Locast Settlement Is Passed to GOP Senator Probing FCC Pick

Sen Roger Wicker (R-MS) has obtained a confidential settlement between broadcast networks and a streaming service involving Federal Communications Commission nominee Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society]. ABC, CBS, NBCUniversal, and Twentieth Century Fox sued Locast in 2019, alleging the service was streaming their programming without paying fees. That litigation resulted in a $32 million settlement in October 2021. Sohn’s tenure as a board member at the now-defunct streaming service, Locast, has drawn fire from Wicker and other Republicans on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.