Broadcasting&Cable

The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has granted a petition by a pair of Australian citizens to control 100% of broadcast stations (four radio stations in Alaska and Texas). The FCC has granted aggregate foreign investments in broadcast licensees of up to 49.99% under foreign ownership rules loosened in 2013 (the Pandora decision), and just last month allowed foreign investors to own up to a 49% equity stake in TV and radio station owner Univision, including up to a 40% stake by Mexico's Televisa. But this is the first time it has allowed 100% foreign ownership of the parent of broadcast licensees.

The FCC's Media Bureau, which issued the declaratory ruling Feb. 23 allowing the ownership change, said the petition had been unopposed and that it had consulted with the "relevant agencies" on law enforcement, national security, foreign policy and trade issues—and none of those agencies raised any objections or said any conditions should be put on the deal.

Over 40 groups have written Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to ask him to reverse the decision to rescind Lifeline broadband subsidy eligibility for nine companies.

Among the Wheeler-era decisions the Pai FCC reversed were those designations, saying that the program needed to be better vetted for waste, fraud and abuse before it was expanded. The authorizations were not canceled but returned to pending status, though with the suggestion they might not pass muster. Only one of the nine had actually started providing service. In a letter to Pai and the other commissioners dated Feb. 23, the groups—which includes the NAACP, Free Press, the American Library Association, and The Benton Foundation—called on the FCC to "reject any further efforts to undermine Lifeline," implement the FCC's March 2016 Lifeline reforms, and restore that carrier designations.

Most of a dozen Democratic members of Congress are calling on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to vote on clarifications to the FCC's political ad disclosure rules. That came in a letter Feb 22 to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. On Feb 3, the Pai FCC set aside the clarifications and accompanying admonitions and warnings to stations, saying they should have been voted on by the commissioners rather than decided by the Media Bureau on delegated authority.

The Reps were disappointed that the clarifications were set aside, but are hopeful they will return with that commission vote. "The complaints will be returned to pending status and considered by the Commission," said acting bureau chief Michelle Carey at the time. The legislators also pushed for the FCC to bring "true transparency" to political files by using its authority to require disclosure of specific donors, which is something not even Democratic FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler would do despite similar calls from some of the same legislators from his own party.

The Federal Communications Commission is opening up the 5 GHz spectrum band to unlicensed LTE use as a way to boost spectrum sharing and wireless broadband. “This is a significant advance in wireless innovation and a big win for wireless consumers," said FCC chairman Ajit Pai. “LTE-U allows wireless providers to deliver mobile data traffic using unlicensed spectrum while sharing the road, so to speak, with Wi-Fi. The excellent staff of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology has certified that the LTE-U devices being approved today are in compliance with FCC rules. And voluntary industry testing has demonstrated that both these devices and Wi-Fi operations can co-exist in the 5 GHz band. This heralds a technical breakthrough in the many shared uses of this spectrum."

The FCC certified LTE-U equipment from Ericsson and Nokia, T-Mobile said, which means the carrier can start deploying the technology in its network, which it will start doing this spring. T-Mobile says tapping into 20 MHz of 5 GHz spectrum—the "U" in LTE-U stands for unlicensed—will help it deliver gigabit LTE to more areas of the country.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says DC bureaucrats should not micromanage dynamic industries and that he supports Congress making broadband part of an infrastructure legislative package. He also suggests the government should not be trying to divine journalists' editorial judgments.

When asked for a timetable for rolling back the FCC's Title II reclassification of Internet service providers, Chairman Pai said he could not provide one. He did say the ultimate goal was to preserve an internet he argues had been open for two decades before the FCC decided to reclassify ISPs as common carriers. He said the takeaway from those two decades was that light-touch regulation was best and signaled that was what he was aiming to restore. Chairman Pai put in a plug for making broadband part of an infrastructure package in Congress. "I think what Americans really want is better, faster, cheaper internet access," he said, "and for the Congress to give the private sector more tools to promote broadband development."

The Federal Communications Commission is allowing a test of the new ATSC 3.0 transmission standard in the Portland (OR) area. The grant, which was reported by the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition, is for six months on four channels (16, 20, 35, 38) and was requested by WatchTV's class A low-power outlets KORS-CD, KOXI-CD, KKEI-CD, and KORK-CD. Also backing the test, according to WatchTV, is a "manufacturer of broadcast transmitters for the U.S. market."

The Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet docket is starting to fill up with new comments, according to the FCC's online list of the most active proceedings. It remains number three on the top 10 list with 402 comments in the past 30 days. That is still way below the 992 Lifeline subsidy program compliance filings in that last 30 days and the 1,246 filings on the high-cost fund, both of those related to the Universal Service Fund for broadband subsidies. But it is the busiest docket since last week, when some Democratic members of Congress called on the public to begin flooding the FCC again with support for retaining the Title II-based Open Internet order. There have been over 200 comments logged since last week (there were 178 as of Feb. 9). By contrast, the two USF dockets only logged 68 new comments combined.

Ajit Pai gave his first TV interview as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to Fox Business Network and said he would investigate indecency complaints against CBS, NBC or anyone else if they were presented to him. Chairman Pai appeared on The Intelligence Report with Trish Regan. Regan cited an F-bomb on Saturday Night Live and Adele's F-bomb on the Grammys and asked if the FCC would be investigating them for "this kind of stuff." "If we are presented with complaints, we are duty bound to enforce the law," he said, "and the law that is on the books today requires that broadcasters keep it clean so to speak." Chairman Pai said he took that FCC obligation seriously. But Chairman Pai did suggest he would be watching what broadcasters say on air, per FCC indecency rules on the books, adding: "[A]s a parent I want to make sure that my kids have a wholesome experience when they are watching programs like that."

Over a dozen Democratic members of the House Commerce Committee have asked Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to reverse his reversal of nine Lifeline broadband subsidy authorizations granted in the waning weeks of his predecessor, Chairman Tom Wheeler.

In a letter to Chairman Pai, they said his halting of the expansion of the program, which provides subsides for basic communications services to lower income residents, unnecessarily pulls the tools to connect out of the hands of the poor in the case of one provider, which is already providing service, and the potential for the other eight--which are not yet providing service--to supply those tools. "The order does not explain how its actions will accomplish those goals," they said. "Furthermore, since the Order raised many novel policy questions regarding the Commission’s current efforts to safeguard the integrity of the Lifeline program, we find it troubling that the Chairman would insist on pursuing the same course he has so often criticized his predecessors for: an improper exercise of the FCC’s delegated authority and a refusal to permit the full Commission from voting on an item that poses new questions of law and policy." They said they were all for making the program more efficient and accountable, but said that need not come at the expense of the consumers who benefit from the Lifeline subsidies.

It took awhile, but the Democratic Senators have chosen the new subcommittee assignments for the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees communications issues including the Federal Communications Commission.

Returning as Ranking Member of the Senate Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet Subcommittee is Sen Brian Schatz (D-HI). Rounding out the committee are Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tom Udall (D-NM), Gary Peters (D-MI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV). The reason the process took as long as it did was the usual jockeying for position for assignments, plus added seats given Democrats' greater proportion of the Senate due to gains in the election. The communications subcommittee lost two members, Sens Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), but gained four--Sens Duckworth and Baldwin, Hassan, and Cortez Masto. Unlike the House, historically most of the communications issues are handled at the committee level.