Broadcasting&Cable

Noncommercial TV stations were some of the biggest winners in the Federal Communications Commission's broadcast incentive auction, but associations representing noncommercial media are more focused on everyone else and what they said are "potentially debilitating service interruptions."

"America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS are working together to review and analyze the results, with the goal of ensuring that all Americans and their families continue to have access to public media’s educational programs, trusted news and public safety information services," said America's Public Television Stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS in a joint statement. "Our primary concern is that hundreds of public media stations who chose not to participate in the spectrum incentive auction nonetheless will be impacted as a result of the mandatory 'repack." Mandatory repacking requires stations to move to different broadcast channels. In addition, 'bystander' television and radio stations, which share towers with stations that are being repacked, face the potential of operating at reduced power for months to ensure the safety of the workers implementing channel changes for other stations. These stations and their audiences are threatened with potentially debilitating service disruptions."

Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA), former chair of the House Communications Subcommittee, says she has serious concerns about Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal to reinstate the UHF discount. A vote is scheduled April 20 on that proposal. Rep Eshoo said she had worries about preserving viewpoint diversity following what she said would be the resulting consolidation and added that broadcast TV represents a "bulwark" against fake news, but only a media with "vibrant and diverse ownership."

Part of rescinding the UHF discount's elimination, Chairman Pai signaled, was to review the rules more holistically. Chairman Pai has said the discount may have outlived its usefulness, which Eshoo noted, but he took issue with the FCC, under predecessor Tom Wheeler, eliminating it without at the same time raising the national ownership cap or perhaps adding a VHF ownership discount. Rep Eshoo also has issues with Pai's consideration of raising that national ownership cap. She warned that a proceeding to consider increasing that cap "runs contrary to congressional intent."

Roy Stewart, 78, former chief of the Federal Communications Commission's then-Mass Media Bureau and subsequently of the Office of Broadcast License Policy, died April 10 at Fairfax Hospital, Fairfax (VA) after what was described as a brief illness. Stewart joined the FCC in 1965, became head of the Mass Media Bureau in 1989, then moved to the license policy office before retiring in 2009.

“I am sad to learn of the passing of Roy Stewart, former Chief of the FCC’s Mass Media Bureau," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "In his over four decades at the Commission, Roy was a charismatic leader. He started at the Commission in 1965 in the TV Applications Branch of the Broadcast Bureau, and was Chief of the Mass Media Bureau for a venerable 13 years, before heading the Media Bureau’s Office of Broadcast License Policy until his retirement in 2009. Roy’s memory will live on, as he continues to be a legend in the broadcast industry. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Patricia Zimmer Stewart, and his family.” Former FCC chairman Dick Wiley called Stewart "the finest regulatory official I ever worked with," both inside and outside the FCC. Wiley became partner in mega-Communications firm Wiley Rein after leaving the commission.

USTelecom, which represents major phone Internet service providers, was rooting on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's business data service (BDS) proposal, which deregulates rates for incumbent providers like USTelecom members AT&T and Verizon where there is competition—and Pai signals he thinks that is a lot of places. But the association was pushing even further, saying the item could have been even more deregulatory. Chairman Pai has scheduled a vote on his proposal for April 20.

According to an ex parte notice of an April 10 meeting between USTelecom execs, including its president Jonathan Spalter, and Pai. They told Pai that the proposal to "reduce" the FCC's "price setting role" was "relatively constrained" and pointed to the benefits of more broad price relief, including a finding that incumbent telecoms are no longer de facto dominant.

As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to deregulate the broadband data services market for incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs)—a vote is planned at the April 20 meeting—the Wireline Competition Bureau has asked for more information from ILEC CenturyLink and merger partner Level 3 on how their merger would affect competition for business services.

"To permit the Commission to review the Application and make the necessary public interest findings, we require additional information and clarification of certain matters discussed in the Application," the bureau said in the March 30 request with a deadline of April 13. The bureau wants a geographic breakout of BDS sales and where the two companies currently compete for business internet access, BDS and fiber (lit, dark, long haul and metro). Such follow-up requests are not unusual as the FCC drills down on the public interest statements and deal outlines provided by the companies in their filings. The bureau also wants the companies to describe and document the deal’s effects on plans for all those "both within and outside of CenturyLink's incumbent local exchange carrier (LEC) footprint, including any steps the combined company will take post-Transaction to change existing service offers and/or terms and conditions to business consumers both inside of and outside of CenturyLink's incumbent LEC footprint."

More than half a hundred Republican Reps signed onto a letter asking Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to "continue ensuring" that consumer broadband privacy is maintained until the FCC "remedies" the Title II reclassification. Republicans are pushing the FCC to roll back Title II.

Lead signatories on the letter were House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH). The letter was phrased to signal that they thought the FCC had been protecting privacy and just wanted to emphasize the need to continue to do so and to do so along the lines of the Federal Trade Commission's privacy by design approach to edge providers and, formerly, ISPs. "Until such time as the FCC rectifies the Title II reclassification that inappropriately removed ISPs from the FTC's jurisdiction, we urge the FCC to continue to hold ISPs to their privacy promises," the letter reads.

The Campaign Legal Center has asked the Federal Communications Commission to review ads from the Judicial Crisis Network pushing for the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as Supreme Court justice. CLC says that JCN incorrectly labeled the ads nonpolitical and that instead they should have been subject to FCC disclosure rules that apply to “a message relating to any political matter of national importance.”

"The JCN ads indisputably meet this standard," said CLC. CLC points out that the Communications Act requires the disclosure of specific information when such a standard is met, information the JCN ads were lacking, it said. Broadcasters are required to place ads related to political matters of public importance in their public files, and they must include who bought the add and the highest officers of that group. CLC argues that should apply not only to the groups like JCN but the often big money, unidentified funders of those groups. But the FCC has yet to tighten its rules under either Democratic or Republican chairs. It has joined in various FCC complaints, both against stations they say weren't complying with the rules as they are, as well as asking the FCC to tighten them.

FilmOn X on April 6 sought a full-court re-hearing in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after a three-judge panel of that court in March reversed a lower court decision that FilmOn X was eligible for the same compulsory license to TV programming as cable operators have. The appeals court panel held that "a service that captures copyrighted works broadcast over the air, and then retransmits them to paying subscribers over the Internet without the consent of the copyright holders, is not a 'cable system' eligible for a compulsory license under the Copyright Act."

Broadcasters led by Fox had challenged the lower court ruling after US District Court judge George Wu sided with FilmOn X. The company argues that the Copyright Office has been inconsistent on the license, granting one to U-verse and FiOS as substantially similar to cable, for example, while denying ones to FilmOn X and others that also use IP technology. It also says Congress meant for the definition of cable to be able to encompass new technologies like FilmOn X.

The House Communications Subcommittee held a hearing on wireless spectrum and the economy, but it had to wait for Democratic and Republican lawmakers to air out their grievances over the passage last week of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution rolling back Federal Communications Commission broadband privacy regulations. The back-and-forth was particularly heated and even personal, illustrating the widening political divide on Capitol Hill.

Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) and full Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) used their opening statements to weigh in on Republicans "ramming" the CRA down the "public's throat," as Rep Doyle put it. Rep Doyle also called out CTIA (though not by name)—a CTIA witness, the only association witness, was at the table—for supporting the CRA, saying the industry association had acted in a "selfish and irresponsible way." He said he expected more from it and its members, and the American people did as well. Saying that CTIA's support for the CRA meant that there were no privacy protections, Rep Doyle said: "Believe me, my constituents and your customers are not happy about this." House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) shot back that the issue had been "horribly spun" and that the FCC created the problem when it reclassified ISPs under Title II and took over regulation of broadband privacy form the Federal Trade Commission.

House Democrats have released a suite of "connectivity" bills April 5 that would, among other things, prevent the Federal Communications Commission from targeting broadcasters "or anyone else" on the basis of viewpoint, toughen FCC political ad disclosure rules, and boost broadcast diversity.

The Protecting Dissenting Viewpoints and Voices Act (HR 1574), introduced by Rep Ben Jay Luján (D-NM), stems from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's decision not to weigh in on President Donald Trump's branding of news outlets as "fake news" and in the shadow of the President's ongoing threats, or perceived threats, including invoking potential changes in libel laws or, as a candidate, suggesting his Administration should bock a deal involving Time Warner, which owns one of his main targets, CNN. The bill would prevent the FCC from revoking any license, denying a license transfer, or taking action against an individual for their viewpoints on issues of public importance. The bill would also prevent the President from directing an agency from retaliating over a broadcast viewpoint.

The Keeping Our Campaigns Honest (KOCH) Act (HR 1439), whose name is a reference to the Koch brothers, who are big Republican donors, was introduced by Reps John Yarmuth (D-KY), Peter Welch (D-VT) and Luján. It would "direct the FCC to revise its sponsorship identification rules to require that the true identity of individuals behind anonymous campaign ads be disclosed."

The Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act, introduced by Rep GK Butterfield (D-NC) would boost data and reporting requirements for ownership diversity, restore the tax certificate program and establish a minority incubator program (see separate story).

The Connected Government Act which would require government websites to be optimized for mobile.

The Family Telephone Connection Protection Act (HR 1184) which would require the FCC to regulate prison phone rates.