Showing archive for: “FCC”
The FCC’s Ambivalent Approach to Broadcast Regulation
A pair of proceedings currently before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) illustrate a puzzling incongruity. While the agency proposes in one docket to eliminate broadcasters’ ownership restrictions, in another, it explores imposing new regulations on their contractual relationships. This divergence highlights how the FCC’s flexible application of the “public interest” standard may serve the interests ... The FCC’s Ambivalent Approach to Broadcast Regulation
The Curious Case of ‘Competition’ in Broadcast Regulation
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently kicked off its latest quadrennial review of broadcast-ownership rules, a statutorily mandated process to determine whether changes in the media marketplace obviate the need for the rules and if they still serve the public interest. Theoretically, this should encompass economic analysis of the competitive effects of the various technologies ... The Curious Case of ‘Competition’ in Broadcast Regulation
Nexstar-Tegna and the Problem of Double-Secret Merger Review: Why Antitrust Should Trump ‘Public Interest’
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) recently sent a second request to Nexstar Media Group and Tegna Inc. seeking additional information about their proposed $6.2 billion merger. This request extends the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act waiting period by 30 days, pending the companies’ compliance. According to a securities filing, the two television-station ownership groups anticipate their planned merger ... Nexstar-Tegna and the Problem of Double-Secret Merger Review: Why Antitrust Should Trump ‘Public Interest’
‘Regulation and Its Reform’ by Stephen Breyer and ‘Contrived Competition’ by Richard Vietor
Stephen Breyer’s “Regulation and Its Reform” (1982) and Richard H.K. Vietor’s “Contrived Competition: Regulation and Deregulation in America” (1994) both address a central problem in American economic policy: when does government intervention improve market outcomes, and when does it create the very problems it seeks to solve? Breyer, then a judge of the 1st U.S. ... ‘Regulation and Its Reform’ by Stephen Breyer and ‘Contrived Competition’ by Richard Vietor
First Amendment Jurisprudence Should Reflect Economic Reality: Why Red Lion and Pacifica Must Fall
The U.S. legal landscape is riddled with anachronisms, but few are as indefensible and economically nonsensical as the justifications for regulating broadcast content. This bizarre notion that radio and television broadcasters deserve fewer First Amendment protections than newspapers, websites, or cable networks is a vestige of mid-20th-century technological reasoning that has long overstayed its constitutional ... First Amendment Jurisprudence Should Reflect Economic Reality: Why Red Lion and Pacifica Must Fall
Broadcast, Cable, and Creative Destruction: What This Year’s Nobel Teaches Us About Cord Cutting
The timing could hardly be better. As traditional television continues on its years-long decline—with millions of cable subscribers cutting the cord, broadcast audiences shrinking, and streaming splintering into a dozen rival platforms—this year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences has gone to three scholars who have spent their careers studying this very kind of market ... Broadcast, Cable, and Creative Destruction: What This Year’s Nobel Teaches Us About Cord Cutting
A Clean Slate Approach to Broadcast Regulation
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recently issued notice calling for a review of the agency’s broadcast-ownership rules raises a foundational question: what purpose do these rules serve in a world of digital abundance? Indeed, FCC Chair Brendan Carr has observed the fundamental changes in how broadcasters compete in a marketplace of “numerous online audio and ... A Clean Slate Approach to Broadcast Regulation
The FCC’s Broadcast-Ownership Review: Will the Agency Open the Door for Comprehensive Reform?
On the docket for this week’s meeting of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on broadcast-ownership rules, which just so happens to arrive amid a profound shift in the industry’s content-distribution model from broadcast to streaming. Streaming services now command nearly half of all U.S. television viewing, while local ... The FCC’s Broadcast-Ownership Review: Will the Agency Open the Door for Comprehensive Reform?
Your Local News Anchors Might Welcome Their New Corporate Overlords
When late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! came back from its temporary “break,” viewers in many markets discovered something odd: Kimmel wasn’t back on their local stations. In markets with ABC affiliates owned by media giants Sinclair and Nexstar, stations skipped the show entirely, substituting their own content instead. This incident highlights a bigger question that ... Your Local News Anchors Might Welcome Their New Corporate Overlords
Kimmel, Coercion, and the Public Interest Standard: The Problem of Boundless Government Power
Talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension by ABC following pushback from affiliate stations about comments he made Sept. 15 about the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk has been major news. The timing of the decisions by affiliate groups Nexstar and Sinclair to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! from their programming schedule was noteworthy, in that both came ... Kimmel, Coercion, and the Public Interest Standard: The Problem of Boundless Government Power
Scale or Fail: Why Paramount Skydance’s Warner Bros Gambit Makes Economic Sense
Just weeks after Skydance Media completed its acquisition of Paramount Global, the new company is reportedly preparing a majority cash bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in its entirety, including its cable networks and movie studio. A Skydance-Warner combination could reshape the global entertainment landscape. Backed by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s substantial family ... Scale or Fail: Why Paramount Skydance’s Warner Bros Gambit Makes Economic Sense
Charter/Cox Merger Review and the Rule of Law
Charter Communications Inc. and Cox Communications Inc.—both providers of cable and broadband—are seeking approval of their proposed merger from the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC). While the prior administration’s enforcement agencies—who often relied on static market-share snapshots to pursue antitrust claims and failed to consider broader market dynamics—might have sued to block this ... Charter/Cox Merger Review and the Rule of Law
