Todd Shields

Judges Skeptical of FCC in Case Related to Sinclair's Deal

The Federal Communications Commission faced skeptical questioning from judges about a rule change that made way for Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed acquisition of Tribune Media, raising the possibility of turmoil for the $3.9 billion deal.  Judges at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, hearing a challenge April 20 to the change, questioned why the FCC had reinstated a rule allowing owners of some TV stations to count just part of their audience when tallying holdings against a national limit of 39 percent.

Ajit Pai Is Regulating You Right Now

The decision to end network neutrality has to withstand a court challenge, and Democrats in Congress will do their utmost to overturn it. Regardless of the outcome, the fight marks Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai as a brawler in bureaucrat’s guise. Says Kevin Werbach, a former FCC staffer who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School: “He’s going through, pretty systematically, to reverse rules put in place during the Obama administration.” 

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube Support Bid to Restore Net Neutrality

Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s YouTube on Jan 17 told lawmakers that they support a legislative effort to restore net neutrality rules wiped out by the Federal Communications Commission in Dec. Executives appearing before the Senate Commerce Committee replied to Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) who asked their position on his resolution to nullify the FCC’s action. YouTube’s Juniper Downs, global head of public policy and government relations, said the platform “will support any effort” to put back in place the rules gutted by the FCC.

How Democrats Can Win by Losing on Net Neutrality

On the issue of network neutrality, Democratic Senators are planning to use the Congressional Review Act, or CRA to force a vote in Congress on the issue. Sen Claire McCaskill (D-MO) became the 30th senator to get behind the measure, giving Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) enough senators to call the vote. The CRA procedure gives Congress a chance to reverse an agency decision.

Sinclair Station Sales May Be Needed as Tribune Review Nears End

Sinclair Broadcast Group likely will face demands to sell TV stations in at least 10 cities to satisfy regulators who are wrapping up a review of the company’s plan to buy Tribune Media Co. -- a $3.9 billion deal that would create a national broadcasting giant.  Apparently, Federal Communications Commission staff members in a recent discussion focused on completing the review by a self-imposed deadline of Jan. 17.  The deal would create a coast-to-coast string of stations exceeding current ownership limits and Sinclair has acknowledged that it might have to sell some of the stations.

Comcast Vows to Behave Without Net-Neutrality Rules. Not All Are Convinced.

A trade group of broadband providers including AT&T and Comcast pledged recently to not block or slow web traffic and otherwise avoid “unfair discrimination against lawful traffic online,” according to a statement. The group, Broadband for America, also represents companies including the largest wireless carrier Verizon. Comcast changed the language about its web practices that is posted on a corporate page in late April, as Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai was announcing his intention to gut the Obama-era rules.

Chairman Pai sees expanded role for FTC, Critics say FTC can’t react quickly, has limited role

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to gut Obama-era net neutrality rules calls for handing off the job of policing broadband service to an agency with different powers and a different mandate. Giving the Federal Trade Commission oversight for the web can make sense from Pai’s perspective: It’s a consumer-protection agency that already has taken action against high-speed internet providers. But, there’s a key difference: The FCC sets rules designed to prevent bad behavior, while the FTC acts after wrongdoing has occurred.

FCC’s Rollback of Net-Neutrality Rules Won’t Settle the Divisive Issue

Although the Federal Communications Commission is expected to adopt FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's new net neutrality proposal in December 2017, that won’t end a debate that’s roiled the tech world for years. Aggrieved parties will try to save the regulations in federal court, where judges will decide whether the agency is within its rights to reverse a regulation it adopted little more than two years ago. Legally, the agency can reverse its rules if it has a good reason.

FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules

The Federal Communications Commission is planning a vote in December to kill Obama-era rules demanding fair treatment of web traffic and may decide to vacate the regulations altogether, according to people familiar with the plans. FCC Chairman Pai may call for vacating the rules except for portions that mandate internet service providers inform customers about their practices -- one of the more severe options that would please broadband providers.

Ads May Soon Stalk You on TV Like They Do on Your Facebook Feed

Targeted ads that seem to follow you everywhere online may soon be doing the same on your TV.  The Federal Communications Commission is poised to approve a new broadcast standard that will let broadcasters do something cable TV companies already do: harvest data about what you watch so advertisers can customize pitches. The prospect alarms privacy advocates, who say there are no rules setting boundaries for how broadcasters handle personal information. The FCC doesn’t mention privacy in the 109-page proposed rule that is scheduled for a vote by commissioners Nov 16.

Possible Tribune Suitor Sinclair Woos FCC’s Pai on Regulations

Sinclair Broadcast Group, a broadcaster eager for freedom from US rules limiting mergers, lined up a Republican regulator for a company conference in Baltimore’s (MD) Four Seasons hotel days after the Nov 8 election. Ajit Pai’s trip from nearby Washington turned out to be a coup when Donald Trump’s surprise election win put Republicans in charge of the Federal Communications Commission. Now Sinclair had a soon-to-be FCC chairman on hand for a gathering of its executives and a meeting with its Executive Chairman David Smith, who has guided the Maryland-based broadcaster through explosive growth and wants more. The gleaming harbor-front hotel, home to fare including a $32 crab cake sandwich and a $15 “Ulterior Motive" cocktail, offered a memorable perch for impressing Pai.

Sinclair has tripled its holdings over the past decade to become the biggest US broadcaster by number of outlets, with 173 stations that it owns or helps operate. It needs relief from FCC rules for more deals, such as a possible bid for the 42-station Tribune Media Co. “They are actively courting and buttering him up," said Craig Aaron, president of the policy group Free Press that’s critical of Sinclair, saying the company has sidestepped US rules limiting station ownership. “Clearly Sinclair believes that Ajit Pai is going to clear the way for them to do whatever kind of deals they want to do.”

FCC Set for Possible Partisan Stalemate After Commissioner Rosenworcel Nomination Fails

The US Senate adjourned without confirming Jessica Rosenworcel for a second term on the Federal Communications Commission, forcing her out of office and setting up the agency for a partisan deadlock as the Republican administration of Donald J. Trump begins. Without other changes, the Democrat’s departure would leave the FCC hindered, with two Republicans and two Democrats on the five-member panel, until the Senate can confirm a Republican to gain a majority.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Wheeler, 70, can stay with the commission until 2018 and he hasn’t said when he may leave. In the most recent transfer of power, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, left on Obama’s inauguration day although he had more than two years remaining in his term. Lawmakers had been working on Rosenworcel's confirmation for more than a year. Retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said her confirmation was supposed to be part of an agreement struck in 2015 to jointly confirm both a Republican and a Democrat at the same time. Michael O’Rielly received confirmation, but Rosenworcel did not.

Satellite Dishes That Power Time Warner Imperil AT&T Deal

Behind the Time Warner campus in Atlanta (GA), more than a dozen massive dishes silently stream CNN newscasts, Cartoon Network shows and Turner Sports games to satellites in outer space. They’re a vital link in the media giant’s global news and entertainment business. But they operate under licenses from the Federal Communications Commission, which means they also could be the biggest threat to Time Warner’s aspirations to merge with AT&T.

Time Warner has dozens of FCC licenses. Transferring them to AT&T would trigger a review by the agency, and the company is looking for ways to avoid that, according to a person familiar with the situation. Otherwise, the $85.4 billion deal could be exposed to an agency that’s been a graveyard for mergers. In theory, Time Warner could sell its dishes to an unaffiliated third party and enter into a contract with them for the same services -- but in that case, the buyer would need to ask the FCC for a license to provide services in the same location over the same airwaves, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. It’s possible the FCC would accept the application without a fuss, Schwartzman said. But, he said, FCC officials also might say, “Wait a minute! We’re not stupid -- you are evading this review.”

FCC Tightens TV-Station Ownership Curb by Cutting Discount

Federal regulators tightened limits on owning television stations by eliminating the practice of only counting part of some stations’ audience, a move opposed by broadcasters including 21st Century Fox Inc. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. The Federal Communications Commission in a 3-to-2 Democratic-led party-line vote on Sept 7 abolished the 30-year-old UHF discount. Under the eliminated discount, the agency counted only half of households in a TV station’s local area, when judging ownership against the limit of reaching 39 percent of US TV households. Groups that exceed the limit as a result of the change needn’t sell stations, but must comply in future transactions, meaning future deals could result in sales to conform with the regulation. Companies over the limit without the discount include Tribune Media Co., Ion Media Networks Inc. and Univision Communications Inc., the FCC said.

The FCC in August voted to preserve other TV and radio station ownership restrictions, including a ban on owning both a daily newspaper and a nearby broadcast station. The live audience for broadcast TV has been shrinking for years, and broadcasters have said they need to be freed of “antiquated and unreasonable” rules to vie with digital competitors. Tribune, with 42 stations in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where it is located, in an annual filing told investors that abolishing the UHF discount would affect its ability to acquire additional stations. Gary Weitman, a spokesman, in an e-mail said the FCC decision is a “non-issue” since company holdings comply with the rules.

Amazon Walks Line as Prices Keep Antitrust Cops at Bay

Amazon’s treatment of customers means more to US antitrust authorities than how the largest Web retailer pressures publishers and movie studios.

Successfully going after Amazon at this stage “would be breaking new territory under the antitrust laws,” David Balto, a former policy director at the Federal Trade Commission, said.

That hasn’t damped debate about the tactics Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is using against Hachette Book Group, Walt Disney and film studio Warner Bros. The question is whether he’s pushing Amazon toward the same monopolistic territory that tripped up Microsoft, Standard Oil and AT&T.

Big Phone Companies Weigh in for Telcordia Versus Neustar

Ericsson AB’s Telcordia Technologies was fairly recommended over Neustar as the winner of a telephone-numbers management contract, associations representing the largest US telephone companies told regulators. The Federal Communications Commission shouldn’t reopen bidding and should “promptly” move to award the contract, CTIA-The Wireless Association and the US Telecom Association wrote in a filing.

President Obama Campaign Donor Wins FCC Waiver From Auction Rules

A private-equity company owned by a campaign donor to President Barack Obama won a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission that may help it bid in airwaves auctions.

Grain Management may not have qualified for benefits reserved for small businesses because airwaves leases to AT&T and Verizon Communications caused it to exceed the program’s income limits.

“Certainly there has not been a waiver like this,” Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a Georgetown University law professor, said. “The circumstances have not arisen” with the revenue of the largest wireless providers entering the picture.

David Grain contributed more than $60,000 to President Obama’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2008, and $22,500 in 2012, Federal Election Commission filings show. He was also one of President Obama’s top fundraisers for the 2008 election, bringing in $200,000 to $500,000, according to the campaign.

“We are very excited about the waiver” because it appears to relax rules for companies other than Grain, too, and may help small and minority businesses participate in the forthcoming wireless auctions, Nicol Turner-Lee, vice president at the Minority Media & Telecom Council, said.

TV Drama Season in DC Has Broadcasters Awaiting Rulings

Television executive Marci Burdick is gripped by a drama that isn’t appearing on her company’s CBS affiliate in South Bend, Indiana: She’s watching battles in Washington that figure to reshape the broadcast industry.

The US Supreme Court is set to decide soon whether Aereo can use coin-sized antennas to capture TV signals and sell them over the Internet -- without paying broadcasters such as Burdick’s closely held Schurz Communications. A decision for Aereo might lead cable and satellite companies to stop paying $4 billion a year to station owners, too. If Aereo wins, “local broadcasters and their networks would have to have serious conversations about the business model,” Burdick, senior vice president at Schurz, said.

That’s not the only thing worrying broadcasters. The Federal Communications Commission has proposed eliminating a 39-year-old rule that bars pay-TV companies such as Comcast and Dish Network from showing National Football League games that get blacked out on local broadcast stations whenever the stadiums aren’t sold out. Without that rule, the NFL may abandon over-the-air TV for pay-TV, rather than lose control of its telecasts, according to the broadcasters who spend billions for game rights.

The challenges for broadcasters probably will continue in 2015, when the FCC wants stations to decide whether to give up airwaves for cash. The agency will auction surrendered frequencies for use by wireless providers such as AT&T and Verizon Communications, which have said they need more airwaves to meet soaring demand for mobile communications.

Net Neutrality an Oxymoron as FCC Decides Winners and Losers

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said “the prospect of a gatekeeper choosing winners and losers on the Internet is unacceptable.” That’s what the FCC will be, no matter how it fashions final rules.

If it adopts toughened rules as demanded by advocacy groups, some Democratic lawmakers and content providers including Google and Netflix, Chairman Wheeler and carriers foresee years of litigation. If the FCC adopts the Chairman Wheeler proposal advanced to allow some priority arrangements as long as they aren’t “commercially unreasonable,” it could determine winners and losers on a case-by-case basis.

If it kills the preliminary proposal that passed 3-2, there would be no rules to prevent Internet service providers including AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications from charging to distribute Web content.

“Without rules governing a free and open Internet it is possible that companies -- fixed and wireless broadband providers -- could independently determine whether they want to discriminate or block content, pick favorites, charge higher fees or distort the market,” Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said.

Comcast’s Race for Customers May Spur $170 Billion Deals

Comcast’s bid to buy Time Warner Cable may be the opening act for a yearlong festival of telecommunications deals that would alter Internet, phone and TV service for tens of millions of Americans.

AT&T and DirecTV may be the next dance partners. AT&T is in advanced talks to acquire DirecTV for as much as $50 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the talks are private.

After that, in June or July, Sprint and T-Mobile US may bring a $30 billion merger before US regulators, people said. All told, the three deals could total more than $170 billion in equity and net debt and affect more than 80 million US customers.

FCC’s Wheeler Said to Plan Limits for Wireless Airwaves Auction

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is proposing to limit the amount of airwaves any single company can purchase at the largest US spectrum auction since 2008, a person briefed on the plan said.

Top US wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon Communications have said curbs will reduce revenue the government reaps from the planned sale, and unfairly favor smaller competitors Sprint and T-Mobile US. The agency is to sell airwaves given up by television stations so the frequencies can be used by the growing number of smartphones and other wireless devices connecting to the Internet.

Finding more spectrum to meet soaring mobile-Internet demand is a goal of President Barack Obama’s administration.

FCC Urged to Exempt Small TV Stations From Ownership Rule

Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn, whose vote is needed to change television-station ownership rules, is pushing to ensure smaller companies can win exceptions.

Commissioner Clyburn said she wants “balance” as the agency tightens regulations for controlling more than one station in a market. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who proposed the change, needs the votes of Commissioners Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel to prevail.

Both Republican commissioners have criticized the measure. Commissioner Clyburn cited a section of law that calls for the FCC to lower barriers for entrepreneurs and small businesses and said she wants “the ability to uphold those standards and those goals.” She declined to say if she would vote for Chairman Wheeler’s proposal.

“This is an item that is still very fluid and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with my colleagues because we all in the end I believe want the same thing: to achieve balance,” Commissioner Clyburn said.