By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-9-20 The FCC is encouraging TV stations to keep the faith, literally, during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The commission is allowing those stations to preempt educational and informational children's programming for religious programming without having to reschedule it, but only over the next three weeks.  FCC chair Ajit [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-1-20 FCC chairman Ajit Pai is proposing to open the entire 6 GHz band for unlicensed wireless broadband. He has drafted rules that would make all 1,200 MHz available for some unlicensed devices, which would share with incumbent users including broadcast electronic newsgathering (ENG). Broadcasters had argued that [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-31-20 Comcast has teamed with Common Sense Media to make free educational content available. There are almost 2,000 hours of titles for its Xfinity customers with kids in K-12 via Xfinity on Demand, the company said. That includes content from Bluprint and CuriosityStream, as well as content from [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-26-20 The Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets $75 million in emergency funds in the $2 trillion coronavirus bill that passed the Senate late Wednesday night. The money is to keep up facilities of noncommercial TV and radio stations and to help stations, particularly rural ones, keep the lights [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-13-20 Communications companies big and small have signed on to a "Keep Americans Connected Pledge" at the request of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in the face of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Pai talked with broadband service providers and trade associations Thursday (March 12) and asked them, "in order to [...]

By Gary Arlen, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-11-20 Policymakers "need to take a fresh look at existing allocations of spectrum, including the allocation of spectrum to broadcasters" to determine if "that spectrum is still needed by the broadcast industry or if it is better used in other areas," said Jim Ciconni, senior executive VP of [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-11-20 FCC chairman Ajit Pai Pushed back hard on Wednesday (March 11) against suggestions by Democratic commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel that he was playing "hide the ball" with the way the FCC issues its request for comment on the remand of some of its net neutrality dereg order. That [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-10-20 Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks told Congress Tuesday (March 10) that the FCC and communications networks have an integral role in responding to the coronavirus and called for immediate action, calling for a “connectivity and economic stimulus” plan to address the virus. That came in testimony for [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-10-20 The Senate Financial Services Subcommittee held an FCC budget request hearing Tuesday (March 10) and a C-Band auction hearing broke out. Actually that was signaled at the outset by Subcommittee chairman John Kennedy (R-La.), who has been critical of the FCC's decision to award potentially billions of [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-10-20 Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen told a Free State Foundation audience Tuesday (March 10) that the Justice Department's investigation into Sec. 230 of the Communications Decency Act, part of a wider look into online platforms and antitrust, is focusing on four areas for potential "engagement" and said [...]