By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-24-17 FCC chairman Ajit Pai has pledged to roll back regulations he believes are wasteful or will cause unnecessary hardship, including rules that keep broadcasters from competing more aggressively in a world of media choice. Pai, a Republican FCC commissioner since 2012 who was named chairman by [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-24-17 Only a "working" day after the FCC's new Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee held its first meeting (April 21), FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he is creating a new Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment. "Every American should have the opportunity to participate in the communications marketplace, [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-24-17 President Donald Trump attacked ABC and NBC polls as fake news and "totally wrong in general" Monday morning, quoting from parts of an ABC News/Washington Post poll that said 53% said Trump was a strong leader and saying new polls were "very good considering that much of the media [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-17-17 President Donald Trump may be trying to finesse his media attacks a bit – or maybe not. In a tweet Monday morning, the President's latest attack was that "The Fake Media (not Real Media) has gotten even worse since the election. Every story is badly slanted. We have to [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-14-17 Lariat.net, which bills itself as the first WISP (wireless internet service provider) – it launched in 1992, has told the FCC, or at least the staff of lone Democrat Mignon Clyburn, that the proposed broadband business data service (BDS) deregulation order on tap to be voted April 20 needs [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-14-17 There was plenty of praise for the FCC's official conclusion of the broadcast incentive spectrum auction Thursday with a public notice full of stats relayed by FCC officials, but FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly was focused on what happens next for broadcasters. The FCC also announced the new channel assignments [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-12-17 An association representing edge provider powerhouses met with FCC chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday to argue for preserving the FCC's Title II-based Open Internet order. That comes as Pai is pondering how to roll back Title II, including by potentially having ISPs sign on to voluntary Open Internet principles that [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-10-17 The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) and NAGRA (Kudelski Group), which provides content protection for video, have extended and expanded their agreement to combat the distribution of pirated international and multicultural TV content in the U.S. That will include creating a "monitoring" lab to root out [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News Online, 3-28-17 In a victory for ISPs, advertisers and tech companies that had opposed the new FCC's broadband privacy rules, the House voted primarily along party lines 215 to 205 Tuesday (March 28) to repeal those rules, with only the President's signature needed to make it official. More than a [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-27-17 The end is coming this week for the broadcast incentive auction. The reverse auction (broadcaster portion of the auction) has been over since Jan. 18, but the assignment-phase auction for forward auction bidders is scheduled to close March 30. That is the follow-up auction where forward auction [...]