By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-13-20 The FCC Monday (July 13) marked the end of the 39-month TV station repack into smaller spectrum space following the FCC's auction of some of that broadcast spectrum for wireless back in 2017. The FCC gave six stations an extension of their move until September but the [...]
By Lauren Feiner, CNBC, 7-1-20 CEOs from four tech giants – Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google – have all agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday. Apple CEO Tim Cook had appeared to be the last to confirm his attendance at the hearing, according to a recent report [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-1-20 Despite efforts by advertisers and agencies to delay implementation, California Wednesday (July 1) began enforcement of its California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the new data privacy law that gives the state's consumers more control over the collection and use of their online information, including opting out of [...]
By Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin, washingtonpost.com, 6-29-20 Reddit shut down its popular but controversial forum devoted to supporting President Trump on June 29, following years in which the social media company tried but often failed to control the racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, glorification of violence, and conspiracy theories that flourished there…. The move by Reddit [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 6-22-20 Broadcasters are pushing back on cable arguments that leased-access rules represent an infringement on cable's First Amendment rights, and for good reason. If broadcasters want to preserve their cable carriage mandate, which they definitely do in a world where most broadcast viewing is over cable and satellite [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 6-19-20 FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has signaled he is asking ISPs to extend a portion of their Keep Americans Connected pledge through the end of July, at least via deferred and extended payment plans, but is also supporting a legislative proposal to use taxpayer funds going forward. The [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 6-17-20 The FCC has resolved some major outstanding issues in its framework for a transition to the ATSC 3.0 broadcast transmission standard, which will allow for higher-definition pictures, targeted ads, interactivity and "broadcast internet." The FCC declined to allow vacant in-band channels to be used for ATSC 3.0 [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 6-16-20 Independent watchdog group Freedom House is slamming what it said is the Trump Administration's "unprecedented attack on press freedom," in this case an outlet funded by the government. Freedom House cites documents released under a FOIA request by the Knight First Amendment Institute that found that the [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 6-16-20 FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly told the Senate Commerce Committee June 16 that there continues to be a disconnect between the Department of Justice's approach to antitrust and the realities of the competitive video marketplace. For example, when negotiating settlements with TV stations over sharing competitively sensitive ad [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 6-8-20 Comcast said it is committing $100 million to a multi-year effort to "advance social justice and equality. That comes as people across the country are demanding systemic change to systemic racism, brought to a head by the death of George Floyd. But the effort will extend beyond [...]