Ownership

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for June 2018 Open Meeting

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the June Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 7, 2018:

What Happened to Facebook's Grand Plan to Wire the World?

In 2013 Mark Zuckerberg debuted a bold, humanitarian vision of global internet. It didn’t go as planned—forcing Facebook to reckon with the limits of its own ambition.

Union files complaints against AT&T, Nexstar for failing to disclose plans for tax savings

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board against AT&T and Nexstar Media Group after the companies failed to provide information sought by the union about how the businesses planned to use their savings from the corporate tax cuts in the Republican tax law. “Like so many companies, AT&T promised that it would use savings from the tax bill to create good, family-supporting U.S. jobs,” said Lisa Bolton, vice president of CWA Telecommunications and Technologies.

Facebook lets advertisers target users based on sensitive interests

Facebook allows advertisers to target users it thinks are interested in subjects such as homosexuality, Islam or liberalism, despite religion, sexuality and political beliefs explicitly being marked out as sensitive information under new data protection laws. The social network gathers information about users based on their actions on Facebook and on the wider web, and uses that data to predict on their interests.

The rise of the pro-Trump media machine

Pro-Trump media is spreading across the US, disseminating Trumpian rhetoric about fake news and mainstream media bias through every medium. The big picture, from Rodney Benson, chair of NYU's Department of Media, Culture, and Communication: "Many of the media moving toward subscriptions have disproportionately left-liberal audiences. ... While liberal media draw their circles ever tighter around themselves (via paywalls, high-level content, etc.), conservatives are fighting to extend their mass reach."

Internet Association Answers Chairman Walden's Call to Testify

On behalf of Internet Association, which represents the world’s leading internet companies, I want to take this opportunity to respond to your open call for "Silicon Valley CEOs” to testify before Congress (San Francisco Chronicle, House Committee Seeks Input From Tech CEOs, May 14, 2018). I am happy to testify on behalf of our members to help the committee explore the ways that the internet benefits all Americans.

As big chains gobble up small TV stations, merged newsrooms are creating a uniformity of news coverage

The TV news has a familiar feel to it in west-central Pennsylvania. News stories broadcast on WJAC, the NBC affiliate in town, have appeared on nearby station WATM, the ABC affiliate. And many of those stories are broadcast on WWCP, the Fox station here, as well.

Is Sprint a victim of 'The Rule of Three and Four?'

[Commentary] Bruce Henderson hypothesizes that a stable, competitive industry will never have more than three significant competitors and that the industry will find equilibrium when the market shares of the three competitors reach a ratio of 4:2:1. Taking a closer look at the wireless businesses of the four major operators in the U.S., the market share in revenue terms at the end of 2017 was: Verizon (38%); AT&T (31%); T-Mobile (17%); and, Sprint (14%). In terms of profitability as measured in operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA), the relative differentials wer

MMTC, NABOB Say FCC Should Help Northstar, SNR Cure DE Applications

The Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters told the Federal Communications Commission it needs to work with SNR Wireless and Northstar to help them qualify for designated entity (DE) bidding credits, a way to encourage minority participation in spectrum auctions. The two companies teamed with Dish Network to acquire $10 billion worth of spectrum licenses in the AWS-3 auction.

AT&T faces a Trumpworld reality check

The ouster of AT&T's top lobbyist caught DC telecom insiders by surprise and underscored that even the most well-oiled Washington machine isn't immune to inadvertent entanglement with Trumpworld scandal. 

Giuliani Said President Trump Killed AT&T Time Warner Merger, But the White House Says He’s Wrong

In another seeming flareup of his chronic foot-in-mouth disease, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani on May 11 told the Huffington Post that the president “denied the merger” sought by AT&T and Time-Warner.

Sprint, T-Mobile Vow Merger Won’t Repeat Nextel Havoc

Sprint’s plan to merge with rival T-Mobile in a $26 billion deal has triggered memories of dead phones and spotty service for some longtime Sprint customers, but the companies say such pitfalls are in the past. The customers are recalling the havoc of Sprint’s 2005 merger with Nextel Communications, much of it driven by the companies’ differing technologies. It took nearly eight years and billions of dollars to wind down Nextel’s so-called iDEN system—known for its chirpy push-to-talk cellphones—before all customers were taking calls on Sprint’s network.

Could the Sprint-T-Mobile merger mean higher bills for Boost or MetroPCS customers?

If the government approves Sprint and T-Mobile’s bid to merge, customers of lower cost pre-paid plans — say from Boost and MetroPCS — could face changes. Both Sprint and T-Mobile also sell prepaid services at lower costs and under different brand names: Sprint has Boost and Virgin Mobile USA, while T-Mobile offers MetroPCS. The two also wholesale their networks to such third-party resellers as Consumer Cellular, Republic Wireless and Ting; AT&T and in particular, Verizon, are less open to the resellers.

AT&T’s $600,000 payment to Michael Cohen looks like wasted money

[Commentary] AT&T's hiring of Michael Cohen in January 2017 to advise the company on an $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner looked like a smart strategy. In retrospect, AT&T's contract with Cohen appears to have been a complete failure. In November 2017, 10 months after AT&T retained Cohen, the Justice Department sued to block the company's purchase of Time Warner, citing antitrust concerns. Whatever efforts Cohen made to grease the skids did not work. The only visible evidence of President Trump taking a friendlier posture toward AT&T during the period when the company p

Fates of TV Shows Tied Up in Merger Mania

Potential deals between 21st Century Fox and Walt Disney (or Comcast), Viamcom and CBS, and AT&T and Time Warner have producers wondering just who the TV programming honchos will be. New ownership or management could lead to changes in programming strategy, determining which shows get renewed or canceled, where they fall on the schedule, and what kind of resources and marketing budget they get. The uncertainty adds to the other challenges facing the industry including competition for talent and viewers from deep-pocketed streaming services.

Klout Is Shutting Down Just In Time to Not Reveal How Much It Knew About Us

Klout, the service which measured online influence and assigned people a zero-to-100 score based on their social media followings, will shut down on May 25. Everyone’s Klout scores will go away, and with them, any remaining chance that businesses will treat us better or worse based on those scores. But the data Klout gathered from people presumably lives on. Lithium Technologies, the social-media marketing company that bought Klout in 2014, implied in its announcement that it has integrated Klout’s software and data into its own products. 

Promises Mean Little for Consumers in T-Mobile/Sprint Deal

[Commentary] The proposition here is simple: This T-Mobile/Sprint deal will shrink the market for nationwide mobile wireless service from four players to three, giving consumers fewer choices and increasing the likelihood that prices will be higher and service offerings will be less consumer-friendly. Decreased competition in a market that is already consolidated? This deal should be an easy one for the government to reject. Companies seeking to merge typically promise the sun, moon, and the stars to regulators in order to obtain approval, and T-Mobile and Sprint are no different.

Fox Buying 7 Sinclair Spinoffs for $910 Million

21st Century Fox signed a definitive agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media to acquire seven stations for approximately $910 million. The move is designed to speed federal approval of the $4.6 billion Sinclair-Tribune merger and follows news of spinoffs of 23 other stations from that deal. The transaction will grow Fox Television Stations' coverage to nearly half of all US households, and its market presence to 19 of the top 20 DMAs, including the addition of key markets that align with Fox's sports rights.

The Sprint and T-Mobile Merger Will Test the Department of Justice's Mettle

[Commentary] Is our government bound by the rule of law or the rule of President Trump? The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division must consider this question. Here's why. There is a two-part, simple legal standard for deciding whether the proposed combination of Sprint and T-Mobile should be allowed. Would it harm competition in such a way that consumers would suffer?

Legere and Claure at FCC Again Selling T-Mobile, Sprint Merger

T-Mobile’s John Legere and Sprint’s Marcelo Claure met with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to sell their $26.5 billion deal. Legere and Claure also met with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.

The battle lines are being drawn in T-Mobile/Sprint merger

T-Mobile appears to be rallying former regulators and legislators to its side, while some congressional Democrats and some public interest groups are formulating their arguments against the deal. Sitting in the middle are the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice, which must sign off on the transaction. It’s unclear how those agencies might act on the deal: Although most observers see the Trump administration as favorable to big businesses, the DoJ filed a lawsuit against AT&T’s attempts to purchase Time Warner.

Justice Department Urges Turner or DirecTV Sale as Remedy to AT&T-Time Warner Merger

The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to block AT&T-Time Warner’s proposed merger or require a significant sale of assets, rather than impose “behavioral” conditions on the deal like an agreement to arbitrate disputes with distribution rivals. In its post-trial brief, the government says that US District Judge Richard Leon could allow the merger on the condition that it not include Time Warner-unit Turner networks, or that AT&T sell off DirecTV.

Wicked Problem: Sinclair Broadcasting and the high price of innovation

[Commentary] University of California-Berkeley's Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber coined the term “wicked problem” to refer to problems that had reached a level of complexity that made them impossible to define, let alone solve. Every solution to a wicked problem is a one-shot operation: There are no second chances, because any change you make will have affected the whole system. The story of Sinclair’s rise from local TV station to major propaganda machine is a case study in Rittel and Webber’s “one-shot operation” warning. 

The Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation

The Santa Clara Principles offer guidance to internet platforms on how to provide users with meaningful due process when their posts are taken down or their accounts are suspended, and to help ensure that the enforcement of company content guidelines is fair, unbiased, and respectful of users’ free expression rights. The three principles urge companies to:

  • Publish the numbers of posts removed and accounts permanently or temporarily suspended due to violations of their content guidelines;