Broadcasting&Cable

The nullification of the Federal Communications Commission's broadband privacy rules at the stroke of the President Donald Trump's pen drew a big audience in Washington, most of them either to weigh in on one side or the other of the contentious issue.

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said, “Once again, the American people lose out at the hands of President Trump and the Republican Congress. The Republicans thought they could jam through this harmful law without anyone noticing. But despite their effort to hide this latest corporate giveaway, Americans of all political stripes spoke out loud and clear to say that they wanted to keep their personal information private and secure. Despite this setback, the fight is not over, and I will work to restore privacy protections for the American people.”

The Federal Communications Commission has voted to modify the Charter-Time Warner Cable deal conditions by removing the requirement that Charter overbuild a million internet access customers who could already get high-speed access from another provider, apparently. The idea of the condition, imposed under former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, was to promote price and speed competition.

New FCC chairman Ajit Pai circulated the item in March, after which it was widely expected to be approved. The buildout requirement remains, but according to the item that could now all be buildouts to currently unserved homes, with no overbuilding. However, Charter could still choose to overbuild those one million, they are just no longer required to do so. Charter in 2016 said it intended to focus its overbuild activity against teleommunication broadband providers, not other cable companies.

The Tom Wheeler Federal Communications Commission suffered another defeat in the opt-out advertising category March 31 as a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals—in a 2-1 decision—overturned a ruling regarding faxed advertisements, saying the FCC had exceeded its authority. The FCC in 2014 upheld a previous conclusion that its rule implementing The Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 required opt-out notices not only on unsolicited faxed ads but solicited ones as well. That was more than an academic exercise since the FCC was responding to a 2010 request for a declaratory ruling by a drug company, Anda, that wanted the FCC to find the rule didn't apply to solicited faxes—since that meant the recipient had agreed to get them. Anda was being sued for $150 million by pharmacies that claimed, even though they had agreed to get the faxes, there should have still been an opt-out option. The FCC agreed; the court panel did not.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal to deregulate business data service (BDS) rates—credit card readers, ATMs—of incumbent carriers and not to impose potential new price regulations on competitors including cable operators was drawing a lot of attention in Washington after the chairman signaled the FCC would vote on his BDS item at the April meeting. Former chairman Tom Wheeler ran out of time and support for his BDS revamp, which Pai had issues with. A notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) under Wheeler was adopted along party lines, but the order was never voted. Pai’s item would be an order based on what he said was lengthy data collection and the input into that NPRM, though critics of his plan were suggesting it was sufficiently different from the NPRM that it should be put out for new comment.

The Commerce Department's announcement that AT&T had been awarded the contract to build and maintain FirstNet, the interoperable broadband communications network suggested after first responder communications failures on 9/11, drew praise from various quarters. "This step was part of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations on improving the ability of our police, fire, and emergency medical personnel to communicate seamlessly across jurisdictions, which is critical to their missions," said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. "It’s also a sign of the incredible ability of public-private partnerships to drive innovation and solve some of our biggest problems while also creating jobs and growing the economy."

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said that broadband is the infrastructure challenge of our time, and he sees cable operators not as an enemy of that effort but as partners in better enabling citizens to reap the benefits of the digital revolution. Former Chairman Tom Wheeler often framed Internet service providers as gatekeepers and potential snakes in the virtuous garden in need of minding.

American Cable Association president Matthew Polka, who interviewed the chairman at the American Cable Association annual summit, called Pai's a "refreshing take"—to applause from members. Chairman Pai was speaking in advance of their visits around Washington (DC) to make the case on Capitol Hill and elsewhere for the important role of small and medium sized telecoms/cable operators and the need to recognize their particular challenges. Polka pointed to the active agenda of the new chairman, and that came even before he had announced a busy meeting agenda for April that includes a revamp of business data services (BDS) that is not expected to include potential new price regs on cable operators ISPs, as his predecessor had proposed. Chairman Pai said that his short-term goals include promoting infrastructure investment and whether any regulations currently on the books are impeding that—the April agenda includes some proposals to speed that deployment by removing regulatory barriers.

President Donald Trump has renewed his suggestion that libel laws might need to be tightened so he could pursue news outlets whose stories he feels are wrong or unjustified attacks. In a tweet March 30, the President once again took aim at one of the mainstays of the mainstream media. "The failing @nytimes has disgraced the media world," he wrote. "Gotten me wrong for two solid years. Change libel laws?" That followed a tweet from March 29: "Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong. Now worse!"

Broadcasters and cable operators who want to get compensated for post-incentive auction repack expenses, and broadcasters who want to get their incentive auction winning bid payments, need to read the latest Federal Communications Commission public notice. That notice, released on the eve of the March 30 close of the incentive auction, says it contains "essential steps that Payment Applicants must take before receiving incentive payments based on winning reverse auction bids or payments from the Television Broadcaster Relocation Fund (the Fund) for expenses eligible for reimbursement." That includes how to enter and update bank account information, tracking those payments, and the impact of ownership changes.

The notice reads, "Before the Commission can direct disbursement of incentive payments, a winning bidder must certify its agreement with and acknowledgement of specified payment terms and provide necessary information regarding the account to which the incentive payment should be made." The FCC can't yet say when broadcasters will be getting their money, since it depends on when the forward auction bidders pony up the cash for their spectrum. Broadcasters will get their winnings in a lump sum, with stations in the first phases of the repack getting the money first if the FCC is not able to hand it all out at once. The FCC will release a "Ready to Pay" public notice when it is ready to pay broadcasters, or multiple notices if it has to pay the first-phase stations first. That will depend on how much and when they collect from forward auction bidders.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai was already getting pushback from Capitol Hill, his fellow Democratic commissioner, and others soon after he announced the plan to roll back the FCC's Lifeline eligibility program in favor of letting states decide who should get to provide the subsidized broadband service to low income residents. “This is another effort by President Trump’s FCC to inflict death by a thousand cuts on the Lifeline program," said House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA), and Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA) in a joint statement. "Through lawyerly maneuvering, the FCC is trying to disguise its efforts to eliminate a system designed to make it easier for anyone who needs access to broadband to get it—no matter where they live. We will continue to fight for this important program that keeps struggling families across the country connected.” “Chairman Pai's statement confirms that under this Administration low-income Americans will have less choice for Lifeline broadband, and potential providers who want to serve low-income Americans will face greater barriers to entry and regulatory uncertainty," said Democratic FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn. "While today's announcement is not surprising, it is nonetheless deeply disappointing.”

Corporation for Public Broadcasting president Patricia Harrison was on Capitol Hill March 28 to pitch full funding for noncommercial TV and radio—even as President Donald Trump has proposed cutting all federal funds—but to some Republican pushback over a familiar topic: alleged liberal bias, though to some encouraging words from the Republican chairman of the subcommittee. She also signaled that Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction funds wouldn't be a big boon for noncommercial stations looking for funding elsewhere. Harrison asked for full funding for 2020 (the service is forward-funded to attempt to insulate it from politics), $55 million for 2018 for interconnection systems and $30 million for the Ready to Learn program at the Department of Education.