Jobs remain an issue in T-Mobile's buying Sprint, stakeholders agreed. They differ on whether the deal would lead to more employment or hurt unionization. At the Capitol Forum Thursday and in Q&A with us, those for and against the deal expanded on existing policy positions. Topics included rollout of attorneys general backing the transaction after reaching pacts for the combined company to locate jobs in their states.
The House Communications Subcommittee advanced the Television Viewer Protection Act (HR-5035) and eight other bills on voice votes Thursday, as expected (see 1911130001). The subcommittee's debate over HR-5035, which would renew parts of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, signals that measure faces a rockier path at a House Commerce Committee markup. The vote happened a day after the Senate Commerce Committee postponed a markup (see 1911130055) of the similar Satellite Television Access Reauthorization Act (S-2789) amid a committee members' revolt led by ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. STELA is set to expire Dec. 31.
AT&T had a Q3 net loss of about 1.4 million subscribers across its three pay-TV services -- DirecTV, AT&T U-verse and AT&T Now -- vs. a net loss of about 295,000 subscribers in the year-ago quarter, reported Leichtman Research Group Wednesday. AT&T’s subscriber losses, 79 percent of industry Q3 net losses vs. 30 percent in 3Q 2018, resulted from the company’s decision “to increasingly focus on retaining and acquiring more profitable subscribers,” said LRG principal Bruce Leichtman.
Full-power broadcasters and ATSC 3.0 boosters clamored for the FCC to relax rules governing distributed transmission systems (see 1910110040), in comments posted through Wednesday in docket 16-142. Microsoft and low-power broadcast entities have interference concerns. NAB and America's Public Television Stations' petition is “premature,” said the National Translator Association. “3.0 is incompatible with the present system, and the public’s paramount interest must be to preserve interference-free TV for present reception.”
It’s worth Congress considering a merger moratorium, House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., told reporters after raising concerns about Google buying Fitbit at a hearing Wednesday (see 1911080062). Cicilline said FTC Chairman Joe Simons and DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim were more supportive of the idea during testimony than he anticipated. A lot can be done short of a moratorium, Delrahim said, but it’s possible to explore burdens of proof for companies that control large market shares.
Beyond whatever steps the FCC takes to open up the C band to other uses, spectrum issues will become more complicated and challenging, and incentive mechanisms are needed for incumbents, said Office of Economics and Analytics acting Chief Giulia McHenry at an FCBA CLE Tuesday evening. For auctions, take the prohibited communications rule very seriously, said Jonathan Cohen of Wilkinson Barker, who when at the FCC co-wrote rules for the agency's first spectrum auctions. "It would be a death sentence" for a lawyer to be a conduit for prohibited information, he said.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., returned Tuesday from that chamber's week-plus recess brimming with optimism about pending subcommittee progress on telecom priorities, before a planned Thursday subcommittee markup of his Television Viewer Protection Act (HR-5035) and eight other measures. The markup will have a bipartisan flavor and “it wouldn't surprise me” if the subcommittee clears all nine measures on voice votes, Doyle said. The meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical Wednesday of Comcast and solicitor general assertions about but-for causation needing to be proved when stating a claim under Section 1981 of federal anti-discrimination law. A decision is likely in about three months, Erwin Chemerinsky, outside counsel for respondents Entertainment Studios and the National Association of African American Owned Media, told us after oral argument in the docket 18-1171 case. Outside the courthouse there was a protest that tried to tie Comcast's treatment of ES/NAAAOM to the cabler's dropping Starz from its Premium tier.
House and Senate Commerce committee efforts to advance Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation appeared to be going in different directions Wednesday. Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., pulled his STELA bill, the Satellite Television Access Reauthorization Act (S-2789), from a committee markup. Several lobbyists cited a revolt by some Democratic and Republican members as the reason for the postponement. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., appeared on the verge of advancing his renewal measure, the Television Viewer Protection Act (HR-5035), during a planned Thursday markup. STELA is currently set to expire Dec. 31.
The FCC's likely to approve a draft order Nov. 22 requiring carriers identify the vertical axis of wireless calls to 911. Many questions are expected when commissioners vote. The FCC's proposing to mandate 3-meter z-axis 911 location accuracy starting in April 2021. Public safety is divided. Carriers are concerned whether industry can meet the timetable. They have been relatively quiet, however, FCC officials said.