Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and two other former commissioners joined 18 officials from public interest and civil liberties groups Friday to urge FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to publicly condemn President Donald Trump’s recent tweets and comments in which he threatened to challenge NBC licenses over the network's reporting on his administration's activities. Congressional Democrats condemned Trump’s comments about the licenses as a potential threat to the freedom of the press. Top House Commerce Democrats are asking Pai and other FCC commissioners to “disavow” Trump’s comments during a committee hearing (see 1710110075 and 1710120028). “We’re writing to urge you to uphold the First Amendment and to publicly refuse to entertain any broadcast-license challenges on the basis of the president’s disapproval of a network’s news coverage,” said Wheeler and other advocates in a letter to Pai. “Coming from a president who has repeatedly referred to the news media as the ‘enemy of the American people,’ these tweets continue a disturbing pattern in this administration to undercut vital press freedoms.” The threats “are what you would expect to hear in a dictatorship, not a democracy, and they must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.” Others who signed the letter include former Commissioners Michael Copps and Gloria Tristani, Free Press President Craig Aaron and National Hispanic Media Coalition President Alex Nogales. The FCC didn’t comment. Wheeler separately criticized Pai and Republican commissioners Brendan Carr and Michael O’Rielly in a Brookings Institution blog post for their “silence” on Trump’s tweets. “Normally, they will tweet at the drop of a hat,” Wheeler said. “Have they lost their Twitter handles?” The GOP commissioners’ lack of comment means they “have joined in the president’s strategy to get into the head of every television station news editor and station manager in the country,” Wheeler said. “If, because the FCC failed to make clear that the government can’t bully them, even one broadcaster thinks twice about a story and its effect on their license, then the Constitution has been abridged and the FCC is complicit.”

Premium sports programming could move from broadcast and cable TV to the internet within five years, S&P Global Ratings reported Friday: Internet companies will “eventually gain production experience, develop a more stable streaming platform, and win broadcast contracts from a premium sports league," said analyst Naveen Sarma. NFL's Thursday Night Football TV broadcast contract is the only premium sports contract up for renewal before 2021, said S&P, which doesn’t believe the league will award that package to an internet company when it expires at the end of the 2017-2018 season. Amazon, Facebook, Google and Twitter “could offer substantially more money than the TV networks,” but S&P doesn’t believe the NFL is ready. The report cited Bob Bowman, CEO of MLB Advanced Media, saying its BAMTech streaming platform, viewed by the industry as the most advanced livestreaming platform, can stream high-quality video to fewer than 15 million viewers simultaneously. S&P believes internet companies could solve this technological limitation by 2021, when MLB and NFL Monday Night Football TV broadcast contracts come up for renewal. The latter could be an “inflection point” for internet companies to be considered legitimate competitors for TV sports, said the report. Current Monday Night Football broadcast rights owner ESPN pays a higher per game price than NBC, CBS and Fox do for NFL broadcast contracts, with the largest audience ratings declines of those partners over the past two seasons, S&P said.

The FCC OK’d more long-form applications for 600 MHz licenses bought in the incentive auction, said a public notice Thursday. Approved licensees include Farmers Telephone Cooperative, Omega Wireless and Mach FM. Petitions to deny the applications must be filed by Oct. 23, oppositions Oct. 30, replies Nov. 6.

The FCC granted eight requests for special temporary authority for licensees in Puerto Rico since Wednesday, said a tweet Thursday from Matthew Berry, chief of staff to Chairman Ajit Pai. “In the last 24 hours, the FCC has granted 8 STAs to carriers to help reestablish communications in Puerto Rico.” The FCC and Public Safety Bureau didn’t comment.

The House Communications Subcommittee all but formally announced Friday it's planning an Oct. 25 FCC oversight hearing, publicly releasing invitations to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the other four commissioners. The subcommittee sought confirmation from commissioners by Friday. The hearing is to begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. House Communications sent out the invitations amid calls from top House Commerce Committee Democrats for a hearing at which they could pressure the FCC commissioners to “disavow” President Donald Trump's recent tweets and comments in which he threatened to challenge NBC licenses over the network's reporting on his administration's activities. But a House Commerce GOP aide told us planning for the FCC oversight hearing predated the Democrats' request by “several weeks.” Trump's comments were seen as a threat to the freedom of the news media but unlikely to lead to any action (see 1710110075). Trump doubled down Wednesday, tweeting that TV network news coverage “has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!” Trump's comments “alone may already be chilling free-speech across the country,” said Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., Thursday: “That is why we and others have called on” Pai to disavow Trump's comments and to pledge not to follow through on threats to broadcasters' licenses. “Despite our calls, [Pai] has refused to say if he agrees” with Trump, the Democratic lawmakers said. “We therefore ask for a hearing as soon as possible with all five FCC Commissioners so that they can publicly and under oath commit that they will not threaten broadcasters or their licenses because of the content of their reporting. Every day that goes by without comment from the FCC Chairman is a continued threat to the First Amendment.” Trump's additional comments on challenging broadcasters' licenses drew criticism from other lawmakers, including Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. “Words spoken” by the president “matter,” Sasse said: “Are you tonight recanting of the oath you took” at the Jan. 20 inauguration “to preserve, protect, and defend the First Amendment?” The FCC didn't comment.

The full FCC unanimously approved a $404,166 fine for a New York City man whose broadcasts on an unlicensed radio transmitter interfered with New York Police Department communications, said a forfeiture order released Wednesday. April-August 2016, Jay Peralta broadcast threatening messages and fake alerts to the NYPD, including false bomb threats and false officer-in-distress calls, said a release. He acknowledged in a written statement that the NYPD provided to the FCC that he made nine such calls, the release said, and he also is facing criminal charges. Peralta didn’t respond to the FCC’s April notice of apparent liability (see 1704140052).

The FCC resumed the 180-day shot clock on CenturyLink's $34 billion buy of Level 3. The clock restarted Friday after the FCC completed its review of the applicants’ supplemental materials. The FCC counted that day as 170, Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith said in a Tuesday letter in docket 16-403. Wednesday was Day 175, said the webpage for the transaction. The California Public Utilities Commission -- the last state OK needed -- plans to vote on the deal at its Thursday meeting (see 1710030021). DOJ OK'd the deal last week, and commission OK is expected. “We’re focused on meeting our target transaction closing date of mid-to-late October," a CenturyLink spokeswoman said.

FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny joined FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in voicing concern about ringless voicemail potentially being exempt from anti-robocalling rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. "A new way to unleash a scourge of unwanted intrusions via #robocall. @JRosenworcel I think this is a terrible idea," tweeted McSweeny Tuesday. Rosenworcel Monday tweeted: "Hello, anybody home? Anybody who thinks ringless voicemail is a good idea? How is this not a new #robocall nightmare?" A Rosenworcel aide said even though petitioners withdrew a call for the FCC to declare ringless voicemail isn't subject to TCPA regulation, the commission could say that for purposes of its TCPA anti-robocalling rules, the service is a call. An FTC spokeswoman didn't comment.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said digital literacy and affordability are vital to efforts to bridge the digital divide. She supported efforts to remove regulatory barriers to broadband deployment, but said rolling out fiber to homes "is not the same as making service available to the residents" if they can't afford it or use it. "What if they do not have a computer? And what if they do not understand the relevance of broadband to their lives," she said in remarks to the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit in Missoula Monday. "Too often, we declare 'mission accomplished' when we’ve connected a home that has been forever without, but I challenge you to take a more nuanced view. We should only claim victory, when a consumer is meaningfully using their connectivity, to take advantage of the economic, educational, and healthcare opportunities, it affords. ... In short, we must fight against the perpetual and persistent issues surrounding connectivity inequality. Do you think that those in rural America should be relegated to second-class broadband? I don’t. Nor do I believe, that the urban poor should be digitally redlined."

The best rule for regulation is the digital age is “less is more,” FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a speech Tuesday to the International Institute of Communications’ International Regulators Forum in Brussels. On wireless and other issues, the FCC needs to stop protecting against hypothetical harms, O’Rielly said. “The FCC has many ex ante rules comprised of technical rules and construction metrics for licensees,” he said. “These appropriately promote spectral efficiency, interference free services, deployment and certainty for our licensees. However, the FCC does maintain a considerable number of old rules that can, and should, be eliminated because of competition, especially as over the top services experience greater maturity.” O’Rielly cited the general conduct standard in the 2015 net neutrality order, calling it “a vague rule that empowered the Commission’s enforcement personnel to saunter around issuing penalties and stop orders against any practice or service it deems harmful to the Internet.” The FCC posted the remarks.