By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-2-20 Cable operators are on the same page as broadcasters when it comes to the FCC's approach to political ad disclosures. The National Association of Broadcasters joined with Hearst Television, Graham Media Group, Nexstar, Fox, Tegna and Scripps, to ask the FCC to narrow its definition of non-candidate [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-20-19 The Justice Department and FCC have told a New York federal district court that their respective approvals of the T-Mobile-Sprint deal, with attendant conditions to drive rural 5G deployment and competition, should add legal weight on the Judicial scale in favor of that merger. That came in [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-19-19 New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing net neutrality legislation that will essentially restore, on a statewide level, the net neutrality rules eliminated in the 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom order. California passed a similar law in the wake of the FCC's ISP deregulation. The Cuomo bill, which [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-19-19 AT&T is warning Congress that hundreds of thousands of viewers will lose access to broadcast channels they now get after the STELAR law sunsets at the end of the year. STELAR is primarily the compulsory license that allowed satellite operators to import distant network TV station signals [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-18-19 In a move that could take a bite out of its share of the advertising pie, YouTube has agreed to update its ad policies in kids content on its main platform, an effort that drew praise from one of YouTube's loudest critics. In a letter to Sen. [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-17-19 Bills that would end the every-five-year renewal of the satellite compulsory license passed the House Tuesday in a package of funding bills, H.R. 1865, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, expected to be passed by the Senate later this week. Those are the Television Viewer Protection Act and [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-11-19 Attorney General William Barr signaled this week that the Justice Department is looking seriously, and critically, at social media platforms' Sec. 230 immunity from liability for third-party posts. "Section 230 has garnered significant attention from experts, consumer groups, and legislators," Barr said in a speech in Washington to [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-10-19 Advertisers are telling the Federal Trade Commission that its rule implementing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is working and needs only tweaks around the edges. In comments to the FTC, the Association of National Advertisers argued that its members "have historically demonstrated thoughtful and unwavering [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-10-19 The House has passed a compromise bill, HR 5035, the Television Viewer Protection Act (TVPA), that would make permanent the mandate that broadcasters and MVPDs negotiate in good faith. That mandate sunsets at the end of the year unless renewed. But the bill does not renew the [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-9-19 With billions of political ad dollars on the line, broadcasters are working hard to make sure a new FCC ruling does not take even a little bite out of their share of that likely record political pie. At an NYC Television Week panel in New York, Kantar’s [...]