By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-13-18 The FCC will review its long-standing rules on children's television that requires that TV stations air at least three hours per week of core educational/informational children's TV programming in at least 30-minute blocks. That is according to Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, whom FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-7-18 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has denied a petition from Prometheus Radio Project that it effectively stay the FCC's November vote to deregulate local broadcast ownership.  The court suggested the jury was still out on the FCC's response to the court's direction [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-5-18 The House Energy & Commerce Committee's Communications Subcommittee will get a chance to grill the FCC commissioners this month. The Committee has scheduled a Feb. 16 budget hearing in the subcommittee where it says all five of the commissioners will testify. While the hearing will be [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-22-18 Opponents of the FCC’s rollback of network neutrality regulations filed a lawsuit against the move in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which they see as most sympathetic to their argument. The D.C. Circuit is the court that upheld the FCC’s [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-19-18 Facebook will start focusing on quality rather than quantity when it comes to delivering news to its users. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Friday (Jan. 19) that starting next week the social media site will prioritize news sites.  "[T]o make sure the news you see, while [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-2-18 Adopting a "CAN" do attitude, computer companies, edge providers and others have banded together to push Washington to let them use the so-called TV white spaces to close the rural digital divide. Microsoft, which has long eagerly eyed the low-band TV spectrum, has joined with ACT: [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-2-18 President Donald Trump waited until Tuesday morning (Jan. 2) before renewing his attacks on the news media, though in this case in the form of a call for better coverage of his Administration. In a pair ot tweets prompted by the naming of a new publisher [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-14-17 ISPs, free marketers and other fans of the FCC’s Dec. 14 net neutrality rule rollback had plenty of nice things to say about the FCC and the Republican majority that overturned the rules approved by the previous Democratic majority. (The vote was strictly party line, with [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-12-17 Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, took to the Senate floor Tuesday to promote the FCC's upcoming vote to roll back net neutrality regs and to call again for Congress to settle the debate once and for all. He outlined the history [...]

By Robert Barnes, washingtonpost.com, 11-29-17 A majority of Supreme Court justices seemed to agree Wednesday that the abundance of private information available about Americans in the digital age might require new restraints on government’s ability to access it. In the specific case before the court, these new limits could require law enforcement officials to [...]