Ownership

As Google marks its 20th anniversary, our relationship with it isn’t quite as uncomplicated as it used to be. In the wake of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, and fears that the Russians exploited Facebook and YouTube to influence the 2016 presidential election, people are more wary of tech companies these days–especially ones that harvest personal data. This trend won’t reverse itself anytime soon.

Thank you for the opportunity to join your esteemed industry in Orlando (FL) to discuss radio policy issues. As we head into our next Quadrennial Review, more work remains, which I would like to spend my time discussing with you today:

A group of nine state attorneys general backed AT&T as the Justice Department asks a federal appeals court to reverse approval of the company’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner. It “is rare for the federal government to pursue an antitrust case involving major, national companies without any state joining the effort,” the nine state officials said in a court filing, noting that no states have filed briefs supporting the Justice Department’s appeal.

Sprint is unable to recover from crippling losses and has told regulators its purchase by T-Mobile would set up a stronger competitor to wireless leaders AT&T and Verizon. Customers are fleeing the smallest of the big four US nationwide providers at an increasing rate, Sprint told the Federal Communications Commission in a Sept. 21 meeting. Revenue is dropping and the company can’t cut much more after eliminating about $10 billion in annual costs.

The government needs to diversify and strengthen its efforts to stop China from co-opting the US innovation economy to support its own global ambitions, industry experts told the House Oversight IT Subcommittee on Sept 26.  And tariffs probably aren’t the best way to do it, they said. “For more than 40 years, the US has encouraged China to develop its own economy and take its place alongside the US as a central and responsible player on the world stage,” said House Oversight IT subcommittee Chairman Will Hurd (R-TX). “China does not want to join us, they want to replace us.

Twenty-First Century Fox agreed to sell its 39 percent stake in the British broadcaster Sky to Comcast in a deal worth $15 billion, ending Rupert Murdoch’s yearslong ambition to take full ownership of the satellite service he helped found three decades ago. Murdoch, the executive co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, sold most of his empire to the Walt Disney Company this summer. The proceeds of the Sky sale will go to Disney, which plans to invest the money in its newest effort to sell its content directly to viewers via streaming services.

The biggest barrier for US leadership in 5G: the Trump Administration’s own misguided trade policies. Indeed, the administration’s trade war with China threatens to increase the costs of wireless infrastructure by hundreds of millions of dollars at a critical moment in the race to 5G.  It’s a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.

"Our media is precious. It’s how, outside of our strictly personal spheres, we speak to each other, inform each other, learn from each other, entertain each other, increasingly how we govern ourselves." With these words, Michael Copps opened a public hearing on media ownership rules. The hearing was not in Washington, DC, but Chicago, Illinois. Copps was not a local official, but a commissioner at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

This report, part history, and part strategy playbook, examines the tactics and policy priorities of former-Commissioner Michael J. Copps during his 10 years at the FCC. An analysis of Commissioner Copps’s tenure, his political strategies, and his legacy is a timely endeavor, both for its historical importance and for its contemporary relevance. As a commissioner in the minority during the George W.

Officials from 14 states' top legal offices and the Justice Department have begun a coordinated conversation about ways to keep tabs — and potentially rein in — the fast-growing tech giants. The gathering had been designed to focus on social media platforms and the ways in which they moderate content online, following complaints from President Donald Trump and other top Republican lawmakers that Silicon Valley companies deliberately seek to silence conservative users and views online.