Comments on a recent FCC NPRM requiring disclosure when generative AI is used when creating political advertisements are due Sept. 4 in docket 24-211, a public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest said (see 2407250046). Replies are due Sept. 19.

NAB and the News Media Alliance praised the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from a Russian prison Thursday. Russian authorities arrested Gershkovich on espionage charges in March 2023 and convicted him in a trial that the U.S. government condemned. “Evan was wrongfully detained for simply doing his job: reporting the news,” NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said. “This situation serves as a stark reminder of the importance of journalism and the First Amendment. No journalist should face violence, fear, intimidation or detainment for their commitment to keeping the public informed.” NMA CEO Danielle Coffey said: “We are thrilled at the news of Evan Gershkovich being released and look forward to his imminent reunion with his family, friends, and colleagues ... . We are deeply appreciative of President [Joe] Biden and the administration’s tireless efforts to secure his release and their dedication to protecting journalists and the freedom of the press.”

Warner Bros. Discovery's lawsuit against the NBA faces long odds under New York state case law, LightShed Partners blogged Tuesday. It said USA Network's failed suit in 2000 against World Wrestling Federation Entertainment "feels very relevant" to WBD's recent suit against the NBA. USA sued when WWF ended its carriage deal and chose Viacom. LightShed said WBD's litigation, filed last week with the New York Supreme Court in New York County, alleges the NBA is violating WBD's contractual right to match any third-party offer for future NBA telecast carriage. The NBA announced carriage deals with Amazon, Comcast's NBCUniversal and Disney last week. LightShed said the NBA apparently rejected the WBD matching offer because it didn't meet all the material terms of the Amazon arrangement. Amazon proposed streaming games via Prime Video. WBD's Turner offered a combination of linear distribution on TNT and the Max streaming service, the blog post said. Similarly, LightShed said the WWF's decision to choose Viacom's CBS instead of USA was based on USA's failure to match every material term tied to WWF media rights.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign released a statement Wednesday warning the “media” that “biased and rude treatment” of Trump will “backfire massively” and will be its "undoing." The statement came after ABC News reporter Rachel Scott interviewed Trump at a National Association of Black Journalists conference, where she began by asking Trump why Black voters should trust him in light of his birther attacks against President Barack Obama, meetings with white supremacists and other incidents and comments. Trump berated Scott at length for the question, and the Trump campaign later called her behavior “unacceptable": “You would think that the media would have learned something from their repeat episodes of fake outrage ever since President Trump first came down the escalator in 2015, but some just refuse to ‘get it,’” said the news release. “This will be their undoing in 2024." Trump has repeatedly called for the FCC to take action against news outlets over their reporting, both as president and as a candidate (see 2401170050).

The U.S. District Court that dismissed DirecTV's antitrust claims against Nexstar and its Mission Broadcasting and White Knight sidecars (see 2403220061) misunderstood the harms of price fixing, the Justice Department said. In an amicus brief filed Wednesday with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (docket 24-981), DOJ said the lower court's "unduly narrow understanding" of the potential anticompetitive effects from price fixing conspiracies resulted in the court misunderstanding the harms to DirecTV. Even if the lower court were correct that DirecTV's claims of damages for lost subscribers were too speculative, the same wouldn't necessarily be true for its argument for a potential injunction, Justice said. DOJ urged the 2nd Circuit to remand the case to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, so the lower court can "consider application of the antitrust-standing requirements on a full and proper understanding of the harms caused by price-fixing conspiracies."

Spotify is unveiling a parental guide and has joined the Tech Coalition, with the aim of better protecting young users, Spotify platform integrity head Marcelina Siota blogged Friday. She said the parental guide "can help explain how parents can curate the experience that’s right for their families." The parental guide suggests steps such as skipping explicit content or controlling playback of certain artists and gives directions on how to do so.

DirecTV's use of early termination fees allows the company to let subscribers pay over time for the equipment necessary to receive satellite TV service and associated installation costs, company representatives told multiple 10th-floor FCC offices, according to a docket 23-405 filing Friday. Those equipment and installation costs can run $500 to $700 per subscriber, DirecTV said. Without ETFs, DirecTV might have to require those costs be paid upfront, raise monthly prices or both, the company said. Pointing to NCTA arguments for focusing solely on "unjust or unreasonable" ETFs (see 2406200031), DirecTV said ETFs that let consumers pay for upfront costs over time "should be considered at least presumptively just and reasonable." DirecTV said it spoke with the offices of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr, Nathan Simington and Anna Gomez.

That so many public affairs programmers have departed since the last time the FCC examined the challenges independent programmers face speaks to the difficulty of getting linear carriage in a market where big programming conglomerates dominate, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy wrote Tuesday in docket 24-115. In addition, the loss also points to the challenge traditional multichannel video programming distributors face in competing with unregulated virtual MVPDs, he wrote. Gone are programmers such as One America News, TheBlaze and Black News Channel, Ruddy noted. Further regulating MVPDs while giving "a regulatory free pass" to vMVPDs will only increase the imbalance of that competition, meaning traditional MVPDs have even fewer resources to put toward indie programmers, Ruddy wrote. Pointing to the FCC's proposed ban on most-favored-nation contract terms, he argued for a focus on unconditional MFNs. Conditional MFNs entitle an MVPD to certain contractual rights that a programmer has offered another MVPD, as long as the first MVPD also accepts related terms and conditions contained in the agreement with the latter MVPD. Unconditional MFNs aren't obligated to also accept the related terms and conditions.

Five people behind the Jetflicks streaming pirate site face prison after their conviction last week following a trial before a federal court in Nevada, DOJ said. A jury found defendants Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi and Peter Huber guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, Justice said. Moreover, the jury found Dallmann also guilty of two counts of money laundering by concealment and three counts of misdemeanor criminal copyright infringement. Dallmann faces up to 48 years in prison, while the other four could receive as much as five years each. It said a sentencing date has not yet been set. The indictment said Dallmann was the primary operator of the site, which trawled other pirate sites for illegal copies of TV episodes that Jetflicks then downloaded and hosted on its servers. The others helped Dallmann with management, customer service and billing operations and technical aspects, including coding, it said.

Pointing to the FCC's pending pay-TV early termination fee (ETF) proceeding, EchoStar representatives urged that the agency instead adopt the billing practices in Dish Network's 2009 agreement with 46 state attorneys general. That approach would ensure consumers are fully educated about the terms of any pay-TV plan, Dish parent EchoStar representatives told FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Sauer, according to a docket 23-405 filing Tuesday. EchoStar said the 2009 measure covers such turf as requiring that ads promoting an ETF plan must conspicuously disclose minimum terms of agreement. A split FCC 3-2 adopted the ETF NPRM in December (see 2312050007). EchoStar said the FCC's proposed mandatory rebates in the event of retransmission consent-related programming blackouts would worsen the retrans negotiating power imbalance with broadcasters that spurs blackouts. Instead, the agency should revise the retrans consent regime, EchoStar said. The blackout rebate NPRM also received a 3-2 approval (see 2401100026).