DOJ Advisory Opinion Takes Hard Line on Lifeline Benefits for Immigrants

A DOJ advisory opinion released Friday instructed the FCC that benefits received through the Lifeline program are subject to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, and applicants need to provide more than just their Social Security number to be eligible. The "FCC must impose additional safeguards to verify eligibility for Lifeline benefits," said the opinion.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had sought the opinion from the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel. “Under this finding, non-citizens are typically ineligible to enroll in Lifeline unless they have been in the United States for at least five years with qualified status,” said a news release. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said DOJ “will continue to put American citizens first and root out any abuse of taxpayer dollars by those in our country illegally.”

Cantwell, Other Democrats Press FCC for 'Comprehensive' Paramount/WBD Foreign Funding Review

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington and five other chamber Democrats wrote FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Wednesday night seeking a “comprehensive” federal review of Paramount Skydance's use of financing from sovereign wealth funds owned by Middle Eastern countries to pay for its proposed $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount is asking the FCC to approve the funds indirectly buying a 49.5% stake for $47 billion (see 2604270051). Communications lawyers familiar with foreign investment don't expect the FCC or national security agencies to push back over the matter (see 2605080047).

“The scale, concentration, and scope of this proposal raise serious questions,” Cantwell and the other Senate Democrats said in a letter to Carr we obtained. The other signers included Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico. “Foreign governments hostile to a free and independent press could exert unprecedented influence over a media conglomerate vital to American journalism and culture,” the senators said. They noted the Communications Act sets a 25% bar for foreign investment in U.S.-organized entities that control an American broadcast license, with FCC approval needed even if it’s passive, non-voting stock.

The 25% cap “was meant to ensure powerful media companies are ultimately controlled by American citizens,” the Democratic senators said. “Paramount, however, seeks an exception far exceeding” that threshold. “The foreign governments behind this investment systematically suppress press freedom in their own countries and have made a series of investments and gifts to entities controlled by [President Donald Trump] and his family, raising serious concerns about their influence over the independent American media and the potential for corruption,” the senators said.

The “sovereign investment funds would have significant influence over a number of the most significant and impactful news reporting and investigative journalism outlets in the [U.S.], including CNN, CBS News, 60 Minutes, and 28 local Paramount-owned television stations in 17 of the country’s largest media markets,” the senators wrote Carr. “And the Trump Administration appears to believe that the transaction will reduce media independence. Indeed, in complaining about CNN’s coverage of the Iran War, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said ‘the sooner’ that Paramount takes over CNN, ‘the better’” (see 26031300328).

“And what’s not in the petition is just as concerning,” the senators said. “Media reports indicate that Tencent, a Chinese company on [DOD’s] list of companies connected to the Chinese military, will also take an equity stake in the combined company. Allowing our most significant global adversary to partly own Paramount or a combined new entity that will own CNN and CBS News would risk our national security.”

The Democratic senators asked Carr to respond by June 5 to their questions, including if he will “commit to a comprehensive review by Team Telecom, especially given the unprecedented risks to press freedom posed by the proposed equity investors.” They asked Carr whether he will commit to a commission-level vote on Paramount’s cap request, an allusion to his controversial decision to allow the FCC’s Media Bureau to approve Nexstar’s $6 billion purchase of Tegna and grant a waiver of the 39% national TV ownership cap on delegated authority (see 2603190075).

The senators probed whether Carr believes “that foreign ownership of between 49.5% and 100% of Paramount, contemplated by the filing, would mean that the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth investment funds would have effective control or influence over decision making.” They also want Carr to explain what “specific assurances” the sovereign wealth funds and Tencent provided the FCC “that they will not attempt to influence the editorial, journalistic, or content decisions at Paramount, either by suppressing reporting and creative content unfavorable to their governments or by promoting content that runs contrary to American interests or values.”

FCC OKs EchoStar Spectrum Deals but Orders Company to Put $2.4B Into Trust Fund

The FCC Space and Wireless bureaus signed off Tuesday on EchoStar's transfer of its AWS-4, AWS-H Block and unpaired AWS-3 spectrum licenses and several earth station licenses to SpaceX and of its 3.45 GHz and 600 MHz licenses to AT&T. EchoStar is receiving a total of $40 billion from the two companies for the licenses.

As a condition of the sales, the FCC is making EchoStar put $2.4 billion into a trust fund to help compensate suppliers left with unpaid bills due to Dish Wireless ending its terrestrial wireless network plans. In the orders, the FCC said its "unique role" in Dish Wireless stopping that buildout "creates a precedentially novel fact pattern and cognizable public-interest harms specific to this transaction that we find necessary to resolve here."

8th Circuit Vacates FCC's Digital Discrimination Rule

The FCC's digital discrimination rule exceeded the commission's statutory authority, with the final rule allowing imposition of disparate impact liability and setting an overbroad definition of who's covered, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday (docket 24-1179). The three-judge panel vacated the rule. A variety of parties had challenged the 2023 order, which was aimed at facilitating equal broadband access under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (see 2401310003). Critics and challengers said it was too broad.

The 8th Circuit ruled that while some federal anti-discrimination statutes expressly allow findings of liability for disparate impact, rather than disparate intent, the IIJA didn't include any language allowing findings based on disparate impact discrimination claims.

FCC Orders Disney's Stations to File for Early Renewal

The FCC has called in Disney’s eight owned and operated stations for early license renewal proceedings, said a Media Bureau order Tuesday. Disney’s licenses wouldn’t normally be up for renewal until 2028. “FCC rules provide that whenever the FCC regards an application for a renewal of a license as essential to the proper conduct of an investigation, the FCC has the authority to call the broadcaster’s licenses in for early renewal,” said the order. “Doing so both allows the FCC to conduct its ongoing investigation and enables the FCC to ensure that the broadcaster has been meeting its public interest obligations more broadly.” The order said the FCC has been investigating Disney’s ABC stations for “possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.”

Multiple broadcast attorneys told us that early renewal proceedings have been extremely rare in recent years, but the Media Bureau issued such an order Monday for TV station owner Bridge News over possible unauthorized transfers of control.

The Disney order gives the company until May 28 to file the license renewals. Broadcast attorneys told us that the FCC must provide justification for calling in early renewals, that licenses can’t be removed without extensive hearing proceedings, and that stations have historically been able to operate normally while the FCC weighs renewing their licenses. Disney didn’t immediately comment.

FCC Gives AST SpaceMobile OK to Offer Direct-to-Device Service

The FCC has approved AST SpaceMobile plans to launch and operate its constellation of as many as 248 low earth orbit satellites and provide direct-to-device service in the 700 and 800 MHz bands in partnership with AT&T, Verizon and FirstNet, AST said Wednesday. Chairman/CEO Abel Avellan said the approval "marks an important step as we continue scaling our network and moving closer to commercial service." He said AST is speeding up deployment of its constellation, "advancing integration with leading mobile network operators, and preparing to deliver seamless, space-based cellular broadband directly to everyday smartphones, bringing us closer to connecting people everywhere.”

House Pulls American Broadband Deployment Act From Floor Amid GOP Defections

House leadership abruptly pulled the American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-2289) from floor consideration Monday afternoon after it became clear that not enough Republicans were on board with the measure to guarantee passage, several communications-policy-focused lobbyists told us. The House Rules Committee had planned to consider HR-2289 during a hearing Monday afternoon that would have set up floor debate on the measure, as well as discussion on whether to allow votes on what lobbyists expected to be numerous largely Democratic amendments (see 2604170084).

HR-2289 supporters had been counting on near-universal Republican support for the legislation to carry it through the House, given the expectation that almost all Democrats would likely oppose it. The House Commerce Committee in December advanced the measure, which combined language from 22 GOP connectivity permitting bills, on a narrow 26-24 party-line vote (see 2512030031).

Federal Judge Issues Injunction Blocking Nexstar/Tegna Merger

The U.S. District Court for Eastern California released a preliminary injunction late Friday blocking Nexstar and Tegna from merging. The injunction appears to have similar terms as the existing temporary restraining order, including the modifications issued by the court last week.

In Friday's order, Judge Troy Nunley said he was convinced by arguments from DirecTV and eight states that the deal is anti-competitive and will lead to higher retransmission consent rates and reduce local news. “Because Plaintiffs establish the Nexstar-TEGNA merger will substantially lessen competition in markets in which it participates, they have shown irreparable harm for injunctive relief,” he wrote. "The Court finds allowing further integration of Nexstar and TEGNA constitutes immediate, irreparable harm and disagrees with Defendants that divestiture will remain a viable remedy after a trial on the merits."

The injunction takes effect April 21, and Nunley extended the temporary restraining order until that date "to preserve the status quo." The period before the injunction's effective date was requested by Nexstar to give it time to consider appeal, the order said.

“I welcome the court's decision to pause this transaction and bring much-needed scrutiny to a deeply flawed approval process,” said FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez in a release. “What we saw here was a coordinated, multi-agency effort to avoid accountability and judicial review, culminating in a same-day clearance, approval, and closing designed to shield the public from the real harms of this unprecedented merger.”

Amazon Buying Globalstar in Bid to Become Direct-to-Device Player

Amazon said Tuesday that it's buying Globalstar for $11 billion in a bid to add direct-to-device capabilities to its Leo constellation. Globalstar provides satellite-based emergency SOS services for Apple, and Amazon said it has struck an agreement for Leo to offer those services for iPhone and Apple Watch products.

“We have long believed low Earth orbit satellite constellations offer the most effective path to truly connect users and devices anywhere and anytime,” said Globalstar CEO Paul Jacobs. "The combination with Amazon Leo will advance innovations in digital connectivity that will benefit our customers and advance us toward a more intelligent, continuously connected world.”

Amazon said the transaction is expected to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and Globalstar hitting certain HIBLEO-4 replacement satellite milestones.

William Blair's Louie DiPalma noted that with the Globalstar acquisition and Apple agreement, Amazon is positioned to become a third major player in the D2D market, joining SpaceX and AST SpaceMobile. He said the $11 billion deal also increases the value of Iridium and Viasat spectrum assets. AST and SpaceX will likely look to acquire more spectrum to add network capacity, he predicted.

Federal Judge Extends Nexstar/Tegna Restraining Order

Judge Troy Nunley of the U.S. District Court for Eastern California has extended the temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the Nexstar/Tegna deal by seven days and appeared to indicate that the court will soon issue a longer-term preliminary injunction. “There is no evidence in the record to contradict the Court’s findings from its March 27, 2026 Order granting DIRECTV’s Motion for TRO,” said the order, issued Friday. It also modified the terms of the TRO to allow Nexstar to have more flexibility to appoint officers and maintain day-to-day operations for Tegna, but it stopped short of giving Nexstar broad authority over the acquired company’s operations and retransmission consent contracts. In addition, the new terms don’t appear to grant Nexstar’s request that Tegna be allowed to move forward with cost-cutting plans that it said were in place before the merger. The new TRO expires April 17.

Nexstar/Tegna Hearing Concludes Without Ruling; Judge Closes Court to Discuss TRO

A hearing of the U.S. District Court for Eastern California late Tuesday on a possible preliminary injunction to block the Nexstar/Tegna deal on antitrust grounds concluded without a ruling. Judge Troy Nunley said he would issue a written order on the matter.

After hearing arguments from Nexstar and the opponents challenging the deal -- eight states and DirecTV -- on whether the court should impose the injunction, Nunley initiated a lengthy closed session for “a frank and open conversation” on Nexstar’s ability to comply with the terms of the temporary restraining order (TRO). That order will expire at the end of the week if the court doesn’t issue a preliminary injunction.

Broadcast attorneys told us the judge’s interest in the TRO suggests that he expects the issue of compliance with an order holding the companies separate to be important going forward. Nexstar and the plaintiffs told the court in filings earlier Tuesday that they had been unable to reach an agreement on proposed changes to the TRO to make it easier for Nexstar and Tegna to comply (see 2604070030).

Federal Judge Grants Temporary Restraining Order Against Nexstar/Tegna

A federal judge in California has granted a temporary restraining order requested by DirecTV and eight states barring Nexstar and Tegna from combining their business for two weeks while the court considers a longer-term preliminary injunction.

U.S. District Court for Eastern California Judge Troy Nunley ordered the companies late Friday to hold their businesses separate, operate their stations independently, maintain staffing levels, and put internal controls in place to prevent the sharing of sensitive information between them. Nunley wrote that he was persuaded that the combination is likely to lead to job losses and retransmission consent hikes, and that Nexstar’s post-merger market share is large enough that it likely violates antitrust laws.

“The Court finds particularly persuasive Plaintiff’s assertion that despite Defendants’ claim the rise of streaming services and ‘cord-cutting’ will create a downward pressure on retransmission rates, Nexstar’s CEO Perry Sook recently told investors the opposite: ‘Historically we’ve been able to outrun the rate of attrition by those rate increases and deliver positive growth in net retrans growth.’” The judge’s order also cited warnings from FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez that media consolidation leads to stations sharing their news operations rather than expanding them. The order requires Nexstar to file a showing by Wednesday on why a preliminary injunction further blocking the merger shouldn’t be issued, and sets an in-person hearing on the matter for April 7.

FCC Media Bureau Waives National Cap, Approves Nexstar/Tegna

The FCC Media Bureau has granted Nexstar and Tegna a waiver of the national TV ownership cap on delegated authority and approved their $6.2 billion merger, said an FCC order and news release late Thursday. Waiving the national cap “is consistent with longstanding FCC authorities and doing so promotes the underlying purpose of the FCC’s media regulations by promoting competition, localism, and diversity,” said Chairman Brendan Carr in the release. “By approving this transaction, which allows Nexstar to own less than 15% of television stations, the FCC acts mindful of the media marketplace that [exists] today -- not the one from decades past.”

According to the order, Nexstar has committed to divesting six stations within two years of the deal's closing date, if the local TV limits are still in effect by then, and to keeping existing retransmission consent rates through November. The company also committed to ending “news cooperation relationships” with national TV networks, the order said.

In a Nexstar news release, CEO Perry Sook said, "By bringing these two outstanding companies together, Nexstar will be a stronger, more dynamic enterprise -- better positioned to deliver exceptional journalism and local programming with enhanced assets, capabilities, and talent."

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said in her own release that the agency "has once again chosen bureaucratic cover over public accountability ... This merger was approved behind closed doors with no open process, no full Commission vote, and no transparency for the consumers and communities who will bear the consequences. A transaction of this magnitude, which includes new and novel issues before the FCC, demands open deliberation before the full Commission, not a quiet sign-off meant to avoid public scrutiny."

State AGs Sue to Block Nexstar/Tegna

Eight state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit to block the Nexstar/Tegna deal, according to a news release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta early Thursday. New York, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, North Carolina, Connecticut and Virginia joined California in the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. The combined company would consolidate control of programming in the hands of fewer people, remove local control, cut local jobs, and “impact the delivery of news and other media content to Americans nationwide,” the release said. “Due to the considerable increase in consolidation, the deal is also expected to raise prices and harm consumers.” The transaction “would cause incredibly high levels of concentration in local TV markets and is expected to raise cable and satellite prices across the country, causing irreparable harm to local news and consumers who rely on their reporting as a critical source of information,” said Bonta in the release. “This merger is illegal, plain and simple, running contrary to federal antitrust laws that protect consumers. The lawsuit argued that the merger violates The Clayton Act, which bars mergers that substantially lessen competition, the release said.

Markey Calls for Carr Resignation After He Threatens Broadcasters' Licenses Over Iran War Coverage

Senate Communications Subcommittee member Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., again Sunday called for FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to resign, this time over Carr’s Saturday X post warning broadcasters “that are running hoaxes and news distortions [to] correct course” or face revocation broadcast licenses. His post included an earlier one by President Donald Trump criticizing news media coverage of U.S. military operations in Iran. Markey, who has frequently criticized Carr since he took the FCC gavel in January 2025, previously called for the chairman to resign during a December subpanel hearing amid a testy exchange about the commission’s probe of Audacy’s KCBS San Francisco.

“The law is clear,” Carr said Saturday. “Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not. And frankly, changing course is in their own business interests since trust in legacy media has now fallen to an all time low of just 9% and are ratings disasters.” Carr claimed that Trump’s "landslide" 2024 presidential election victory over Democrat Kamala Harris “in the face of hoaxes and distortions … means the public has lost faith and confidence in the media. And we can’t allow that to happen.” Carr doubled down in a subsequent Saturday interview with CBS News, saying people “have gotten used to the idea that, you know, licenses are some sort of property right, and there's nothing you can do that can result in losing their license."

The Truth Social post by Trump that was included with Carr's on X attacked media -- specifying The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times -- for reporting on “five tanker planes that were supposedly struck down at an Airport in Saudi Arabia,” which he said was “intentionally misleading.” Newspapers and other media “actually want us to lose the War” in Iran, Trump said. “They are truly sick and demented people that have no idea the damage they cause” the U.S.

Markey said in a letter to Carr: “Your Saturday post on X threatening to revoke broadcasters’ licenses if they do not cover [the Iran conflict] with Trump’s preferred narrative is an extraordinary abuse of the [FCC’s] authority and a clear violation of the First Amendment ... You are effectively demanding that broadcasters become state media and echo the Trump administration’s false talking points on this reckless, unconstitutional war. This threat is just your latest authoritarian attempt to weaponize the FCC’s statutory authority to censor the media. It is a stain on the FCC’s storied history.”

Markey told Carr the X post “demonstrated your continued effort to turn the FCC into Trump’s personal speech police.” Although “you have attempted to justify this blatant attempt to muzzle the free press by citing broadcasters’ obligation to act in the public interest, this public interest standard does not give the FCC a blank license to censor speech the President dislikes. The public interest standard was never conceived as a mechanism by which the executive branch could dictate editorial content, let alone enforce the President’s preferred narrative about a war he is waging.”

Carr’s “Saturday post is not an aberration,” Markey said. “It is the latest and most dangerous step in a sustained campaign to use the FCC’s licensing authority as a weapon against broadcasters,” most famously the chairman’s September comments against ABC and parent Disney, which were widely perceived as causing the network’s since-reversed decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air. “In each of these actions, you threatened regulatory consequence to pressure a specific broadcaster over specific editorial decision-making that displeased” Trump, Markey said. “Your Saturday post follows that same logic but extends it to the coverage of an active military conflict, where the chilling effect on journalists and the damage to the public’s right to know are most severe.”

Markey’s comments followed on a litany of similar condemnations from FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez and several other Democratic lawmakers. “The FCC can issue threats all day long, but it is powerless to carry them out,” Gomez said Sunday. “Such threats violate the First Amendment and will go nowhere. Broadcasters should continue covering the news, fiercely and independently, without fear of government pressure.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., drew a swift response from Carr over her Criticism of his earlier comments. “Constitutional law 101: it’s illegal for the government to censor free speech it just doesn’t like about Trump’s Iran war,” Warren said. “This threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook.”

Carr responded by quoting from the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the 1969 Red Lion Broadcasting case upholding the fairness doctrine. “Constitutional law 101: ‘No one has a First Amendment right to a license or to monopolize a radio frequency; to deny a station license because ‘the public interest’ requires it ‘is not a denial of free speech,’” Carr said.

NTIA: Guidance on BEAD Non-Deployment Funds Not Coming Next Week, as Expected

NTIA said Friday that guidance on the allowable uses of about $21 billion in BEAD non-deployment funds won't be coming next week, as was widely expected. Citing recent listening sessions in which the agency got feedback on the topic, NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said it's "taking additional time to review the comments and finalize our approach to ensure these funds are spent as efficiently and responsibly as possible. American taxpayers work hard for their money and deserve nothing less from this Administration." She didn't give an expected date for the BEAD guidance to be issued.

FCC Approves Charter/Cox Deal

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved the $34.5 billion Charter/Cox deal Friday, one day after Charter told the agency that it had ended its diversity, equity and inclusion policies and committed to onshoring jobs. “This deal means that jobs are coming back to America that had been shipped overseas. It means that modern, high-speed networks will get built out in more communities across rural America,” said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a news release. “And it means that customers will get access to lower priced plans. On top of this, the deal enshrines protections against DEI discrimination.”

Charter has committed to onshoring all the job functions currently handled offshore by Cox within 18 months and giving all employees “Invest in America” Trump accounts, the release said. The deal gives Charter Cox’s residential cable, commercial fiber and managed IT and cloud businesses and makes it the largest residential ISP in the U.S. The new company will take the Cox name but use the brand name Spectrum for the consumer market, the release said.

FCC Media Bureau: Late-Night and Daytime Talk Shows Not Exempt From Equal-Time Rule

The FCC Media Bureau said Wednesday it so far hasn't seen any evidence that the interview portions of any late-night or daytime TV talk show presently on air would qualify for the bona fide news exemption from the equal opportunity rule, which mandates that political candidates be given equal time on non-news broadcast programming. The agency issued new guidance saying that partisan-motivated programming wouldn't qualify for such an exemption under long-standing FCC precedent.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said last fall that the agency would look into whether some talk shows, such as The View, qualify for the news exemption to the equal opportunity rules.

In a statement Wednesday, Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez, who has frequently criticized the FCC's approach to oversight of broadcast TV content, said the guidance "does not change the law, but it does represent an escalation in this FCC’s ongoing campaign to censor and control speech." The agency "has not adopted any new regulation, interpretation, or Commission-level policy altering the long-standing news exemption or equal time framework. Broadcasters should not feel pressured to water down, sanitize, or avoid critical coverage out of fear of regulatory retaliation. Broadcast stations have a constitutional right to carry newsworthy content, even when that content is critical of those in power."

SCOTUS to Hear FCC Data Case That Led to Circuit Split

The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will hear argument on a circuit split over fines that the FCC imposed on AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile for violating the agency's data privacy rules (see 2512150027). The U.S. government, CTIA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce agreed in filings at the court last month that justices should hear the case. The court made the decision during a conference Friday (see 2512170019).