X Corp. owner Elon Musk on Thursday told the Supreme Court that a restriction on his ability to tweet about Tesla violates the First Amendment. The restriction, which he agreed to as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, prohibits Musk from tweeting about his car company without first obtaining approval from its lawyers. Such a restriction “is a quintessential prior restraint that the law forbids,” his lawyers say in a petition urging the Supreme Court to review the restriction.
Filing comments at the FCC is a routine matter. But when comments need to be filed can be contentious. A battle over FCC filing deadlines has sprung up within the context of the FCC’s rulemaking to impose common carrier regulations on broadband Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The FCC is expecting the first round of Net Neutrality comments to arrive no later than Dec. 14 and the second no later than Jan. 17, 2024. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that is insufficient time and the deadlines need to be pushed back to Jan. 17 and March 18. But some public interest groups, including Common Cause and Public Knowledge, decided to oppose the Chamber.
A religious broadcaster says new federal rules are needed for it to obtain carriage on streaming services like YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV and Sling TV. One Ministries Inc. is turning to the FCC for help, claiming so-called virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) are neglecting its Christian-formatted KQSL San Francisco.
The network argued that Jason Donner had not shown he faced illegal discrimination. The nation’s capital bans discrimination based on political party membership or endorsement, but Donner hasn’t shown he joined a political party, nor that his bosses knew and fired him for it, Fox lawyers said.
First Amendment advocates are alarmed by the case of Catherine Herridge, who is facing an imminent court deadline and steep fines.
The trade association for major cable TV companies says federal regulators are overreaching legally in trying to ban certain cable fees that President Biden has attacked as anti-consumer. NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, is telling FCC officials that the agency lacks legal authority to ban Early Termination Fees (ETFs) and Billing Cycle Fees (BCFs) – which are widely used by pay TV providers, including streamers in the case of BCFs, but referred to as “junk fees” by Biden and FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel.
Exclusives
An organization supported by traditional pay TV providers is pushing back on the idea that local TV station mergers won’t lead to higher cable and satellite TV bills. While TV stations continue to push for ownership deregulation at the federal level, the American TV Alliance (ATVA) predicts that control of TV stations by just a few owners will increase the retransmission consent fees that cable TV and satellite TV providers pay broadcasters.
Etsy, eBay and Yelp have joined a growing list of companies and organizations urging the Supreme Court to strike down laws in Florida and Texas that prevent tech platforms from moderating content. “It ought to be fundamental to the First Amendment that a marketplace for handmade T-shirts and coffee mugs should not be forced by a state’s ‘free speech’ regulations to carry ‘I ♥ Hitler’ paraphernalia out of ‘fairness’ to all viewpoints,” Etsy, eBay and others say in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Thursday. “This case should be that simple as a First Amendment matter.”
Satellite TV broadcaster and terrestrial wireless operator Dish Network and EchoStar, its sister company focused on broadband services from space, have cleared a key regulatory hurdle in the way of their merger plans. The FCC gave its blessing Dec. 6 to transfer all of Dish Network’s licenses and authorizations to EchoStar, which would be the surviving entity following the transaction. The approval is one of the final conditions needed to complete a merger announced around four months ago.
A cable TV company serving several small towns in Mississippi and Louisiana has abruptly shut down service in recent days and failed to provide appropriate notice to customers and local governments. Bailey Cable TV reportedly closed its doors on Nov. 30, causing customers who lost pay TV service to call various town officials seeking an explanation. Bailey officials were unreachable because calls placed to contact numbers on the company’s website resulted either in disconnections or automated messages saying the mail box was full.
Oliver Darcy: “The American press is facing, arguably, the gravest potential threat to its freedom in a generation. The four-time indicted, twice-impeached disgraced former president, Donald Trump, who admitted Tuesday that he will govern as a “dictator” on “day one” should he win office again, is overtly vowing to weaponize government and seek retribution against the news media, showing no regard for the First Amendment protections afforded to the Fourth Estate.”
Sony said that the Discovery shows, including MythBusters and Deadliest Catch, would be deleted from the devices on Dec. 31, citing “content licensing arrangements with content providers.”
Juniper TV CEO Samir Shah is set to become the new chair of the BBC, the U.K.’s culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, said today. Shah, who has worked in broadcasting for more than 40 years, will appear before the Culture, Media and Sport committee in the U.K. for what’s known as “pre-appointment scrutiny” before officially taking up the role, which is worth £160,000 a year ($200,000).
Fox Television Stations is urging the FCC to renew the license of its WTXF Philadelphia “without delay,” claiming opponents have turned the renewal into a quarrel over issues that fall outside the scope of the agency’s review.
More than a dozen state attorneys general signed a letter directed toward media outlets like the New York Times and CNN, encouraging them to “follow the law” when it comes to coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict and ensuring they don’t give “material support to terrorists abroad.” The letter was spearheaded by Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and signed by 14 state attorneys general, and it was sent to the leadership of CNN, The New York Times, Reuters, and The Associated Press on Monday.
The National Association of Broadcasters continues to press for TV station ownership deregulation, saying a federal rule that bars the common ownership of some of the most successful TV stations in a market needs to go. NAB lawyers made their latest appeal for a market-driven ownership approach in a Nov. 30 meeting with an aide to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. A federal appeals court has ordered the FCC to finish its TV station ownership review by Dec. 27.
Former Fox News staffer Andrew Delancey is suing the producer, Justin Wells — who was fired last spring along with the host — over the alleged assault and the network over alleged sexual harassment and negligence.
He joins the association from the office of Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The BBC is staring down the barrel of another real terms funding cut after the U.K. government signaled its intention to renege on the 2022 license fee deal. Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer told BBC Radio 4’s Today show that the government would announce the new level of the license fee “very soon.”
Rupert was deposed this week and his son Lachlan will sit for a grilling as well, as the 2020-related case moves along.
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been locked in a legal battle with Montana since the state passed the ban in April.
British regulators announced a review into whether the bid, backed mostly by funds from the United Arab Emirates, could result in adverse foreign influence over the British press.
Meta Platforms on Wednesday escalated its battle with the Federal Trade Commission by claiming in a new lawsuit that the agency’s structure, including its ability to conduct in-house hearings, is unconstitutional. The lawsuit — which comes as Meta and the FTC are battling over teens’ data — includes a request to prevent the agency from moving forward with a hearing that could result in an order prohibiting Meta from using teens’ data for ad targeting or algorithms.
X, formerly known as Twitter, is in a pair of legal battles with Adeia, an entity spun out of Xperi that holds a trove of patents, including property with ties to TiVo.
Streaming services like YouTube TV and Sling TV don’t have to worry about becoming the legal equivalent of cable TV or satellite TV companies any time soon through action by the FCC. That was that the implicit message that FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel left with Capitol Hill on Thursday when she was pressed for a regulatory update on the video issue by the leader of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
For Streaming, It’s Only The Beginning
Former FCC chair Mignon Clyburn says regulations shouldn’t stifle the progress of indie streamers serving underrepresented audiences.
The FCC has given broadcasters some extra time to make sure their emergency alerts comply with new rules that favor IP-based alerts, but only for the broadcasters the agency has concluded really need the extension.
The agreement would see Canadian news continue to be shared on Google’s platforms in return for the company making annual payments to CBC News and Radio-Canada in the range of $100 million, a source with knowledge of the negotiations said. The federal government and Google agreed on the regulatory framework earlier this week, a government source familiar with the talks said.
