A Maine cable pro-rating bill cleared the Senate by a 29-0 margin Thursday after the House overwhelmingly passed LD-2031 earlier last week (see 2003110020). If signed by Gov. Janet Mills (D), cable companies would be required to pro-rate canceling customers’ final bills. Friday, NCTA declined comment; Mills' office didn’t comment.
Apple's apparent interest in satellites might be for rural broadband delivery, but other possible options include Apple-branded broadband for connectivity for Apple products, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Thursday. It also could be thinking of using it for cellphone communications, letting Apple "un-tether from cellular companies," or for satellite-to-car smart car applications. The company didn't comment.
FCC online systems can go slow or even crash on big filing deadline days, and the must-carry/retransmission deadline "is inflexible," so upload whatever TV consent elections information is required to be filed with the agency at least a week in advance of each deadline, Fletcher Heald broadcast lawyer Peter Tannenwald blogged Tuesday. He said the new, all-electronic system for notifying MVPDs of must-carry or retransmission status promises to be cheaper and simpler than the paper system, but every broadcaster and MVPD will have to upload some information this year by July 31 or Oct. 1 deadlines to preserve their legal rights.
Streaming service VidAngel filed a Chapter 11 reorganization plan with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Salt Lake City that would see Hollywood studio plaintiffs that sued it for Copyright Act and Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations paid the full $62.4 million verdict (see 1906180003), it said Thursday. Company bankruptcy trustee George Hofmann said in a statement that the verdict "initially seemed insurmountable," but VidAngel's business growth makes paying the judgment in full feasible. "I look forward to the court confirming a plan so that VidAngel can emerge from bankruptcy, pay its debts and focus on growing," he said. In an accompanying disclosure statement (in Pacer), Hofmann said he intends to appeal the verdict to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after post-trial motions are fully decided. The Parents TV Council said VidAngel is "demonstrat[ing] its commitment to conducting its content filtering business honorably and within the expressed intent of Congress as documented in the Family Movie Act of 2005." PTC said Friday that Congress should, through an update to the act, "make it unmistakably clear to the courts, and to Hollywood, that consumers have free speech rights to filter out explicit streaming content that is pouring into their homes." The group criticized Disney, which was part of studios' 2019 motion (in Pacer) to convert the bankruptcy to Chapter 7 liquidation. “Disney lawyers are fighting against collecting the very financial judgment that they themselves secured, in order to drive a dagger through the heart of filtering technology once and for all. We hope the courts see through Disney’s smokescreen," PTC said. The company didn't comment now.
April 11 is the deadline for the next biannual registration with the FCC of U.S.-based foreign media outlets as required under the McCain National Defense Authorization Act (see 1809050009), said a Media Bureau public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest.
Hearst TV asked that its 2015 retransmission-without-authorization complaint against Florida Cable be dismissed, so the FCC Media Bureau ordered its dismissal with prejudice and the proceeding terminated. That's per Tuesday's Daily Digest.
Antitrust authorities won't challenge Spotify’s acquisition of the Bill Simmons Media Group, said a Monday FTC notice released Tuesday. Spotify agreed last month to acquire Simmons’ The Ringer (see 2002050023), a website, podcast network and scripted and non-scripted video production house delivering sports, pop culture, politics and tech content.
Actions by the TV Oversight Monitoring Board after a critical FCC report aren’t enough to address the board’s failings, said Parents Television Council President Tim Winter in an interview Monday. TVOMB’s actions, which include announcing plans to implement spot checks of content and issuing its first “annual report” in January, are “only to get federal regulators off their back, so they can say they did something,” Winter said. Since the board is controlled by the programming industry and serves as its own oversight, it can't be effective, Winter said. “The TVOMB had more than eight months to implement meaningful reforms that would demonstrate to parents the Board’s commitment to improving the ratings system and its oversight,” Winter wrote TVOMB. “If TVOMB does not see a problem, they are unlikely to find remedies." Winter wants Congress and the FCC to disband the board and create a more effective system. The spot checks, changes to the organization’s website, and the annual report were among FCC recommendations to Congress (see 1905160085). “The Monitoring Board took this feedback extremely seriously,” it said in January. TVOMB and its current chairman, NCTA President Michael Powell, didn’t comment now.
Public broadcasters will pay an annual $800,000 license fee for website performances, the Copyright Royalty Board said Friday in a final rule on digital performances of sound recordings and associated ephemeral recordings. Additional payments might be required, CRB said. Effective Jan. 1, the rule applies through Dec. 31, 2025. The total music aggregate tuning hours start at 360 million in 2021 and increase 10 million each subsequent year through 2025.
Litigation on alleged copyright violation of a work can still go ahead even if the Copyright Office refused the application to register the work, but the agency must be notified about the suit, Assistant General Counsel Jordana Rubel blogged Thursday. Starting May 26, those complaints can be emailed to 411notices@copyright.gov instead of sending a paper copy through the mail, she said. Complaint copies also must be sent to the U.S. attorney for the district where the court is located and DOJ, she said. CO notification allows it to decide if it wants to participate in the suit and explain to the court why it didn't believe the work was copyrightable, she said.