The House Judiciary Committee's antitrust package targeting big tech, set to be marked up Wednesday, “is an existential threat to our competitiveness,” CTA President Gary Shapiro told the Media Institute Tuesday. “The bills would effectively prohibit acquisitions by our largest companies, leaving startups and their investors, who counted on selling their companies, out in the cold.” Industry groups said this week that the bipartisan legislation would upend centuries of U.S. antitrust law (see 2106220061).
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., are having staff-level discussions about a legislative response to the Supreme Court striking down FTC Act Section 13(b) authority (see 2104260065), they told us. Cantwell previously said she wants to move quickly on legislation to bolster the agency’s authority. The committee has bill language, but “I don’t know when we’re rolling it out,” Cantwell told us. Wicker confirmed the staff discussions.
Broadcast ad revenue is improving as jurisdictions reopen, streaming services are putting increasing pressure on MVPDs, and sports betting is on the rise as a category, panelists told S&P's Kagan Media Summit. Core ads are “set up for a growth streak,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley on Thursday. “Habits picked up during the pandemic are likely to have lasting effects on video consumption,” said Kagan's Deana Myers.
Localities are gearing up to sue Ohio unless lawmakers remove a proposed ban on municipal broadband that the Senate added to the state budget without hearings. A conference committee is expected to say in coming days if the amendment added this month will make the final budget that both chambers must pass and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) must sign by month’s end. The proposed ban could force existing muni providers to sell their businesses, said local officials in interviews last week.
Reputation blocklists help fight domain name system abuse but raise questions of accuracy and transparency, panelists said Thursday at a virtual ICANN meeting. RBLs blacklist IP addresses or domain names generally regarded as malicious, untrustworthy or of bad repute, said Samaneh Tajalizadehkhoob of ICANN's chief technology office. They're important to, and must be better understood by, ICANN, registries/registrars, hosting companies and other service providers and end-users, said iQ Chief Technology Officer LG Forsberg.
Google’s first retail store, a LEED Platinum-certified, 5,000-square-foot space in the ground floor of its New York headquarters building, opened in low-key fashion Thursday, with a couple dozen visitors waiting when doors opened at 10:02 a.m. Ten minutes before the open, staffers rolled out an oversized red Google Maps pin to mark the spot, located the next block up and across the street from Apple’s West 14th Street store.
Senate Republicans are optimistic about working with new FTC Chair Lina Khan (see 2106160056) on antitrust and other issues, they said in interviews Thursday. Democrats also welcomed the appointment, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mass., saying the agency needs to take advantage of its 3-2 Democratic majority before Commissioner Rohit Chopra leaves for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (see 2101190019). See here for news on Khan ascending Tuesday to chair.
Congressional Democrats are pressing harder for President Joe Biden to name a permanent FCC chair and a fifth commissioner, citing the need for a majority to act on changes to net neutrality rules and other priorities unlikely to garner GOP support. Lawmakers remain publicly hopeful the administration will soon announce its FCC nominees. Privately, Senate Democrats in recent days told the White House their patience on FCC nomination delays has evaporated, aides said.
The House Science Committee unanimously advanced Tuesday the National Science Foundation for the Future Act (HR-2225), setting up a likely showdown on whether the chamber will approve that bill rather than the rival Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260). Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, prefers HR-2225’s approach to countering Chinese tech R&D. S-1260 would establish an NSF Technology Directorate; HR-2225 would establish a generalized Directorate for Science and Engineering Solutions.
President Joe Biden plans to name Lina Khan to permanently lead the FTC once she's sworn in as a commissioner. Hours earlier, the Senate voted 69-28 Tuesday to confirm her. Khan drew bipartisan Senate support, as expected (see 2106100069). FTC supporters, pressed Congress to increase FY 2022 funding and enact legislation to restore its FTC Act Section 13(b) consumer redress authority.