Senate Commerce Committee Democrats are already signaling that they're unlikely to give new NTIA administrator pick Arielle Roth a free pass through her confirmation process, particularly given their amplified doubts about how the agency-administered, $42.5 billion BEAD program will fare under Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary nominee (see 2501290047). Several Senate Commerce Democrats are likely to vote against Lutnick at a Wednesday panel meeting, but lobbyists told us he is all but certain to advance to the floor with unified GOP support.

Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., filed the Stop Sports Blackouts Act on Friday in a bid to force cable companies to make refunds to “customers who aren’t able to watch the channels they already pay for during television blackouts,” Ryan’s office said. The measure would direct the FCC to require cable distributors to provide rebates to subscribers for blackouts that occur as a result of carriage disputes. The lawmakers cited MSG Network's recent blackout, which left more than a million subscribers in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey unable to watch local sporting events. Altice USA and some Republican lawmakers previously proposed refunds from MSG (see 2501160072). “On behalf of fans across the country, we’re putting down a marker: everyone will get their money back when a blackout stops them from watching TV, no questions asked,” Ryan said. “That means dollars back in your pockets, and, equally importantly, it provides a hell of an incentive to these billion dollar corporations to make sure these blackouts don’t happen in the future.” It’s “ridiculous the rest of us get stuck in the crossfire of negotiations between cable and broadcast companies,” he said. “Our bill is simple: if cable companies can’t provide the service you’re paying for, they owe you a refund.” ACA Connects CEO Grant Spellmeyer criticized the Stop Sports Blackouts Act, saying Friday that it “gives billion-dollar broadcast corporations a complete free pass. If we don’t address the root of the problem [with] reforms to the retrans consent regime, insatiable broadcasters will continue to abuse market power to extract higher fees, jack up prices [and] force blackouts.”

New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s decision to pull all items on circulation for a vote by commissioners wasn’t a surprise, industry officials said. Since taking office a week ago, President Donald Trump has pushed a deregulatory agenda and issued a regulatory freeze among a slew of executive orders on his first day (see 2501210070). Among the FCC items withdrawn was a controversial NPRM that former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated in March on banning bulk broadband billing in multi-tenant environments (see 2408010064).

Incoming President Donald Trump said Friday he has tapped former Special Assistant to the President-Technology, Telecommunications and Cybersecurity Policy Robin Colwell as National Economic Council deputy director. Meanwhile, additional communications industry entities hailed Thursday night and Friday Trump’s choice of Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty as his intended nominee for the FCC seat that then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel planned to vacate Monday (see 2501160077).

Several groups on Friday filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for a rehearing of its December order denying a writ of certiorari regarding the FCC's classification of broadband. ACA Connects, USTelecom, CTIA, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, and the New York State Telecom Association cited the 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court's narrow decision overturning the FCC's order (see 2501020047). That decision "establishes the [2nd] Circuit’s decision as a conflicting outlier," they said.

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) axing their planned Venu sports streaming joint venture is unsurprising, industry watchers said. The programmers announced Venu's demise early Friday (see 2501100002).

The NAB’s ATSC 3.0 task force, The Future of TV Initiative (see 2408300030), is expected to produce a final report “soon” members said, but broadcasters told us much of the impetus behind the effort has faded due to the coming leadership change at the FCC. Commissioner Brendan Carr, the agency's chairman-designate, is seen as more favorable to the 3.0 transition, broadcasters said. The task force first met in June 2023, and members said it would issue a final report in fall 2024. “It is a daunting effort to put that report together in a way that everyone can sign off on the language,” said Robert Folliard, a task force member and Gray Media senior vice president-government relations and distribution. “We expect the report to come out very soon,” an NAB spokesperson said.

The FCC commissioners' unanimously adopting a retransmission consent blackout reporting requirement for multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) likely doesn't mean the agency will also mandate rebates for subscribers due to those blackouts anytime soon, pay-TV and broadcast experts tell us. The blackout reporting order was released Friday. The FCC is unlikely to push rebates during the last days of outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's administration and incoming Chairman Brendan Carr is unlikely to consider rebates, some pay-TV watchers say. Neither Rosenworcel's nor Carr's offices commented Monday.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling overturning the FCC’s latest net neutrality order Thursday was based on the court’s reading of the Communications Act and failed to dive into major questions items, as laid out in recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions (see 2409030030). It also means the next FCC, under President-elect Donald Trump, likely won’t spend its early days on a reversal of the order, which was approved 3-2 in April (see 2404250004).

Participation in BEAD bidding could vary widely among states, officials at broadband trade groups, state telecommunications organizations and other entities tell us. For example, some states, including Pennsylvania, could face low participation rates owing to onerous bidder requirements. In other instances, local rules facilitate BEAD participation.