Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
- Although the federal government shutdown continues for its fourth week, the FCC announced that it still intends to hold its regular monthly Open Meeting on October 28. As we noted here, the FCC released three drafts of Notices of Proposed Rulemaking affecting broadcasters earlier this month (one on ATSC 3.0 and two relevant to earth station operations) which it intends to vote on at the next Open Meeting. Despite the shutdown, there was some lobbying activity this week at the FCC on these items – particularly relevant to broadcasters was the advocacy on the ATSC 3.0 item:
- On the draft Fifth Further NPRM proposing changes to its rules governing TV stations transitioning to the ATSC 3.0 standard, Public Knowledge, a public interest group, expressed its concerns over the National Association of Broadcasters’ encryption proposals for ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) (see its comments here and here), arguing that NAB’s proposals would render broadcasting a closed form of media by allowing private companies to control the certification of reception devices and encryption of programming, which threatens to limit the manufacturers of devices and functions that will be available to consumers. CTA, representing the consumer technology industry, expressed their concerns regarding NAB’s proposal to mandate ATSC 3.0 tuners in consumer devices.
- In two interviews this week, FCC Chairman Carr made comments on the FCC’s regulation of broadcasters:
- On the Hugh Hewitt Show, Carr discussed how the FCC could regulate broadcasters’ public interest obligations. Carr suggested that the FCC could auction off broadcasters’ spectrum allowing those who do not want to comply with public interest obligations to buy it. Carr also characterized the Jimmy Kimmel matter as “news distortion.” As we discussed here and here, ABC/Disney suspended, and then later reinstated, Kimmel’s late-night show following FCC Chairman Carr’s apparent suggestion in a podcast interview that the FCC could penalize ABC/Disney if the company failed to discipline Kimmel over comments he made on Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
- On the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters podcast, Carr stated that the FCC was reinvigorating the public interest standard, and broadcasters could no longer follow narrow partisan narratives as FCC license holders. Carr also stated that he was open to the idea that broadcasters could lose their licenses for not operating in the public interest but recognized that the process for revoking a license was not a quick one. Carr again suggested that broadcasters might be able to “buy their way out” of the public interest standard by the FCC auctioning off their broadcast spectrum. On the issue of network affiliation agreements, Carr stated that national programmers exert too much control over local broadcasters, and the FCC was considering strengthening local TV stations’ preemption rights in the wake of the Jimmy Kimmel matter. On the issue of regulating AI-generated content in political advertising, Carr stated that the FCC’s authority to do so was very limited, and the issue would be better addressed by the FEC or Congress.
