March 2016

Presidential Race Is One of TV’s Biggest Hits

Submitted by benton on Wed, 03/23/2016 - 15:48

NPR Puts Political Reporters Through ‘Trump Training’ for Hostile Events

Submitted by benton on Wed, 03/23/2016 - 15:48

Keynote Remarks of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai at the Hispanic Radio Conference

Submitted by benton on Wed, 03/23/2016 - 15:48

4 Democratic Reps Back Charter-TWC Merger

In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department, four Democratic Reps have weighed in in support of the Charter-Time Warner Cable merger. The FCC is approaching its 180-day shot clock on the deal, and the FCC is expected to circulate an approval with conditions late during the week of March 21 or the week after. That would almost certainly mean the DOJ was OK, too, since they coordinate reviews.

In the letter dated March 23, Reps Marc Veasey (D-TX), Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Terri Sewell (D-AL) and Gregory Meeks (D-NY) told attorney general Loretta Lynch and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler they should consider the "significant" commitments Charter has made, including on creating jobs, offering high-speed broadband (30 Mbps) to low-income communities, and its policies of no data caps or modem rental fees. They said they are fine with the FCC scrutinizing the merger carefully, but urged it to give credit to Charter's diversity commitments and others, saying that combining with Time Warner Cable and Bright House (also part of the deal), would only "continue to raise standards across the country."

Verizon’s fiber network will expand—after three-state sale to Frontier

Verizon is set to complete a sale of its wireline phone, Internet, and TV networks in California, Florida, and Texas to Frontier Communications. The $10.54 billion transaction, announced in February 2015, has received all the necessary regulatory approvals and is scheduled to be finalized March 31. “We’re buying those assets, we’re bringing them in and actually cutting them into our network so they’ll be ready to go day one, April 1," Frontier VP Chris Gellos said. Frontier has about 2.4 million Internet customers today, and it will get another 2.2 million or so with the purchase from Verizon. When it approved the sale last September, the Federal Communications Commission concluded that "Frontier is more likely to accelerate broadband service in the transaction market areas than Verizon would be absent the transaction."

The FCC approval said that Frontier plans to "expand fiber-based infrastructure within its network, upgrade network hardware, expand transport capacity in its middle mile and data backbone network in order to expand broadband, increase speeds available to customers, and improve the network for voice services." Verizon and Frontier have since received all the needed clearances from regulators in the affected states, allowing them to close the deal.