ACA International raised concerns about the FCC’s onshoring NPRM, which commissioners approved 3-0 in March (see 2603260046), in early comments filed last week in docket 26-52. The FCC previously extended the deadline for comments until June 2 (see 2605220034).
The FCC should dismiss or deny the application for review against Nexstar's purchase of Tegna because its arguments don’t satisfy any of the factors required to reverse the merger order, Nexstar said in an opposition filing posted Tuesday in docket 25-331. Separately, Nexstar also told a California federal court that it has been unable to reach an agreement with DirecTV and state attorneys general on relaxing the terms of the temporary restraining order (TRO) currently blocking the deal.
Nexstar blasted efforts by DirecTV and state attorneys general to secure a restraining order to block its merger with Tegna (see 2603200051), while former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly filed an amicus brief backing the groups that are challenging the deal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also weighed in against the FCC Media Bureau’s approval of the deal.
The FCC appears poised to approve an NPRM on Thursday seeking comment about rules aimed at forcing regulated companies to return more customer call center workers to the U.S., a move it says is consistent with the Trump administration’s “America First” push. The extent of FCC authority to make that happen is questionable, industry officials said ahead of the meeting.
FCC approval of Nexstar’s proposed $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna would violate the law, lead to nationwide TV blackouts, increase ad and retrans prices, damage local journalism and cause a wave of anticompetitive media consolidation, said petitions to deny the deal filed in docket 25-331 by Wednesday’s deadline.
NTIA conditioning any state receiving BEAD funds on not imposing rate regulation or net neutrality-like rules on a BEAD subgrantee or on not regulating AI is of "dubious legality," New Street Research's Blair Levin said Wednesday. He told us much the same earlier this week (see 2511250076). Levin said there have been numerous cases where courts have held that the president can't condition the grant of funds appropriated by Congress in ways that coerce the states. The major questions doctrine and its limit on executive power also could be a route to challenging the conditions, he said. States "would have a material chance of overturning" those executive actions. NTIA head Arielle Roth said last month that the agency was telling states they can't put rate regulation and state-level net neutrality rules on BEAD-funded projects (see 2510280051).
Nexstar’s profitability and plans to acquire Tegna undercut broadcaster arguments for doing away with the national ownership cap, said MVPDs, civil rights groups, Newsmax and others in comment filings in docket 17-318. Replies were due Friday.
The Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to throw out an appeal of last year’s FCC order giving the FirstNet Authority, and indirectly AT&T, control of the 4.9 GHz band through a nationwide license (see 2410220027). The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI), which leads the appeal, fired back, saying a challenge by PSSA also should be tossed.
Broadcasters called for the FCC to save their industry by immediately eliminating the national TV ownership cap in comments filed in docket 17-318 by Monday’s deadline. Meanwhile, MVPD groups, labor unions, public interest groups and conservative entities Newsmax and the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) disputed the FCC’s authority to alter the cap and said doing so would hurt localism, retransmission consent rates and journalism.
Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Trump v. CASA limiting nationwide injunctions doesn’t directly affect the judiciary’s power to set aside national regulations from federal agencies like the FCC, but it could prompt future challenges to that authority, according to attorneys and academics.