Washington Beat

The senior U.S. Senator from Nebraska who has served the state in the upper body of Congress since 2013 committed “to advance sensible policies that will promote strong Nebraska families and communities” has been named Chairman of the important Senate Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media.

A key Democratic U.S. Senator has written to the Acting Assistant Attorney General within the Department of Justice's antitrust division, urging Omeed Assefi to "closely scrutinize" the proposed acquisition of Fubo by The Walt Disney Company.

A low-power television station serving a portion of the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico has entered into a Consent Decree with the Video Division of the FCC's Media Bureau to resolve issues pertaining to its application for a license to cover.

While in Miami for a symposium with Hispanic media leaders, FCC Commissioner Anna Gómez took time out to visit the Paramount Global-owned WFOR-TV. Gómez has been vocal in her opposition to a Republican-fueled probe into a CBS News interview with Kamala Harris.

Nexstar has named a VP of Political Sales, responsible for building and managing the company’s newly created national political sales division, creating and developing go-to-market political ad strategies across all of its platforms, and generating significant growth in linear, digital, and connected TV political revenue.

The only woman serving as an FCC Commissioner will be participating in a roundtable discussion at Florida International University on Wednesday afternoon with a Federal Trade Commission Commissioner and five key U.S. broadcast media executives to discuss and debate "barriers to entry" for Hispanic and Latino media.

TechFreedom has filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court of the U.S. to declare that the FCC's "hands-off method of running the $9 billion Universal Services Fund violates the Constitution.

It's a word FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gómez used in early February to describe the actions of Chairman Brendan Carr's leadership and controversial actions taken in the days since he took over the agency: "weaponization." Now, three Democratic Senators are using the word as they condemn the Carr Commission.

Congress is marking World Radio Day in a particularly meaningful way: a bipartisan group of 114 US House members has reintroduced the Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution opposing the imposition of new performance fees, royalties, or taxes on local radio stations.

As Sam Metheny, the NAB's Executive VP and Chief Technology Officer since 2014, contends, there's a critical issue facing our nation’s infrastructure that needs to be addressed: "the vulnerability of GPS and the need for a secure, terrestrial alternative."

Junior Republican FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington has appointed a Senior Legal Advisor and, concurrently, his Legal Advisor. Taking the top role is a former Attorney Advisor in the Competition Policy Division of the Wireline Competition Bureau.

The U.S. Copyright Office has published a Notice of Inquiry on issues related to Performing Rights Organizations — an action, the office explains, that comes in response to a Congressional request to gather comments on the increase in the number of PROs in the United States and their licensing revenue distribution practices.

A non-commercial TV station serving the San Francisco DMA is once again in the news for a FCC faux pas. This time it will cost the licensee a $25,000 civil penalty, as it has signed a Consent Decree to resolve an "OPIF" issues/programs lists flub; incomplete responses in its Commission applications; and for a tardy license renewal filing.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which conservative Republicans and the Trump Administration seeks to defund, has awarded a $1 million grant to a public media journalism collaboration covering agricultural and rural issues.

President Trump’s push to expand the Federal Communications Commission's authority over broadcast journalism "risks First Amendment conflicts and could backfire under future administrations."  That's the viewpoint of the nonresident Senior Fellow for Technology Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.