Provisions in the 2018 quadrennial review order could inject uncertainty into negotiations between broadcasters and networks, several broadcast attorneys told us. The order’s extension of the top-four prohibition allows networks to switch an affiliation from one station to another even if that would create a same-market duopoly but only as long as there isn’t “any undue direct or indirect influence from a broadcast entity.” Attorneys told us it isn’t clear what constitutes undue influence. The QR "creates more confusion," said Rob Folliard, Gray Television senior vice president-government relations and distribution. “You can’t have a transaction where there’s confusion.”
Country of origin cases
Legacy media companies continue to wrongly focus on eliminating streaming platform financial losses and shoring up balance sheets rather than growing robust and profitable long-term streaming businesses, research firm LightShed blogged Tuesday. It said Peacock "continues to be a horrible use of capital by Comcast." Instead, it should be shut, merged into Starz or made into a digital version of the NBC network, LightShed said. In addition, Disney should drop plans for allowing ESPN to go directly to consumers and shift key ESPN+ content to a combined Disney+/Hulu platform, it said. This would be a better use of Disney's streaming investment and management resources. Likewise, Paramount+ is unlikely to recoup billions already spent, so Paramount Global should unwind its integration with Showtime, move exclusive sports content back to linear TV, license high-profile originals and close overseas launches, it added. Moreover, Warner Bros. Discovery should undo the Discovery+/HBO integration, rebrand Max to HBO, abandon global plans for Max and focus on licensing HBO content internationally. It recommended keeping Discovery+ as a niche streaming service.
Wisconsin state legislators should greenlight a new grant program supporting migration from the state’s “woefully outdated” emergency call system, Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association Executive Director Bill Esbeck said Wednesday during an Assembly State Affairs Committee hearing. The committee mulled AB-356, which directs the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs to award grants that reimburse next-generation 911 (NG-911) costs of ILECs acting as originating service providers. Covered costs would include IP-based transport, database management and the purchase, installation and maintenance of equipment. The bill would limit the department from awarding more than one grant per ILEC per fiscal year. The state’s current 911 fund, which gets revenue from a 75-cent monthly charge on customer bills, will provide enough money but doesn’t allow cost recovery after the NG-911 transition, said Esbeck. He said that five of 72 Wisconsin counties have connected to the state’s emergency services IP network, but ILECs in those places have yet to cut over to it. Wisconsin’s 2023-2025 biennial budget restricted diverting 911 fee revenue for unrelated purposes, Esbeck noted. In 2009, the state renamed its 911 money as a “police and fire protection fund” and diverted cash to a general fund, he said. The new grant program would support NG-911 only, said AB-356 sponsor Rep. Tony Kurtz (R). While future legislators or governors could change state law to resume 911 fee diversion, “I think everybody in the state understands how important this is,” he said. “We’d be very foolish to change that.”
New Jersey privacy legislation will go to the Assembly floor, despite opposition from tech and business groups, the chamber’s Judiciary Committee decided Monday. In a 4-0 vote, with one abstention, the panel advanced the proposal with amendments. One change increased the time businesses would have to cure violations to 18 months, from six in the original bill (A-1971/S-332). Industry groups especially objected to the bill's creation of a rulemaking process at the Department of Law and Public Safety’s Consumer Affairs Division.
Broadcasters' diversity hiring practices drew polar opposite reactions on the two sides of the Capitol Monday, with senior House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., joining FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in pressing the FCC to revive its collection of equal employment opportunity workforce diversity data using Form 395-B. On the Senate side, Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is objecting to CPB rules for member stations’ diverse workforce policies.
The FCC will likely rework part of its robotexting order, set for a commissioners vote Wednesday, industry lawyers said. Objections were raised on several fronts. One area that could see change is a provision clamping down on the lead generator loophole. The Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy elevated the issue when it asked the FCC to seek further comment (see 2312040028), lawyers said.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will seek clarity on its definition of “basic emergency service (BES) outage,” said a notice of proposed rulemaking Tuesday (docket 23R-0577T). The proceeding follows a more extensive 911 rulemaking in docket 22R-0122T, in which the PUC adopted rules for BES outages, the commission said. Since then, staff noticed that the state’s only BES provider, Lumen’s CenturyLink, construes what qualifies as a BES outage “differently than intended,” it said. “On numerous occasions, CenturyLink has argued in outage investigation responses that outages in facilities that service customers other than Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) are originating service provider (OSP) outages, not BES outages, even if those outages also impact a PSAP and prevent the PSAP from being able to receive calls. CenturyLink has also argued … that if the company reroutes 9-1-1 calls to another, alternate PSAP, then no outage has occurred, since the calls are still being answered, even if they are not being answered by the PSAP originally intended to receive the call.” The disagreement affects other rules including on outage reporting and billing credits, the PUC said. The commission hopes that the fresh rulemaking will “remove any potential ambiguity contained in the relevant rules prior to taking any enforcement action,” it said. Comments are due Jan. 10, with replies due Jan. 19. Also, the PUC plans a virtual hearing Jan. 29 at 11:30 a.m. MST.
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted 35-2 to advance legislation requiring members of the intelligence community to obtain a warrant when targeting Americans using foreign intelligence surveillance authority (see 2312050054).
The House Commerce Committee voted 46-0 Tuesday to advance its version of the 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act (HR-5677), clearing the way for floor action on the measure as a stopgap aimed at temporarily restoring parts of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. The Senate unanimously cleared original version S-2787 in September amid some lawmakers’ push to jump-start stalled talks on broad spectrum legislation (see 2309220057). The measure would give the FCC authority for 90 days to issue T-Mobile and other winning bidders the licenses they bought in the 2.5 GHz band auction last year (see 2309140051).
Industry and consumer groups disagreed on whether updating the FCC's broadband speed benchmarks is necessary (see 2311010062). Some cited ongoing federal broadband deployment programs and private investments and encouraged the FCC to focus its report to Congress regarding the state of broadband on policies that could further facilitate deployment. Comments were posted Friday and Monday in docket 22-270.