Two Cox Radio stations and other similarly situated FCC licensees got staff leeway to not post in their online public files some documents from past license renewal cycles when there was no opposition to the renewals. Those broadcasters can make their quarterly issues/program lists and annual equal employment opportunity reports from previous renewals that remain pending available to the public at their main studio instead of uploading them. Documents from the current license renewal term aren't exempt, and the past renewals must be deferred for reasons not related to the obligations to air content responsive to the community, comply with EEO rules or keep documents relating to those two areas. Cox Radio said (see 1612150071) "uploading thousands of pages of quarterly issues/programs lists and annual EEO reports covering up to a twenty-year period will be burdensome to the Stations and will not provide any benefit to the public," said a Media Bureau order published in Friday's Daily Digest, and docket 14-127. "Commission action on the renewal applications has been delayed, according to Cox Radio, due to the Commission’s continued examination of its newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule."
Notable CROSS rulings
The Entertainment Software Association joined the list of now-former opponents to Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) broadband plans. In a filing Tuesday in FCC docket 13-213, ESA said the out-of-band emission limits the satellite company proposed in revised TLPS plans "would likely address" the trade group's technical concerns about TLPS interference to wireless gaming console controllers. Wi-Fi Alliance also filed that it doesn't object to the adopting of TLPS rules if the FCC imposes Globalstar's suggested limits, after suggesting last week it might be changing its opposition (see 1612090043). The ESA filing, in a footnote, specified that members Microsoft, Nintendo of America and Sony Interactive Entertainment America all agreed with it. The three had been critical of Globalstar's original TLPS plans and the potential for gaming console interference (see 1609160070). In recent weeks such former opponents as the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, Sprint, NCTA and Wireless Communications Association International also signed off, leading some watchers to speculate the proceeding might have crossed the line into uncontroversial territory and possibly be acted on before the administration transition. Globalstar recappped a meeting between General Counsel Barbee Ponder and Vice President-Finance, Business Operations and Strategy Tim Taylor with FCC staffers including Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp about the revisions. Globalstar clarified that its proposed rules would apply only to low earth orbit mobile satellite service licensees authorized to operate in the 2483.5-2495 MHz band under Part 25 rules on satellite operation or TLPS operators in that band under Part 25, and not to broadband radio service licensees operating above 2495 MHz under Part 27 rules on miscellaneous wireless communications.
Commissioner Mike O'Rielly expects "a lot of change" at the FCC when Republicans take control of the agency under incoming President Donald Trump. O'Rielly said he's looking forward to action in four main areas: removing "regulatory underbrush" that has been around a long time; fixing the commission's organization and procedures; moving a "pro-growth, pro-innovation agenda" -- for instance, by addressing tower siting for next-generation wireless; and undoing "bad policies" adopted by the current commission on partisan votes, including the FCC's net neutrality and broadband reclassification order. The specific agenda will flow from who Trump installs at the helm, O'Rielly said.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., introduced his promised legislation to repeal the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership ban Wednesday, joining with Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky. It's "the latest in our continued efforts to modernize outdated rules and promote investment in the communications sector,” said Walden, incoming chairman of the Commerce Committee who first mentioned such a bill early in September (see 1609080057). “Eliminating this relic of the disco era will provide much needed flexibility to the many newspapers and broadcasters throughout the country that provide important local news coverage and encourage greater investment in original journalism.” The lawmakers posted the two-page bill text, dated Sept. 20. Yarmuth said the bill would give companies flexibility: “As we’ve seen the rise in fake news and its consequences, it is increasingly important that we do all we can to protect legitimate sources of news.” NAB CEO Gordon Smith lauded the bill’s introduction. It's "an important step towards aligning outdated broadcast ownership rules with Americans’ 21st century information needs,” Smith said. “For too long, radio and television broadcasters have been saddled with archaic regulations preventing them from investing in newspaper ownership.” The News Media Alliance likewise was happy for "solid bipartisan support for commonsense legislation that reverses an outdated rule that does more harm than good," said CEO David Chavern. Congress remains in session for a handful of additional days.
Congressional and FCC Republicans vowed to roll back communications regulation, starting with the agency's net neutrality and broadband reclassification order. House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said she expects a net neutrality "legislative solution" early next Congress, and also took aim at recent broadband privacy rules: Lawmakers are going to have an "incredible" 2017, with opportunities to address many issues. "We are gearing up for just a terrific year," said Blackburn, one of several speakers at an Free State Foundation (FSF) event.
The NAB will look to the next FCC to reverse media ownership rules instead of the courts, said a petition for reconsideration filed with the commission Thursday. NAB already had filed a court challenge of the 2014 quadrennial review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but it filed a motion to withdraw that petition for review Friday. The decision to pursue the matter at the FCC indicates NAB believes the upcoming Republican-controlled FCC will be more sympathetic to the association’s arguments than the courts, a possibility that was foreseen by some broadcast attorneys following the case (see 1611090061). “This is not a surprise,” said Georgetown University Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who represents Prometheus Radio Project in its court challenge of the media ownership rules. Nexstar Broadcasting and Connoisseur Media also filed recon petitions with the FCC against aspects of the media ownership rules.
The Copyright Office sought comment Thursday on an NPRM on amendments to its rules on supplementary registration. Most copyright applicants would be required under the amended rules to submit an online application in order to correct or “amplify” the information included in the basic registration application, the CO said in a Federal Register notice. “Paper applications are extremely burdensome for both applicants and the Office,” the CO said. “Increasing demand on the Office’s limited resources causes delays in issuing supplementary registrations, and it prevents specialists from examining other types of claims thereby increasing the overall backlog within the Office.” The filing fee for supplementary applications would rise from $100 to $130 under the proposal, the CO said. The revised section also would update rules on when the CO may decline supplementary registrations and update practices regarding cross-references in the CO’s public record, the office said. The new rule would clarify that the CO may “decline to issue a supplementary registration for a basic registration that covered the first twenty-eight years of the copyright term, because any registration issued before January 1, 1978 has expired by now,” the CO said. “Allowing interested parties to correct or amplify the information in a registration after the initial term expired creates a potential for error, mistake, or even fraud.” Comments on the NPRM are due Jan. 3.
The latest iteration of net neutrality rules formally kicked off with a 3-2 party-line vote by FCC members in front of a standing-room-only crowd on Feb. 26, 2015. After many twists and turns in a lengthy process with millions of comments submitted, that included a significant course correction by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the final order was released in March 2015. It reclassified broadband as a Title II telecom service subject to some common-carrier regulation under the Communications Act.
Capitol Hill Democrats fear the incoming unified GOP government, with control of the White House under President Donald Trump, both congressional chambers and the FCC, stands ready to wipe out the FCC’s net neutrality order (see 1611090034) and potentially other achievements of the agency under Chairman Tom Wheeler, they told us after the recent elections. But some Democrats see potential for bipartisan legislative compromise and believe lawmakers should act fast before the order is potentially undone.
The European Commission's proposal to implement cross-border levies on VOD services could lead to fragmentation of the digital single market, the Computer & Communications Industry Association said in a report. The VOD cross-border levies provision is part of the EC's larger proposal to revamp European audiovisual rules. CCIA raised concerns earlier this year about the prospect that the EC would propose VOD levies (see 1605240018). The Commission has framed the VOD rules as necessary to create a “level playing field,” but instead tilts the field against VOD services and would have other unintended consequences, CCIA said. “This proposal abandons key principles which have underpinned the success of the Digital Single Market,” said Perspective Associates Managing Director Tim Suter, one of the report's co-authors, in a news release. “A deeply flawed process has led to a deeply flawed conclusion.” The EC “is applying cross-border levies only to VOD services, while leaving broadcasters with the advantages of free spectrum, prominence, must-carry and so on,” said Communications Chambers co-founder Rob Kenny. “This isn’t level -- it’s the North Face of the Eiger.”