■ Arkansas First to Sign a BEAD Contract with Amazon Leo

■ Louisiana Inks BEAD Grant Agreement with SpaceX’s Starlink

■ FCC Looking at Action in 23 States That Regulate Pole Attachments

■ California Democrat Boerner Hits Pause on CPUC Constitutional Amendment

■ Great Plains Seeks FCC Approval to Acquire Fastwyre’s Nebraska Assets

■ Hearst TV Executive Nick Radziul Reelected Chair of NAB’s TV Board

■ CEI Analyst Praises NTIA for Dropping Biden’s BEAD Fiber Preference

■ Rep. Hageman (R-Wyo.) Sponsors Bill Banning FCC Reliance on ‘Junk Science’

■ State Dept. and Starlink Agree to Boost Global Disaster Response

■ Vice President JD Vance to Appear on ABC’s ‘The View’

CPUC: California regulators have approved more than $18.2 million for broadband construction, planning, and digital equity programs, advancing efforts to expand high‑speed Internet access statewide. The California Public Utilities Commission said June 11 the package included up to $14.7 million from the California Advanced Services Fund for four Plumas‑Sierra Telecommunications projects that will deliver fiber service to 460 unserved homes in Lassen, Plumas, and Sierra counties. The award amounts to roughly $32,000 per location in state support. In one project area – Herlong Flats-East Milford Project (Lassen County) – the CPUC plans to spend $3.9 million to connect 72 unserved locations at a per-location cost of $54,100. (More after paywall)

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■ Seniors Group Upset Kansas GOP AG Kris Kobach Is Fighting Nexstar-TEGNA Merger

■ GCI Announcing Alaska Partnership with Starlink on Bonded Gateways

■ KKR, Warburg Pincus Looking to Sell Fiber Assets in the U.K.

■ AT&T Offering iPad Users a $3 Day Pass For Unlimited Wireless Data

■ Broadcasters Seek Passage of the NO FAKES Act to Curb AI Abuse

■ Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to DOJ: Is CCP Funding Anti-Data Center Movement in U.S.?

■ Madison Communications Dominates Broadband Skills Challenge

■ Mediacom Milestone: 2 Gbps Speeds Available to All 3.1 Million Homes

Merger: Nexstar Media Group is digging in for a long fight if need be to salvage its $6.2 billion merger with TEGNA, Nexstar President and COO Michael Biard said in a June 9 interview with Policyband. Biard, on a visit to Washington, D.C., vowed the company is “absolutely” committed to seeing the deal through despite a federal judge’s April 17 preliminary injunction and potentially many more months of courtroom struggle.

“Absolutely,” Biard said when asked whether Nexstar is in the battle for the long haul. “Not to say that we won’t engage with an opportunity to end it if that were to come around in a reasonable way. But absolutely, we are committed.” (More after paywall)

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■ Wire 3 Summer Promotion Includes 5 Gbps for $60 a Month, Plus Free YouTube TV for Three Months

■ Astound Explains Decision to Exit BEAD in Texas

■ AT&T CFO: No AT&T Fiber Network Means No AI, ‘Plain and Simple’

■ GOP Sen. Hawley: Big Tech ‘Oligarchs’ Want People to ‘Absorb Their Externalities’

■ NCTA Gets Its Expedited Waiver Router from FCC

■ FCC’s Carr Gives China-Based ‘Bad Lab’ the Boot for Falsifying Test Data

■ Ookla: AI Outages Surged in early 2026, with Claude Accounting for 76%

■ Optimum Now Serves More Than 700,000 Mobile Lines

SBA: The head of the National Association of Broadcasters is calling on Congress to narrow the NFL’s antitrust exemption in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 rather than repeal a law that dates back to JFK’s New Frontier. NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt stakes out that position in testimony he is scheduled to deliver today (June 10) before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on The Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, according to a copy of his testimony reviewed by Policyband. Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez was added as a witness on June 9. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell declined to appear. “Broadcasters are not calling for the Sports Broadcasting Act to be eliminated. The Committee should, however, reaffirm that that the SBA applies to the leagues’ negotiations with media companies that will distribute games through broadcast television, not media companies that are going to lock away games behind a streaming paywall,” LeGeyt says. (More after paywall)

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■ Democratic Analyst Adonis Hoffman: Free TV Running Out of Time

■ Conservative Jon Schweppe: TV Ratings Update All about Transparency

■ U.K.’s BEAD-like Program Staggers Under Fiber ISP Debt Load

■ Corning in Major Fiber Deal with Amazon in North Carolina

■ Defying Critics, WRTV-ABC in Indianapolis Upgrades Main Studio

■ Executive Tom Sly Questions MVPD Status of Cable-Delivered IP Video

■ Ookla Report: 6 GHz Adoption Surging in North America

■ Silicondust USA Asks FCC to Ban Encryption (DRM) of NextGen TV Signals

■ Mom-and-Pop Nelsonville TV Cable in Ohio Selling to Charter

■ Former FBI Official Chris Hacker to Head Charter’s Corporate Security

■ People: John Lee Joins Computer & Communications Industry Association

■ People: Carolyn Mahoney Named Deputy Chief in the Satellite Programs and Policy Division of the FCC’s Space Bureau

TV Sports: NFL fans are losing access to games as more matchups move from traditional broadcast, cable, and satellite TV distribution to streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, a House Judiciary Committee report warns. But the report released June 8 really zeroed in on YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket for special scrutiny because of consumer alarm over the price after the first year. In an interim staff report on the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the committee under Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said the NFL’s claims of a “fan‑friendly” model don’t match reality, noting the average game now reaches just 39% of U.S. households. Data obtained by investigators shows more than 70% of former Sunday Ticket subscribers bought the package simply to watch their out‑of‑market team – and 70% canceled because it was too expensive. Under the SBA, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has an antitrust exemption to negotiate TV deals for all 32 teams in a package. (More after paywall)

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■ Nexstar–TEGNA Merger Creates GOP Split in Kansas

■ D.C. Circuit Not Required to Hear FCC Bureau’s Approval of Nexstar-TEGNA Merger, Nexstar Says; FCC Agrees

■ Carr, Markey Clash over LGBTQ+ TV Content Labels

■ Arkansas PBS Keeping PBS Affiliation after Donations Arrive

■ AT&T Pitches FCC’s Gomez on Copper Transition in California

■ House Bill Would Rely on HUD Grants to Defray Broadband Costs for Low-Income Families

■ New York’s Online Pole Attachment Complaint Portal Goes Live

■ House Judiciary Panel Posts Witness List for TV Sports Hearing

■ Reps. Latta, Carter Back Wi-Fi Bill Ahead of WRC in China

■ Liberty Capital CEO Ron Duncan Spends $1.4 Million on Non-Voting Shares

■ Neal Gladner Retiring as Executive Director of the Arkansas Broadcasters Association

Amazon: The FCC has given Amazon’s $10 billion satellite Internet network a conditional green light to keep launching. In a June 5 order, FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz granted Amazon Leo – the company’s low‑Earth‑orbit broadband project – a limited waiver allowing it to continue deploying its Gen1 constellation even though it will miss a July 30, 2026 deadline to have half its satellites in orbit. Amazon Leo has launched only 331 satellites so far and expects to have 700 deployed by July 30, 2026, a target unlikely to be met and far short of the 1,616 LEOs required by the agency. “Waiver serves the public interest by promoting a second large satellite broadband constellation. At this time, only one operator, SpaceX, is providing broadband to American consumers from low-Earth orbit. Amazon Leo’s service promises to be ‘groundbreaking,’ both in quality of service and affordability for consumers,” Schwarz said in his 10-page order. (More after paywall)

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■ Supreme Court Backs FCC’s Ability to Issue Big Fines

■ UBS: U.S. Broadband Market Remains ‘Highly Competitive’

■ NAB Releases TV Sports Ad Ahead of CEO LeGeyt’s House Testimony

■ U.K. Taxpayers Lose $134.2 Million Backing Fiber ‘Alt-Net’ Gigaclear

■ Weigel Broadcasting: ATSC 3.0 ‘Makes a Free Service Expensive’

■ Trusty Calls for Passage of House Bill Cracking Down on Copper Theft

■ Report: Criminal Attacks on Communications Networks Surged in 2025

■ Cable One’s Network Investment Hit $1 Billion over Past Three Years

■ Canada, Under U.S. Pressure, Calls Off Big Jump in ‘Netflix Tax’

■ FCC Sets July 6 Deadline to File Denial of Amazon-Globalstar Merger

E-Rate: In reviewing the $2.3 billion E-Rate program, the FCC is going to look at devices that students own but do not include the sames content filters installed on school-owned devises. During a June 4 interview on Fox News channel, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr indicated that he was concerned about such a loophole. “There are school districts that have read our law as only requiring them to put Internet safety procedures in place on the devices that the school owns,” Carr told Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt. “If you bring your own device to a network supported by this program, you don’t necessarily have any filters on where you can go. Kids are ultimately finding pornography, and that’s a problem.” (More after paywall)

X Post of the Day 1.0

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■ Carr Launches Sweeping Review of $2.3 Billion E-Rate Program

■ Cruz, Hudson Release Videos Honoring Free State Foundation’s 20th Anniversary

■ Oppenheimer Analyst Downgrades AT&T over Starlink Competition

■ NFL Commissioner Goodell Punts on June 10 House Judiciary Committee Hearing

■ NCTA: FCC Dialing Wrong Number, Legally, on Call Center Regulations

■ AT&T Rolls Out New Fiber Plans, Including 300 Mbps for $50 a Month

■ Charter, Already with a 100% Domestic Call Center Profile, Asks FCC for Reporting Waiver If Necessary

■ Industry Groups Warn White House of Worsening Memory Chip Shortage

■ CAR’s Daniel Suhr Backs Scripps-INYO TV Station Transaction

■ Free State: USF Tax at 42.3% ‘Akin to Breaking the Sound Barrier’

■ NTIA Reacts to News of $11.4 billion in BEAD Matching Funds by ISPs

■ Pope Leo XIV Names EWTN News CEO to Lead Vatican Communications

■ Did Scripps’ Lawyers Get Their Math Right on the 39% Cap?

Permitting: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr wants state and local governments to move faster on broadband permits – and he’s proposing a 120‑day deadline to force the issue. Carr unveiled June 3 a plan to streamline approvals for high‑speed wireline infrastructure, arguing that excessive fees and years-long reviews are blocking broadband builds and violating Section 253 of the Communications Act. Providers, he said, are abandoning projects or scaling them back because of mounting costs and delays. “Households and businesses won’t get the modern services they need if deployment projects are tied up in excessive red tape,” Carr said, adding that broadband builders face “excessive fees and unnecessary delays.” (More after paywall)

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■ NCTA Seeks Expedited Waiver from FCC for Limited Hardware Changes to Foreign‑Made Routers

■ CTA Continues to Resist ATSC 3.0 Tuner Mandate

■ Scripps Defends TV Deal Exceeding 39% Cap by 1.29 Percentage Points

■ ATVA Blasts Scripps for Blacking Out 54 Stations on DIRECTV

■ NAB Unveils Terrestrial GPS Entity Called Merkhet Solutions

■ NTCA, NRECA Fighting Full SSN Verification for Lifeline Entry

■ Why Did Sinclair Leave Out an Actual NextGen TV Set from Columbus Campaign?

■ Newsmax with a Surprise: International Business is Surging

■ Bipartisan Bill Would Protect Old Email from Warrantless Access

■ Carr Hails Launch of AWS‑3 Auction after Long Pause

■ Sen. Luján (D-N.M.) Cruises to Victory in Party Primary

■ People: Gigapower Names Jonathan Mullen as Chief Administrative Officer

ACP: A Pennsylvania man from Lancaster County has admitted stealing more than $741,000 from a federal pandemic broadband program created by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2001. U.S. Attorney David Metcalf announced that Krandon Wenger, 25, of Lititz, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty on June 2 before U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Leeson Jr. to two counts of wire fraud, arising from an Affordable Connectivity Program fraud scheme in which he defrauded the government of more than $741,000. (More after paywall)

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■ Cogeco Takes Massive $1.2 Billion Impairment Charge Against U.S. ISP Breezeline

■ NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Asked to Testify Before House Panel

■ Analyst Supino to Starlink: Think about Buying AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile

■ Sen. Sanders: U.S. Should Own 50% of Major AI Companies

■ Insider Monkey: Charter Second-Most Oversold Stock in S&P 500

■ House Panel to Review Sweeping Digital Privacy Bill

■ U.S Ambassador Pete Hoekstra Wants Canada to Repeal Its Netflix Tax

■ Gigi Sohn: Ban Private Equity from Owning Majority of a Broadband ISP

■ Cliff Jones Named to Head FCC’s Laboratory Division

■ John Pascarelli Retires after Long Tenure at Mediacom

■ Witness List Emerges for June 4 Hearing on NextNav, PNT Topics

BEAD: A new study says the federal BEAD program is prompting far larger private‑sector broadband commitments than Congress ever required.

Researchers Alex Karras and Michael Santorelli of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School, in a report released today, said that BEAD has driven $30.6 billion in total broadband investment across 54 states and territories. Internet providers have pledged $11.4 billion in matching funds — 37% of project costs and well above the program’s 25% minimum. (More after paywall)

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■ FCC Awaits D.C. Circuit Ruling on Nexstar-TEGNA Merger Approval

■ Public Can File to Deny Disney TV Station License Renewals by June 29, 2026

■ FCC Space Bureau Chief: EchoStar Spectrum Sale Made U.S. Global Leader in Direct-to-Device Service

■ Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) Unveils Bill to Require FCC to Mandate Gender‑Identity TV Ratings

■ Christian TV Station Owner Fears License-Renewal Retaliation if Democrats Regain Control of FCC

■ Cable TV Operator Optimum Concerned about C-band Transition Costs

■ DOJ Backs FCC’s Carr on Tightening Lifeline Eligibility

■ NAB to Ninth Circuit: Playing Field Tilted Against TV Stations

■ DIRECTV Loses 54 Scripps Stations in 36 Markets in Retrans Battle

■ After Friday’s Launch, Amazon Leo Has 331 LEOs in Space

■ Tiny Yukon City with Fiber Broadband Shuts Down Cable TV System

Alaska: Anchorage-based GCI is confronting a growing list of subsea fiber failures as Alaska’s harsh environment continues to batter the state’s communications lifelines. Over the past two years, storms, ice scours and unexplained breaks have knocked out service from Sitka to the Aleutians to the North Slope, sometimes for months at a time. The longest disruption came in 2025, when a Quintillion cable north of Oliktok Point was severed by shifting sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, leaving enterprise customer GCI and North Slope communities with degraded service until late that year. (More after paywall)

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■ SpaceX Calls for Automatic Mobile Phone Unlocking within 180 Days

■ Great Plains Sees Need for Post-BEAD Funding for Rural ISPs

■ Coalition Mocks Anthropic’s Knowledge of Submarine‑Cable Security

■ NAB: Broadband ISPs, Big Tech Need to Help Fund the FCC’s Budget

■ NRB: LGBTQ-Related TV Ratings Meant to Inform Parents, Not Censor

■ New Street Research: Catching Up to SpaceX in the Space Race Won’t be Easy

■ GCI Sending Crew to Repair Subsea Fiber Damage in the Aleutians

■ CFTC Accuses Google Employee of Making $1.2 Million from Insider Trading on Polymarket

■ New Mexico Awards $300,000 in Planning Grants

FCC: The FCC issued a pointed warning to broadcasters May 28, reminding station owners that their exclusive use of public airwaves depends on meeting their traditional public interest commitments. In a Public Notice, the agency said “this Public Notice serves to remind broadcasters of their longstanding public interest obligations and further ensure that broadcasters are continuing to comply with the public interest obligations that underpin their licenses.” The FCC stressed that broadcasters receive government-granted spectrum access and “no broadcaster has a ‘right’ to use the public spectrum.” (More after paywall)

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■ Craig Moffett Praises Charter’s Old-School Approach to Video

■ Xfinity Shines in Opensignal’s New Broadband Performance Report

■ ProPublica Story Raises Questions about USF Spending in Alaska

■ FCC’s Trusty Reports on Visit to Nebraska with Sen. Fischer

■ Democratic Activist Urges Va. Gov. Spanberger to Deal with Pole Issues

■ Sen. Warren Has a Sweeping Tax Plan Aimed at Disruptive AI

■ NTCA: Retrans Fees Driving Rural MVPDs from the Market

■ DePauw University’s Jeffrey McCall Backs Carr in Battle with ABC’s The View

■ Mediacom Rolls Out 5-Gig Broadband to 500,000 Homes

■ Amazon Ready to Launch 29 LEOs from Florida Friday Evening

EPB: Chattanooga’s city‑owned broadband network is facing new scrutiny after the Phoenix Center said the city’s widely promoted job‑creation claims don’t hold up to evidence. In a report released Wednesday, Phoenix Center Chief Economist George S. Ford reviewed Chattanooga’s EPB [Electric Power Board] latest economic study – which asserted the fiber network created or saved more than 10,420 jobs over 15 years. Ford concluded the findings were unsupported. The EPB report, authored by University of Tennessee Finance Professor Bento Lobo and EPB Community Economist William Plank, has been central to the city’s narrative that its $390 million municipal network has delivered major economic gains. “Much of the Chattanooga municipal broadband network was, and in part continues to be, financed by U.S. taxpayers and EPB’s captive electric ratepayers,” Ford said. Lobo and Plank also concluded the broadband network had a $5.3 billion economic impact from 2011 to 2025. Ford said the claims collapsed under empirical review. “The job‑creation narrative surrounding EPB’s network is not an inference drawn from observed labor market data,” he wrote. (More after paywall)

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■ PCMag Unveils Top ISPs As Selected by Readers

■ Analyst Kampis Praises FCC for Raising LEO Power Levels

■ SiliconDust Keeps Fighting Encryption of NextGen TV Signals

■ Major TV Trade Groups Side Step Key TV Ratings Issues

■ Cogent Sells 10 Data Centers for $225 million in Cash

■ Ookla: Starlink’s European Speeds Surging Like in U.S

■ India-Based Trade Group to FCC: What Do You Mean by American Standard English?

■ Amazon Leo Pulled Out of Nebraska’s BEAD Program

■ People: Joe Molinaro Retiring as Executive Director of the Broadband Association of Arkansas

■ People: Lumen Promotes Melissa Mann, Jessica Taylor

LEO: American Airlines plans to bring Starlink’s high‑speed satellite service to more than 500 narrowbody jets starting in early 2027. The airline said on May 26 that the upgrade will deliver what it calls the fastest inflight Wi‑Fi available, using Starlink’s low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network to support streaming, gaming and video meetings. Starlink’s Aero Terminal, a phased array antenna, can provide multigigabit connectivity and up to 1 Gbps per antenna, according to American. United Airlines announced an agreement with Starlink on Sept. 13, 2024 and the first flight with service occurred on May 15, 2025. In February, Southwest Airlines said Starlink will be available on more than 300 aircraft by the end of 2026. American said the move was part of a broader effort to modernize the onboard experience across its narrowbody fleet. (More after paywall)

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■ Small Louisiana Community Keeps Wondering: Where’s Our Fiber?

■ SpaceX Starship Means More Space-Based Competition for Earth-Based ISPs

■ Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) Wants LGBTQ Added to TV Ratings System

■ FCC Asks Public Whether The View is a Bona Fide News Show

■ Seton Hall Economist Questions Effort to Block Nexstar-TEGNA Merger

■ MPA: FCC Can’t Regulate Online Video Services

■ CCIA: Staffers in Overseas Call Centers Know U.S. Culture

■ ProPublica Raises Questions about USF Spending in Alaska

■ People: Patrick Paolini Leaving FOX TV Stations to Run TEGNA for Nexstar

■ Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) Quit the Senate Race But She’s Still on the June 9 Primary Ballot

■ Canada’s FCC Triples Fees on Netflix and Disney

■ Rutgers Scholars: Cable News Channels Avoid Actual Debate

BEAD: Nebraska has reopened part of its BEAD bidding process after a few ISPs walked away from the state’s $45 million broadband deployment program. The Nebraska Broadband Office confirmed on May 22 that three ISPs declined to sign their subgrant contracts, citing changes to their business plans. State officials did not identify the providers, according to a report in the Nebraska Examiner. After weeks of questions, the office on Friday released the names of the seven companies that did sign, saying they will cover 88% of the roughly 14,000 BEAD‑eligible locations in the state. That still leaves about 1,700 locations still unserved. (More after paywall)

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Today’s Headlines

■ Sen. Marshall (R) Pressures TV Ratings Board to Add LGBTQ+ Content Labels

■ Free State Urges FCC to Take ‘Fresh Look’ at Video Marketplace

■ Cartesian: Bulk Broadband Billing Saves Consumers $5.6 Billion Annually

■ Chamber Hires Super Lawyers Jeff Wall, Morgan Ratner to Battle FCC on the Onshoring of Call Centers

■ AM Radio Bill Advances in the House within Transportation Bill

■ CFO: Charter Needs Time to Gauge Impact of Starlink

■ Spotlight PA Digs Deeper into NTIA’s BEAD Concerns about Pennsylvania’s Labor Laws

■ Malone’s GCI Liberty Changes Name to Liberty Capital Corp.

■ NCTA Documentaries Win Telly Awards

■ Alaska Sen. Sullivan (R) Scolds Etsy over Animal Fur Ban Policy

Junk Fees: A sweeping Illinois bill targeting ‘junk fees’ is headed to Gov. JB Pritzker’s (D) desk – but major communications providers won’t be bound by its new disclosure rules. The measure requires most businesses to advertise prices that include all mandatory fees. But it carves out broadband providers, cable operators, satellite TV companies, and telecom carriers, deeming them compliant if they follow existing federal pricing‑label regulations. Financial institutions and air carriers also received exemptions. (More after paywall)

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■ Nexstar Asks Ninth Circuit to Narrow Scope of TEGNA Merger Injunction

■ FCC Official: Eliminating $4.5 Billion High-Cost Fund Not at Top of Agenda

■ AT&T Ramps Up Effort to Retire Copper Plant in California

■ Carr Hopes to Address Prison Cell Phone Jamming This Year

■ FCC Has 180 Days to OK Shark Attack Mobile Alerts

■ Conservative Groups Press for LGBTQ+ TV Ratings

■ LPTV Owner Bridge News Questions FCC’s Motives in Early License Renewal

■ People: Carr Advisor Callie Coker Joins NCTA as VP and Associate General Counsel

■ NTCA to NTIA: BEAD-Funded ISPs Need to Show Their Homework Online

■ Barrasso Bill Would Speed Broadband Builds on Federal Land

■ Georgia AG Chris Carr Loses GOP Primary for Governor

BEAD: NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth isn’t playing “Wisconsin Nice” with that state’s broadband leadership, including retiring Gov. Tony Evers (D). NTIA is pushing back on Wisconsin’s recent claim that tens of thousands of homes will remain unserved as the state launches a new $60 million, state-funded Internet grant round designed to plug holes in its broadband map. In a press release on May 19, Evers said the spending was needed because of NTIA’s decision, engineered by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in June 2025, to abandon the Biden administration’s expensive fiber preference in favor of technological neutrality in the $42.45 billion BEAD program. (More after paywall)

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■ Broadband Prices Fells 6% in 2025, USTelecom Report Finds

■ Wisconsin Spending $60 Million to Plug Holes In BEAD Map

■ Analyst Concerned BEAD Might Fund Mobile Networks

■ Great Plains Buying Fastwyre Broadband’s Nebraska Operations

■ FTC Starts to Enforce TAKE IT DOWN Act

■ City-Owned Cable TV Closing in Murray, Ky., Moving to Streaming

■ Dozens in Upstate New York Lose Internet over Pole Dispute

■ CFTC Sues to Block Minnesota Law Making Kalshi a Felony

■ University of Houston Survey: 63% Oppose Data Center within One Mile from Home

■ Shentel Wraps Up $20 Million Broadband Build in Campbell County, Va.

■ WOW! Adding Fiber Homes in Greenville County, S.C.

■ People: CTIA Promotes Sarah Yi to VP of External Affairs

■ People: Lumos Names Scott Mispagel as CEO

■ QOTD: C Spire Workers All Wear the Same Shoes

FCC: DIRECTV and six cable trade groups are urging the FCC to reject Scripps’ bid to reacquire 23 TV stations, arguing the deal would push the company past a ownership cap set by Congress. The same coalition is battling the FCC’s decision by the Media Bureau to approve the Nexstar-TEGNA merger on March 19 with inclusion of a waiver from the cap. Scripps is seeking approval to buy TV licenses from INYO Broadcast Holdings and reclaim stations its ION subsidiary was required to divest in 2021. The move would give Scripps reach into 40.29% of U.S. TV households, even after applying the UHF discount — above the FCC’s 39% national cap. The deal “would give Scripps its first station in nine local markets, create new duopolies in four local markets, and (assuming approval of a separate transaction) create new triopolies in eight local markets,” DIRECTV counsel Michael Nilsson wrote in a May 18 filing with the FCC. (More after paywall)

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■ Carr: EchoStar Spectrum Sales a Big Turning Point

■ Verizon CEO: Dead Zones JV Enables ‘Common Set of Standards’

■ USTelecom Says USAC Lacks Telecom-Experienced Accountants

■ Free State Foundation: Congress Likely Needs to Deal with Prison Jamming

■ Charter Rolls Out ‘Ultra‑Low‑Latency Internet’ with L4S Technology

■ Concerned Women for America Wants LGBTQ+ TV Ratings

■ Fiber Broadband Assn. Urges Cable to Switch Jerseys

■ C Spire Offers Unlimited Mobile-Fiber Plan for $99/mo.

■ New Holland & Knight TMT Partner Clerked for Trump’s Sister

■ Denny Randolph, Jr. Named Fidium’s New Chief Financial Officer

Merger: Opponents of the proposed Nexstar‑TEGNA merger accused the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr of gaming the regulatory process to keep the transaction from reaching a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. In a May 18 brief, several state cable associations and Newsmax told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that the full FCC must vote on the deal soon, calling it the key procedural step needed to move the merger to judicial review. They urged the panel to “direct [the] FCC to act on the [Application for Review] within 14 days,” saying the agency is “not even willing to self‑impose an actual deadline.” The AFR refers to the appeal to the full FCC of the Media Bureau’s March 19 approval of the $6.2 billion merger. FCC lawyers told the D.C. Circuit on May 11 that the agency expected to vote on the AFR “this year,” urging the court to let the agency maintain control of its agenda and limited resources. “If FCC does not act on Petitioners’ AFR on a timeframe facilitating a decision by fall, the Court should stay the Media Bureau’s order “in order to preserve its prospective jurisdiction,” wrote attorney Paul Clement, counsel to the opponents and famous for taking down the Chevron Doctrine in the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision in 2024. (More after paywall)

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■ Charter, Cox Helping to Fund Free Internet for New York Homeless

■ Amazon Leo Triggers Job Boom along Florida’s Space Coast

■ Why Weren’t EchoStar’s Vendors Insured Against Hurricane Charlie (Ergen)?

■ ITIF Analyst Agrees with SpaceX on Sunsetting High-Cost Fund

■ Overriding a Veto, Oklahoma Criminalizes Online Gaming Apps

■ FCC Looking into E-Rate Fraud in Minnesota

■ Carol Mattey: USAC’s Financial Role Needs to Change

■ Optimum, Fourth-Largest Publicly Traded Wireline ISP, Now a Penny Stock

■ New Mexico First to Patch Hole Left by Defunct ACP, Leader Says

■ Starlink Residential Plans Going Up $5-$10 a Month

Prison: Two Republican lawmakers are urging the FCC to move quickly on rules allowing state prisons to block illegal cellphone use. In a May 13 letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee backed the agency’s proposal to authorize wireless jamming and other contraband‑interdiction technologies in correctional facilities – over the strong objections of wireless carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and the CTIA mobile trade group. “These tools are essential to addressing the serious public safety threat illegal cellphones pose behind bars,” Cotton and Kustoff wrote. The lawmakers said contraband phones enable inmates to orchestrate gang activity and crimes from inside prison walls. They praised the FCC’s progress toward a “clear regulatory framework” and urged it to finalize rules “without delay” to give state prisons the authority they need to protect staff, inmates and surrounding communities. (More after paywall)

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■ Independent Women Asks FCC for ‘TQ+’ Content Descriptor

■ Luján Bill Requires Broadband Refunds for Outages

■ Cable TV Pioneers Will Honor 22 in Diamond Jubilee Class of 2026

■ MAD Still Mad at Carr over Fox 29 TV License Fight

■ 1,641 Days Later, BEAD Connects First Customer

■ Newsmax Revenue Jumps 14%, Net Loss Improves

■ FCC Approves Verizon’s $1 Billion Spectrum Deal with Array

■ Charter Ads discovery+ App, Bringing Total Free App Value at $125

■ Free State Adds Jonathan Turley as 20th Anniversary Keynoter

■ Reporter Leslie Rubin to Lead West Virginia Broadcasters Association

■ Senators Won’t Get Paid During Future Shutdowns

USF: Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a plan to save taxpayers billions of dollars: Shut down outdated Universal Service Fund (USF) programs that keep down monthly broadband bills for customers connected to rural ISPs. SpaceX is urging the FCC led by Chairman Brendan Carr to phase out most of its $4.5 billion High‑Cost program, arguing that satellite broadband (and the BEAD program) have erased the access gaps the subsidies were designed to fix. “The rapid growth of low‑Earth orbit satellite broadband service in recent years has made high-speed, low-latency broadband access available throughout the entirety of the U.S.,” the company’s Joseph Bissonnette wrote in a May 13 letter to the FCC. “The [FCC’s] universal service programs must adapt to a reality where the long-standing problem of high-speed broadband network access has effectively been solved, rendering most legacy High-Cost support mechanisms redundant.” More after paywall)

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