Latest in Federal Communications Commission

Veteran telecom lawyer Anna Gomez has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the Federal Communications Commission, a five-member regulatory body stuck in a 2-2 deadlock. In addition to the nomination for Gomez, Biden announced the re-nomination of commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Brendan…

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said she hopes the outcome of today’s elections will help break the longstanding 2-2 tie on the regulatory commission, but she also defended the body’s deadlocked body’s record during her leadership. “We’ve turned the noise down, and turned up the number of things…

The Federal Communications Commission is joining the list of those affected by the government shutdown, closing its doors today just after welcoming two new commissioners. The only part of the FCC’s daily function that will remain in operation is its response to reports of 911 service outages. Just before shutting its…

Sinclair Broadcast Group, whose $3.9 billion offer for Tribune Media remains in the hands of regulators after a stormy 11 months of deliberation, has finalized plans to sell 23 local TV stations in 18 markets. The move is a major step, though not unexpected since the local TV giant had indicated its road map in a…

The soon-to-be-slimmer 21st Century Fox is set to acquire about 10 local TV stations from Sinclair Broadcast Group as the latter moves closer to government approval of its acquisition of Tribune Media. A report in the Financial Times about the brewing deal cited three unidentified sources but did not identify the…

More than 200 companies chose Cyber Monday — traditionally the largest online sales days of the year — to call on the Federal Communications Commission to preserve the open internet. Firms including Twitter, Tumblr, Square and Reddit noted that that Americans spent almost $3.5 billion last year in an one-day online…

Despite sharp dissent from its two Democratic commissioners and concern from activists over privacy and costs, the FCC voted 3-2 to endorse Next-Generation TV, a set of standards known as ATSC 3.0 viewed by proponents as the gateway to a bold new era for video’s legacy players. The new standards, already endorsed by…

Many of the objections that the cable industry and Hollywood have raised to the FCC’s effort to open the set top box market are little more than “slogans” and “baloney,” Chairman Tom Wheeler said today in a vigorous defense of his agency’s rulemaking proceeding. Critics say that independent manufacturers might violate…

You might feel like you've read this one before – and you have, kind of. Less than a month after Byron Allen got AT&T and DirecTV carriage deals after charging them with racial discrimination in a $10 billion lawsuit, he's got some new targets. Today, both the Federal Communications Commission and Charter…

One day after AT&T CFO John Stephens said he expected the $49 billion melding with DirecTV to get regulatory approval "at any time," the Federal Communications Commission has signed off on the deal today. Now the largest Pay TV provider in the nation, the newly merged company will have around 26 million cable and…

The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington means that the FCC’s tough new net neutrality rules will take effect on Friday — with the Internet to be reclassified as a regulated communications utility. The U.S. Telecom Association asked the court to block the changes while justices weigh legal challenges to…

Anyone who does business with the FCC had better watch out. Most of the agency’s operations will be put on hold Tuesday unless lawmakers can agree on a spending bill for the fiscal year that begins October 1. A deal looks unlikely after the Senate passed a continuing resolution today that stripped out provisions in…