By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-23-21 The Senate on Wednesday (March 24) will hold its first hearing on a new bill that could reduce the media's massive election ad take by extending political ad disclosures to online ads on the largest digital platforms, beefing up content disclosures for political spots and other content on [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-22-21 A handful of prominent edge players including Mozilla and Reddit have asked the FCC to reinstate the net neutrality rules, but that is almost certainly not going to happen until there is a Democratic majority on the Commission. In a letter dated March 19, the above two joined [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-22-21 House Energy & Commerce Committee Republicans have a very different definition of "lift," as made clear by ranking member Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) in her opening statement Monday (March 22) for a Hill hearing on the Democrats' LIFT America Act infrastructure bill, which spends $300 billion on broadband, [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-22-21 The political climate might finally be ripe for giving news publishers more clout in negotiations with the Big Tech platforms that draw eyeballs and ad dollars by aggregating the original work of others, including cable and broadcast news operations. Proponents say the alternative could be the death of [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-20-21 A senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said that liberal media bias ("nearly all television – network and cable – is a Democratic Party trumpet") has resulted in such abuse of the landmark Times v. Sullivan requirement that speech relating to public [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-19-21 With potentially as much as $120 billion in new broadband spending either in the pipeline or contemplated by Congress, the result could be "a golden age of broadband investment, or a costly sinkhole that squanders billions and does little to close actual broadband gaps." That is according to [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-18-21 The House Communications and Consumer Protection Subcommittees have come up with a catchy title for the planned March 25 hearing with the "Biggest Tech" CEOs. The hearing, scheduled appropriately for (high) noon, is titled "Disinformation Nation: Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation." The hearing will be [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-18-21 A trio of Senate Republicans wants their Democratic colleagues to hold a public hearing on what they say was the Obama-Biden Federal Trade Commission's failure to give Google more than a slap on the wrist following a 2011 investigation into potential anticompetitive conduct. That urging--they can only urge [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-16-21 Local elected officials and some community organizations from across the country have written to acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel asking the FCC to investigate digital "redlining" as well as to restore the Title II classification of internet access service, suggesting both will help close the racial justice divide. [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 3-15-21 Signaling it was FCC policies under Republican Chairman Ajit Pai that "secured" leadership in 5G, Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr has unveiled his plan for maintaining that leadership, though with a Democratic chair and, eventually, majority, Carr has only the power to propose, not impose. In a speech to [...]