SkyShowtime, the Comcast/ViacomCBS joint streaming venture, landed its European regulatory OK, said the venture partners Wednesday. SkyShowtime will launch later this year in more than 20 markets, including Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden, they said.

The full FCC ordered landowners to dismantle a 114-meter broadcast tower in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, after being unable to determine the specific owner, said an order Friday. The structure has been unlit since 2005, and was declared “a menace to aviation” by FAA, the order said. The tower was constructed in 1990 on an easement, and changed hands among multiple now-defunct broadcasters, including SeArk Radio and MRS Ventures, the order said. One of the landowners, Lora Gaither, told the FCC she's interested in having the tower dismantled but her efforts “have been stymied by her inability to obtain local counsel,” who, "are wary of representing her because of their unfamiliarity with the Commission’s regulatory requirements.” Because of the aviation hazard, the FCC can’t wait for the landowners to dissolve the easement and take possession, the order said. “The Land Owners presently possess the Structure,” the order said. “Any person having a remaining interest in the Structure is subject to this Order.” The landowners got 90 days to dismantle it. We couldn't reach Gaither.

Ohio offered Intel $1.29 billion in “direct cash incentives” to land the chipmaker’s commitment to invest $20 billion in building two semiconductor fabs on a 1,000-acre campus in Licking County, just east of Columbus (see 2201210041), Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik told a virtual media briefing Friday. The project is expected to add $2.8 billion to Ohio’s annual “gross state product” when it’s fully operational in 2025, said Mihalik, suggesting strongly that the terms of Ohio's offer to Intel don’t yet have the required regulatory or legislative approvals.

Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn told the FCC Thursday she will, if confirmed, recuse herself during the first three years of her term “from any proceeding before the Commission where retransmission consent or television broadcast copyright is a material issue.” Sohn’s recusal pledge appears to be the result of negotiations with Senate Commerce Committee leaders aimed at securing support from all 14 Democrats before a planned Wednesday panel vote to advance her nomination to the full chamber, lobbyists told us. Some panel Republicans pressed for concessions from Sohn over ethics concerns about her role as a board member for Locast operator Sports Fans Coalition (see 2201130071).

Energous received regulatory approval for its 1W WattUp PowerBridge transmitter from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the wireless charging company said Wednesday. In addition to sending power, WattUp PowerBridge transmitters can be a data link for connected IoT devices such as sensors, electronic shelf labels, trackers, IoT tags and batteryless devices, the company said.

Energous received regulatory approval for its 1W WattUp PowerBridge transmitter from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the wireless charging company said Wednesday. In addition to sending power, WattUp PowerBridge transmitters can be a data link for connected IoT devices such as sensors, electronic shelf labels, trackers, IoT tags and batteryless devices, the company said.

Tariff rate quotas on European steel are really meant to be a gap-filler while the U.S. and the European Union figure out a way to offer import preference to cleaner steel, said Greta Peisch, general counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Peisch, the European Commission staffer responsible for trade relations with the U.S., the General Motors counsel on Legal Affairs and Trade and a former Trump administration trade official were speaking on a panel about the shift from tariffs to tariff rate quotas, and what the next step would look like.

Conexon withdrew its petition for waiver to default on certain Rural Digital Opportunity Phase I auction bids it provisionally won in Colorado on tribal lands, said a letter Tuesday in docket 19-126 (see 2106090065). The FCC's "inaction is unnecessarily hurting rural communities ... desperately in need of high-speed broadband services," Conexon said. The company met with Colorado Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, Wireline Bureau staff, and an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Friday to discuss its pending petition for eligible telecom carrier designation. Previous funding concerns by tribes due to Conexon's award appear "to have been rendered moot" because the tribes were able to obtain support to construct broadband networks.

AT&T Fiber pushed speed, reliability and security in a virtual event Monday announcing advanced speeds, new pricing plans for multi-Gbps and initiatives to address the digital divide. It announced new no-contract 2- and 5-Gbps plans for residential and small-business customers.

AT&T Fiber pushed speed, reliability and security in a virtual event Monday announcing advanced speeds, new pricing plans for multi-Gbps and initiatives to address the digital divide. It announced new no-contract 2- and 5-Gbps plans for residential and small-business customers.