Washington Beat

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.), in an opinion piece released Friday, raises questions surrounding business practices by tech companies and their impact on consumers. The op-ed also announces a series of hearings the committee will hold next month to examine how actions taken by online businesses affect consumers’ privacy and choices without their knowledge. If you're a local broadcast media company, this knowledge could prove powerful in your client conversations for dollars and buys.

If there was one key takeaway from the FCC's 110-page opus that spells out the authorization of permissive use of the next-gen broadcast TV standard -- a.k.a. GN Docket No. 16-142 -- it's this: "It is premature to address any issues that may arise with respect to the voluntary carriage of ATSC 3.0 signals before broadcasters begin transmitting in this new voluntary standard."

Word up ... Comcast didn't discriminate "by reducing distribution" of a religious broadcast network targeting African American consumers "without a valid business justification." That's the key takeaway from a ruling released Friday by the Media Bureau, which also determined that Comcast negotiated carriage agreements without violating financial interest provisions of the Commission's rules.

A group of six senior Members of the U.S. Senate have written to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the leaders of Verizon and Univision Communications to voice their concerns about the ongoing retransmission consent dispute between the two companies. They're not taking sides, but they want a resolution: Pronto.

"One of the most powerful forces in government is inertia," says FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "Rules that get on the books stay on the books, sometimes long after the rationale that underlay their adoption is gone." And, with those words, the head of the Federal Communications Commission laid out his rationale for Thursday's revelation of an actual order set for introduction at its November Open Meeting that would bring major changes to the agency's media ownership rules.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Thursday circulated proposed legislation that would, in his view and that of GOP leaders, "modernize" the agency's media ownership regulations. This resulted in cheers from the NAB. It also led Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to use a portion of her opening statement at Wednesday's House Subcommittee on Communications FCC Oversight Hearing to voice her strong opposition to Pai's plan.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made it clear that what he had to say at the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology's FCC Oversight Hearing on Wednesday afternoon would grab the biggest headlines — duopolies will soon be possible in every market across the U.S., and cross-ownership rules will be heading into major rewrite mode very soon. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) couldn't have been more pleased. This "bombshell" announcement deflected attention away from her proclamation that there would be no twisting and turning of the discussion by leading Democrats "to try to turn this hearing into the Trump Tweet hearing."

The House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology took several hours today to hold its second FCC Oversight hearing of the current Congress. There were some entertaining moments -- including a shot from Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel about her "vacation" courtesy of the Senate. But, the top words said for broadcasters came from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. He revealed plans to modernize broadcast media ownership, and the NAB is delighted.

Roughly one hour east of San Antonio lies the city of Gonzales, Texas. On the FM band, one can hear the primary station for an increasingly popular Americana network branded as "Sun Radio" — KCTI-FM 88.1. Those call letters presented a problem to Texas Public Radio. Why? Those are the same call letters of its station on the AM dial, licensed to Gonzales. The FCC's Media Bureau reviewed the matter, and it has now rendered its decision.

Fiery dissent from the FCC's two Democratic Commissioners couldn't sway at least one of their three Republican colleagues to vote alongside them on a matter of keen interest to radio and TV station owners. As a result, in a 3-2 party-line vote, the elimination of the main studio rule is on its way to fruition, putting an end to a regulation crafted — as Commissioner Brendan Carr noted in his comments — just months before the start of World War II.

As the FCC moves toward a decision in "GN Docket No.16-142," which authorizes the permissive use of the much-heralded "Next Generation" broadcast television standard (ATSC 3.0), one big MVPD has asked the Commission to start applying its "light-touch regulation" Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Michael O'Rielly have been advocating since January.

The Commission today, at its October Open Meeting, agreed to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes to update two of its rules in an effort that the Republican majority believes will reduce regulatory burdens for broadcasters. In short, the proposal would save the trees by eliminating a lot of paperwork.

A longtime South Carolina politician who made a name for himself as the owner of a marketing firm specializing in statewide real estate auctions has just become the newest member of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee—the overseer of all FCC activities in the lower body of Congress. He's a big supporter of U.S.-Mexico border enforcement and "energy independence" that includes offshore oil and natural gas exploration, and the use of Yucca Mountain in Nevada for nuclear waste storage.

Don't think for a minute that Democratic FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn had the backing of multicultural broadcasting companies with respect to the soon-to-die Main Studio Rule enacted in 1939. The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) on Tuesday immediately responded to the Commission's 3-2 party-line vote to kill the rule by offering its congratulations.

Here's a news story that broadcast media executives eager to drive dollars back from digital media should read with keen interest: The Ranking Member of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee has asked the heads of the three largest digital and social media companies to hold a meeting to discuss content management and advertising policies on their respective platforms.