The FCC “will take a look” at a letter from 20 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus (see 2310180067) urging the agency to refresh the record on reclassifying linear streaming services as virtual MVPDs, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said at a news conference after commissioners' open meeting Thursday. Commissioner Brendan Carr said at his own news conference the agency “needs to be very, very careful to hew to the letter of the law that Congress written.” That a policy is outdated and “does not itself give rise to FCC authority,” Carr said. NAB and the Coalition for Local News, an advocacy group formed by broadcast TV network affiliates, applauded the Senate letter Thursday. “We strongly reinforce their advocacy" and calls by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., "for the FCC to refresh the record to promote and protect localism in the streaming era,” said the Coalition for Local News in a statement.
Twenty members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, including Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have signed a letter urging the FCC to refresh the record in docket 14-261 on reclassifying linear streaming services as MVPDs. The FCC “should be developing a record and recommendations to ensure that our regulatory system -- which has enabled a thriving locally focused broadcast system that is the envy of the world -- is not undermined by the explosion of new technologies that were not foreseen even a mere decade ago,” said the letter, which was helmed by Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has maintained that the agency doesn’t have the authority to reclassify streaming services, and the FCC said her thinking hadn’t changed after a June letter from Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. (see 2306230062). “We urge you to refresh the aging, unclosed record from the 2014 proceeding by seeking new public comments to provide updated video marketplace information,” Wednesday's letter said.
Rising stock prices for broadcasters “are coming at the expense of consumers,” said the American Television Alliance in a statement Wednesday: “The current regulatory environment enables big broadcasters to exploit loopholes that are responsible for thousands of consumer blackouts and massive annual price increases.” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recently announced proposals on retransmission blackouts that are considered more unfavorable to MVPDs than to broadcasters (see 2310110075). Gray Television released an investor presentation this week predicting continued growth in broadcast retrans consent revenue. “MVPD’s $40 billion annual spending on linear programming fees will continue to be reallocated to premium content providers and especially to broadcasters, particularly as the number of cable nets and [regional sports networks] continues to decline,” said the investor deck. “Migration of professional local/regional sports games to broadcast television provides a further opportunity to grow retrans revenues including by reallocating programming fees from cable nets and RSNs to local broadcast stations.” This broken system does not work for consumers and led to over 200 blackouts in 2023 alone, ATVA said: “We urge Congress and the FCC to act to end predatory practices by broadcasters at the expense of subscribers and ensure broadcasters fulfill their public interest obligations.” NAB didn’t comment.
Neither the current definition of "video service" under Illinois state law nor the modified language taking effect in 2024 entitles East St. Louis to franchise fees from streaming services, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday (docket 22-2905) in the city's appeal of dismissal of its suit against numerous streamers (see 2209230059). The 2024 language "makes pellucid what most readers of the older definition would have understood: content streamed over the Internet is outside the scope of this regulatory system," the three-judge panel said, upholding the dismissal by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Beatty. The panel also rejected the streamer defendant-appellees use the public right of way for communication, ruling if "phone calls over landline cables, electricity over wires, and gas routed through pipes are not trespasses on the City’s land -- and they are not -- neither are the electrons that carry movies and other videos." And it rejected city arguments about a municipal law barring resale of cable TV services, saying over-the-top streamers don't do that. Deciding were 7th Circuit Judges Frank Easterbrook, David Hamilton and Doris Pryor. Oral argument was in September (see 2309120039).
The FCC should issue an NPRM on proposals to require content companies to report on the diversity of their vendors to the commission, several diversity and public interest groups, Fuse and Allen Media Group told Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Media Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 22-209. The FCC “should collect and report data that allows the public to understand if programming offered by a video distributor is reflective of the nation’s diversity,” said the filing from Public Knowledge, the United Church of Christ Media Justice Office, the National Urban League, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and others. Advocates for the content vendor diversity report said it would apply only to media companies that have some affiliation with FCC regulatees, so entities such as Disney and Google would have to report data while companies like Netflix wouldn't (see 2207260003). Arguments that the U.S. Supreme Court’s major questions doctrine would prevent the FCC from collecting and publishing such data are incorrect, the filing said. Under the new -- and still developing -- major questions doctrine, SCOTUS ruled that even in matters that might be under a federal agency’s purview, only Congress can decide expansive or high dollar matters (see 2302080064). “Congress explicitly authorized the FCC back in 1984 to adopt rules to require MVPDs to 'analyze the results of [their] efforts to recruit, hire, promote, and use the services of minorities and women,'” said the ex parte filing. The “explicit Congressional directive” puts the proposed CVDR “far outside the Major Questions Doctrine,” the filing said.
The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division recommended Comcast drop various 10G advertising claims. NAD said Comcast indicated it planned to appeal a recommendation the cabler drop or modify its 10G claims that were challenged by T-Mobile. Separately, NAD said Comcast was appealing a similar recommendation responding to a Verizon challenge of Comcast ads. In both cases, NAD said, Comcast's use of "10G" could lead consumers to believe its entire network is delivering 10 Gbps speeds.
Scripps has signed cable and direct broadcast satellite carriage agreements covering about 75% of its subscriber households, it said Wednesday. It said the renewals also expand the number of its stations getting distribution fees.
A National Advertising Review Board panel agreed with Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division recommendation that Google should drop its advertising claim that its YouTube TV service is "$600 less than cable." Charter Communications challenged the ad claim, NARB said. It said Google indicated it disagreed with NARB's determination but would modify or end the ad claim.
The FCC should take filings from shareholder lawsuits and other court cases against Fox into account in the hearing proceeding on WTXF-TV Philadelphia (see Ref:2307060065]) and require they be entered as evidence, said two filings from the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) and its supporters posted Tuesday in docket 23-293. Documents from four shareholder lawsuits filed against Fox in the Delaware Court of Chancery and sealed filings from the cases brought by voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion “can shed important light on Fox’s behavior immediately after the 2020 presidential election,” said a motion for production of documents from MAD. “By requiring Fox to produce these documents and allowing MAD to review them and supplement its petition, the Commission will have a more complete record,” the filing said. Former FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan and Weekly Standard founder William Kristol -- both backers of MAD’s petition to deny -- submitted the complaints from the shareholder lawsuits as evidence, in a separate letter. The lawsuits argue shareholders were damaged by Fox’s amplification of the false stories about the 2020 election because those actions led to a $787 million settlement with Dominion. The complaints “reflect that FOX shareholders are as troubled as we are by the same core issue that should trouble the Commission, and that should lead the Commission to designate a hearing,” said the letter from Kristol and Duggan. Conduct that would compel FCC action if it came from a broadcaster shouldn’t be ignored just because it was undertaken by a “sister cable channel” owned by the same entity, “just as an adulterer’s dalliances cannot be disregarded because they occurred at the paramour’s residence rather than in the marital bed,” said Kristol and Duggan. Fox responded to the MAD filings by citing a letter of support for WTXF from former Undersecretary of the Army Patrick Murphy, also a former Democratic member of Congress. "I have known Fox 29 leadership since my first run for US Congress in 2005 and they have always been fair, balanced, and genuinely give a platform to inspire others to make a positive difference locally and nationally," said the letter. "Fox 29 Philadelphia has done great work in our community, providing balanced coverage of public policy issues, including telling stories of military veterans, who are 42% people of color in my generation of Post 9/11 veterans."
Warner Bros. Discovery might be interested in moving Max to the basic cable bundle much the way Disney has with Disney+ in its agreement with Charter Communications (see 2309110034), LightShed Partners' Rich Greenfield wrote investors Friday. That would increase the revenue Max generates from MVPDs and virtual MVPDs, though there are likely smaller networks WBD would sacrifice in the bundle in exchange, he said. Numerous legacy programmers will likely follow Disney’s lead of pushing direct-to-consumer streaming services into the legacy multichannel bundle, he said.