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 [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-18-20 Attorney General Bill Barr made Apple's refusal to build government back-doors into information on its iPhone part of the lead of his announcement on the December shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. Barr said Apple's practice of warrantless encryption is "dangerous" and "unacceptable." Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-18-20 Broadcasters and tech companies are high on the broadband-related prospects of ATSC 3.0, particularly for automotive applications as a near term starter, but ultimately only as a complement to the mothership of a primary TV signal sporting major new upgrades due to that Next Gen TV-branded broadcast [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-18-20 The FCC is proposing to help promote broadcasting as a new competitive broadband pipe by making it clear that legacy broadcast TV ownership regulations do not apply to broadcast-delivered internet services like over-the-top video and data. That is according to FCC commissioner Brendan Carr, who has been [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-15-20 House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and ranking member Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) have introduced a stand-alone bill that would make radio and TV stations that are part of larger broadcast groups eligible for forgivable small business loans. There is a provision to that effect in the [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-12-20 House Energy & Commerce Committee Republican leaders have unveiled an ambitious tech legislative agenda including bills using AI to combat deep fakes, promoting data security and coming up with an IoT strategy. They may not control the House, or the Consumer Protection Subcommittee agenda, but House Republicans [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-12-20 Microsoft and the National Association of Broadcasters continue to be poles apart on how much "white space" between TV channels the FCC should open up for unlicensed uses like portable internet access devices. Microsoft told the FCC in comments that while it is not now, nor does [...]
By Mike Brest, Washington Examiner, 5-12-20 The nonprofit organization that filed a lawsuit against Fox News claiming the news outlet violated a Washington state consumer protection statute with its coronavirus coverage said it would not back down following a motion to drop the case. In a court filing submitted to the King County Superior Court [...]