By Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY, 8-5-19 GateHouse Media's owner and Gannett have agreed to merge in a deal aimed at cutting overlapping costs and enabling the combined company to pursue a digital transformation as the media industry grapples with the disruptive forces of online news, social media and smartphones. New Media Investment Group said Monday that [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 8-2-19 Texas has joined a state effort to block the T-Mobile-Sprint merger, which the Department of Justice and a handful of other AGs' have agreed not to block given conditions the companies have agreed to. Those include spinning off pre-paid wireless operator Boost Mobile to Sprint in hopes [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 8-1-19 National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith said the government should start applying a public interest standard to Google and Facebook and other Big Tech titans. That was in an interview for C-SPAN's Communicators series with C-SPAN's Peter Slen and Paul Kirby, senior editor at TRDaily and [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-26-19 The Justice Department, five state attorneys general, and T-Mobile-Sprint have reached an agreement on the proposed merger of the number three and four wireless carriers, conditioned on, among other things, the spin-off of Boost Mobile and some spectrum assets to DISH. According to the settlement, "T-Mobile and [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-24-19 The Federal Trade Commission has confirmed its $5 billion fine against Facebook stemming from the Cambridge Analytica debacle and, at the same time, filed suit against Cambridge Analytica and settled with a former top executive of the company and an app developer. The commission concluded that Facebook [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-23-19 The Justice Department has made it official: It is investigating the business practices of Big Tech, which it signaled Tuesday (July 23) may be harming consumers. President Donald Trump has signaled such a review could be in the offing. The Antitrust Division, headed by Makan Delrahim, said [...]
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks To Deliver Keynote Remarks at Oct. 7 Event FOR RELEASE: July 11, 2019 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., July 11, 2019 – The Media Institute will honor Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, and Caroline Beasley, chief executive officer of Beasley [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-10-19 A politically divided FCC voted Wednesday (July 10) to give broadcasters more flexibility in providing educational/informational (E/I) programming for children, changes Democrats said dis-serve kids. It is the first major update of the rules since they were implemented over two decades ago. The Report & Order (R&O) [...]
Participated in a letter (with the Reporters Committee and other news media organizations) sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding EPA’s proposed changes to its FOIA regulations. The letter notes that the proposed rule contains provisions that would undermine the Freedom of Information Act, are impermissible under clear and binding D.C. Circuit Court [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-9-19 In a victory for drug companies and marketers, a federal district judge has vacated a Trump Administration rule that drug manufacturers have to disclose their list prices in direct-to-consumer (DTC) TV, radio, and online drug ads. Drug companies had argued that the mandate would cause confusion, exceeded [...]