May 2014

The November midterms aren't the only race Republicans and Democrats are running in 2014. As Election Day approaches, both parties are rushing to put new political technology into the hands of smaller campaigns that may lack the resources or staff of a major presidential effort.

Candidates competing for seats in state and local races are increasingly gaining access to sophisticated databases and predictive modeling tools, much like those that earned President Barack Obama so much attention in 2012. As a result, the 2014 election season is likely to see a much wider use of data to target likely voters, organize volunteers and consolidate voter lists.

The Republican National Committee said that it's trying to persuade conservative campaigns to adopt a suite of free tools it has developed in recent months to give candidates an edge. The package includes a massive voter file known as OneData, which contains information on 190 million active US voters gathered from all 50 states.

Republican campaigns will have access to information on another 63 million Americans through data gathered from commercial sources such as Axiom and Experian, the committee said. Altogether, the data tracks nearly two decades of Americans' voting history, including whether they own hunting and fishing licenses that could indicate their positions on political issues.

Abortion rights advocates are asking Yahoo to take down “crisis pregnancy center” ads that they say discourage women from having abortions.

The petition from NARAL Pro-Choice America and the women’s rights group UltraViolet comes fresh off of a victory with Google, which NARAL said took down similarly “deceptive” ads in April.

“We hope that Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer will follow Google's example and remove deceptive crisis pregnancy center ads so that women can continue to trust Yahoo to provide the accurate resources we are seeking when we use their platform,” NARAL President Ilyse Hogue said. “No search engine should allow themselves to be complicit in such a manipulative campaign to lure women into ideologically driven facilities by masquerading as actual abortion service providers.”

Abortion rights advocates say that the pregnancy center ads violate search engines’ advertising policies by targeting people searching for abortions while, in fact, discouraging those services. “These ads use the search term ‘abortion clinic’ when they don't provide those services,” NARAL said in the online petition.

Extension of Retransmission Authority for Distant Signals: The bill reauthorizes the retransmission consent provisions for distant signals for five years, ensuring that 1.5 million subscribers in hard-to-reach areas continue to receive vital broadcast programming.

• No More Joint Retransmission Negotiations: Unaffiliated broadcast stations in a single market will no longer be able to negotiate jointly against pay-TV providers. This will help prevent pay-TV subscribers from losing more than one signal during a lapse in retransmission consent agreements.
• Sweeps Prohibition: The bill levels the playing field for cable operators and broadcasters during “sweeps weeks” by removing a government restriction on cable’s ability to drop broadcast signals during the Nielsen ratings periods.
• Repeal of the Integration Ban on Cable Operator-Owned Set-Top Boxes: The bill repeals the Federal Communications Commission’s ban on integrated security CableCARDS in cable-leased set-top boxes. The bill does not include any forward-looking restrictions on the FCC’s ability to promote competition and innovation in the set-top box market.
• Delay on FCC Deadline to Dissolve Joint Sales Agreements: The FCC recently adopted new rules redefining the relationship between broadcasters in a joint sales agreement in a manner that would place some broadcasters over the local television ownership caps. The FCC’s Order would require broadcasters to unwind non-compliant JSAs within two years of the effective date of the order.

The bill changes the unwinding deadline to provide some stability to broadcasters and encourage prompt FCC action on petitions for waiver of the new rules. All broadcasters involved in such non-compliant joint sales agreements (JSAs) will have until the end of 2016 or 18 months after the FCC’s denial of the respective waiver applications to unwind the JSAs, whichever is later. All waiver applications for existing non-compliant JSAs must be filed within 90 of the bill’s enactment.

David Smith, CEO-president of Sinclair Broadcast Group, sees congressional and/or court action required to rebalance the regulatory environment so that broadcasters can effectively compete with broadband, telephone and cable companies.

In the meantime, Smith said, uncertainty surrounding the regulatory environment is making it tough on broadcasters. Noting that the National Association of Broadcasters recently sent a cease-and-desist order to the Federal Communications Commission over its plan to scrutinize shared service agreements on a case-by-case basis, Smith wondered what's next.

"What, if anything, is the NAB going to do in the legal context?" he asked. "You've got Commissioner Pai standing up making some pretty bold statements -- [in effect] will someone please sue the FCC because they're violating the law. It may be reasonable to assume it will end up in some venue with a judge making the determination. If it's found to be illegal, then what do we do?”

Sinclair is following the FCC’s new marching orders on JSAs, selling three stations so that it can close on its $985 million acquisition of Allbritton. Smith said he views adoption of a new broadcast standard -- ATSC 3.0 -- as an essential tool to maintain competitiveness.

"We need to be everywhere 24 hours a day, 365 on every device," Smith declared, acknowledging details remain to be worked out. "Anything less than that is not good for the industry."