Advertising

The Federal Trade Commission has moved to stop internet service provider Frontier Communications from lying to consumers and charging them for high-speed internet speeds it fails to deliver. Under a proposed order with the FTC and two California law enforcement agencies, Frontier will be prohibited from tricking consumers about its slow internet service and required to support its speed claims.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) launched a six-figure digital advertising campaign aimed at securing Gigi Sohn’s [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] confirmation to the Federal Communications Commission.

While homes that get over-the-air (OTA) TV content continue to grow slowly, the greatest change over the last three years has been with broadband-only (BBO) homes—comprising 27% of TV homes in Q4 2021, according to Nielsen. In 2018, the percentage was 9%. This has come largely at the expense of homes with traditional cable TV and other TV services—so-called "Cable Plus." These make up 57% of U.S. homes, down from 76% in the fourth quarter of 2018. The remainder are OTA homes—now estimated at 15%, up from 14% three years earlier.

In a win for T-Mobile over challenger Charter Communications, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs determined that T-Mobile's "no data caps" claim for its Home Internet service was not misleading. NAD also found that T-Mobile's advertising “did not reasonably convey a disparaging message” that competing cable internet providers, including Charter, require long-term contracts and “exploding bills,” as compared to T-Mobile's Home Internet service.

Regulators in Europe and the UK have opened an antitrust probe into a deal between Google and Meta/Facebook on online advertising, in the latest effort to tackle the market power of the world’s biggest technology companies. The move follows US antitrust investigators who are also probing an agreement informally known as “Jedi Blue.” Google and Facebook have been accused of working together to carve up advertising profits, acting together to buttress their businesses.

Four trade groups and advocacy organizations representing the major tech companies spent roughly $2 million on Facebook advertisements opposing tech-related antitrust bills since the start of 2022. That number, which comes courtesy of an analysis of Facebook’s ad archives by Politico, will likely only increase as legislation to rein in the power of the tech giants moves through the House and Senate. Ad buys from tech trade group NetChoice made up the bulk of that spending.

The California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) shared the results of an advertising campaign that CETF developed and Los Angeles County (CA) joined as co-branded partner, resulting in outstanding growth in enrollments. CETF launched advertising in the first 3 weeks in December 2021, and saw Emergency Broadband Benefit sign-ups increase by 43 percent month over month.

AT&T largely lost an advertising dispute with Charter Communications, with a review panel recommending the operator change or discontinue claims its fiber service is better than cable. The case dates back to 2021, when Charter filed a complaint with the National Advertising Division (NAD) challenging assertions made in AT&T ads that it offers “up to 20x faster upload speeds” than cable and is “half the price.” Charter also disputed AT&T’s claims that fiber offers “better internet” than cable.

New America's Open Technology Institute (OTI) wants to nip in the bud any suggestion the Federal Communications Commission may be making that the congressionally mandated broadband nutrition label is voluntary. The FCC plans to vote at its January 27 open meeting on implementing the requirement in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that broadband internet access service providers be required to provide broadband service consumer labels that let consumers know what speed and quality of service they are getting at which price and with what fees attached.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai personally approved a secret deal that gave the social network a leg up in the search giant’s online advertising auctions, attorneys for Texas and other states alleged in newly unsealed court filings.