Protests highlight growing resistance to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to undo net neutrality regulation and Communications Act Title II broadband classification, said organizers of 700 demonstrations they say were held across the country Thursday. Attendees said much the same thing. But the protests won't change any votes at the FCC's decisive Thursday meeting, it's widely believed. Self-identified Republicans, independents and Democrats were among protesters, they said on the sidelines.
Notable CROSS rulings
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai took jabs at objections to the pending net neutrality order in his delivery of the traditionally whimsical keynote at the FCBA Chairman’s Dinner Thursday. He spoke as net neutrality protesters waved signs outside the Washington Hilton where the event took place (see 1712080016). A few protested Sinclair's buying Tribune. Most of his jokes got big laughs from the crowded ballroom.
A congressional infrastructure package isn't expected to contain broadband funding, said Grace Koh, National Economic Council technology, telecom and cybersecurity assistant to President Donald Trump. "I don't think broadband is going to be a set-aside" in legislation, though high-speed deployment could be encouraged in other ways, she said at a Practicing Law Institute conference Thursday morning. Other PLI news: 1712070063 and 1712070047.
FCC Democrats aren't expected to support the draft NPRM seeking comment on the national TV ownership cap, industry officials said in interviews. Though the item is an NPRM without tentative conclusions (see 1711210044), comments from Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn when the item was released indicate they don't support it, and both said the FCC doesn’t have the authority to modify the cap. The NPRM is on the agenda for commissioners' Dec.14 meeting.
Legal challenges to an FCC draft "internet freedom" order face a daunting task, said supporters of Chairman Ajit Pai's proposals, and one analyst agreed, but some net neutrality advocates are more hopeful of a challenge's prospects. Pai last week circulated a draft to undo Title II broadband classification and net neutrality regulation under the Communications Act, and is planning a Dec. 14 vote; fellow Republican commissioners are supportive, minority Democrats opposed (see 1711220026 and 1711210020).
FCC relaxation of media ownership rules is an industry “holiday wish list” and won’t survive a legal challenge, said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in her dissent on the order, which was approved on a 3-2 party-line vote Thursday, as expected (see 1711150054). “I vociferously dissent and look forward to the day when the court issues a decision to right this sad wrong,” Clyburn said. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he had no doubt the new standard will end up back before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court would be “hard pressed” to find the moves aren’t supported in the record, he said. O’Rielly said he hopes the FCC will appeal if the 3rd Circuit again strikes down rules.
The FCC is expected to eliminate or relax numerous media ownership rules Thursday on a party-line 3-2 vote, industry and agency officials told us. That's despite calls Wednesday by Democratic senators for the Inspector General (IG) to investigate Chairman Ajit Pai for a possible quid pro quo relationship with Sinclair Broadcast and for Pai to recuse himself from both the media ownership and ATSC 3.0 items (see 1711140053) since they would benefit Sinclair. The FCC’s impartiality in review of Sinclair buying Tribune “may be tainted,” said 12 senators, including Tom Udall, D-N.M., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Ed Markey, D-Mass.
Verizon pressed the FCC to create a "uniform, national" broadband framework that promotes network investment and innovation, and ensures states and localities "do not undermine that framework with a patchwork" of contrary regulation. "Any regulatory framework that applies to broadband Internet access services" should "recognize that these services are inherently interstate," and apply a "light-touch approach," said a Verizon filing posted Monday in docket 17-108 on a meeting its representatives, including Gibson Dunn attorney Helgi Walker, had with Commissioner Brendan Carr. They said "state-specific rules relating to these services simply don’t work when talking about services that freely cross state boundaries." Among others weighing in, the American Legislative Exchange Council voiced concern about "unreasonable" local fees and conditions, and "a potential patchwork of state laws" that "could threaten deployment and affordable access." The Internet Association voiced support for the FCC's existing broadband open internet framework. "The rules and the firm legal basis upon which they rest should not be undone or revisited," said an IA filing on meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Carr, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, and with a Wireline Bureau official. "Having clear, legally sustainable rules in place finally established rules of the road and provided legal certainty for ISPs, edge providers, and consumers alike."
The draft media ownership order on reconsideration is an “abuse” of FCC rules for recon orders because it relies on “no new evidence,” the United Church of Christ Communications Office (UCC OC) said in meetings and calls last week with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and to Commissioners Brendan Carr, Mike O’Rielly, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, according to an ex parte filing in docket 14-50. “Wholesale reversal” on media ownership will “only encourage waste of Commission resources as every disappointed commenter seeks to reassert the same facts and arguments previously raised in repeated petitions for reconsideration,” UCC OC said. Reversing the rules for “temporary political purpose” will damage the "finality" of future rulemakings, the filing said. The draft order ignores repeated directives from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to base such decisions on data and analysis, and information in the record on likely consequences from eliminating the cross-ownership rules and eight-voices test, UCC OC said. The recon order may be difficult to challenge, attorneys have said (see 1710310067)
The FCC Media Bureau approved Entercom’s all-stock buy of CBS Radio, said an order Thursday. The deal is expected to close Nov. 17, Entercom said. The combination will have 235 stations, “with coverage of close to 90% of persons 12+ in the top 50 markets,” the release said. To comply with ownership rules, the deal includes divestiture of 19 stations and six associated booster stations to a trust that will be charged with selling them within six months of the completion of the deal. The deal also includes six-month temporary waivers of the radio/TV cross ownership rules to allow temporary directors to oversee the transition in the San Francisco and Miami markets. Entercom reached a consent decree with DOJ last week (see 1711010050).