Multichannel News

Four Indiana cities, including Indianapolis, have jointly filed suit in a local state court, seeking to collect “franchise fees” usually charged to cable operators from Netflix and several other video operators, none of which are cable providers. Defendants also include Disney Plus and Hulu, as well as satellite TV companies DirecTV and Dish Network.

Cable operators, cognizant that the broadband wave the industry has been riding for more than a decade could eventually come to a halt, have quietly been building out their service footprints, expanding the pool of potential high-speed internet customers and ensuring a lengthy growth runway for their most profitable service. In the second quarter, both Charter Communications and Comcast reported record broadband subscriber growth despite the ongoing pandemic. Charter led the way with the addition of 850,000 broadband customers (588,000, when certain COVID-19 related programs are excluded).

Law firm Cooley LLP has broken out the ways that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Sec 230 petition, if acted on by the Federal Communications Commission, would impose “sweeping changes.” For one, its requirement that websites disclose their moderation policies would subject edge provider content to the FCC’s authority for the first time.

Carolyn Roddy, a senior advisor at the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, and Hill staffer Crystal Tully, are two names that have surfaced as potential nominees to replace Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly. Roddy was a member of Trump's FCC transition team following the 2016 election and was Metro Atlanta Regional Deputy Coordinator of the campaign. She was briefly an FCC lawyer in 2017.

The Federal Communications Commission has denied petitions by public safety and utility organizations to stay its decision to open up the entire 6 GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi use pending judicial review.

A federal appeals court has upheld most of the Federal Communications Commission's orders speeding the deployment of cell service buildouts by easing regulations on those 5G deployments, including pole attachments and various local reviews of buildouts. Specifically upheld were the Small Cell Order, the Moratoria Order, and the One Touch Make-Ready Order, all parts of the FCC's Accelerating Wireless Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure order. 

Over 100 organizations and individuals, led by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, have signed on to a letter warning about the downside of remote learning in the age of COVID-19 and beyond. As some school districts pull back on reopening in person due to spikes in the virus, privacy and other groups are warning parents and schools to "look past simplistic solutions peddled to increase EdTech profits, and find ways to limit students’ time on digital devices." Their concern is the push for remote learning will translate to EdTech companies capturing more children's data, crowd teac