By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-15-20 A bill that would fund the FCC and Federal Trade Commission includes language that would limit the President's effort to regulate social media, as well as provide billions to help better identify and close the digital divide, and use secure technology to do so. A report on the [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-15-20 The House Energy & Commerce Committee has approved a number of bipartisan communication-related bills by voice vote, including a stand-alone bill to cancel the T-band auction, which almost nobody wants the FCC to have to go through with, and a bill that would require the FCC to [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-13-20 Broadcasters are telling the FCC that Microsoft and Microsoft-funded groups have no leg to stand on when they oppose those broadcasters' request to use distributed transmission systems (DTS) to improve viewers' reception of their licensed service. The National Association of Broadcasters joined by America's Public Television Stations [...]
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 [...]