC's inquiry into what, if any, rules need to be changed to accommodate broadcaster's potential new [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-21-20 FCC chairman Ajit Pai has told a member of the House that the agency is generally not in the business of dictating what viewers can and can't see. Pai was responding to a letter from Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), who was concerned about a TV show, La Comay, [...]

By Gary Arlen, Multichannel News, 8-17-20 The 280 megahertz of midband spectrum which is intended for 5G and other advanced services has been fully approved to go to auction starting Tuesday, Dec. 8, under a plan that the Federal Communications Commission adopted on Aug. 6. The controversial auction of the 3.7 to 3.98 GHz [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-17-20 Law firm Cooley LLP has broken out the ways that the NTIA petition, if acted on by the FCC, would impose “sweeping changes.” For one, its requirement that websites disclose their moderation policies would subject edge provider content to the FCC’s authority for the first time. It could [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-17-20 Section 230 is the surviving section of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, the rest of which was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. It allows social media sites to host third-party speech without being subject to legal action based on the content that is posted or what [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-17-20 California’s net neutrality law should be blocked because federal law pre-empts the state statute, the U.S. Justice Department argued in asking a federal judge to overturn a state law reviving many tenets of the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order. The Justice Department said federal statutes pre-empt the net [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 8-12-20 A federal appeals court has upheld most of the FCC's orders speeding the deployment of cell service buildouts by easing regulations on those 5G deployments, including pole attachments and various local reviews of buildouts. Specifically upheld were the Small Cell Order, the Moratoria Order, and the One Touch [...]