Each quarter, my partner David O’Connor and I update a list of the legal and regulatory issues facing TV broadcasters. That list of issues is published by TVNewsCheck and is available on their website, here. Our latest update was published today, and provides a summary of the status of legal and regulatory issues ranging from… Continue Reading
NTIA steps up effort to develop consensus as to best practices for drone use In the race to see what agency will get gets its arms around drone management first, it looks like the dark horse is moving out in front. The FAA might ordinarily have been figured to be the odds-on favorite – it … Continue Reading
Interns are a perennial part of the media landscape, and you have probably heard a lot over the last few years on the subject of unpaid interns. Specifically, that unless they qualify as genuine interns under a six-part Department of Labor (DOL) test, businesses are required to treat them (and therefore pay them) as employees. […]
A webinar to explain the new rules for TV stations that want to share 6 MHz channels after the incentive auction (so that the broadcasters sharing the channel post-auction can enjoy the financial benefit of selling one of their channels during the auction), will be held by the FCC on July 22 from 2 to… Continue Reading
On the agenda: Everything, um, A lot of things, er, Several things, Stuff you always wanted to know about channel sharing but were afraid to ask If your station happens to be on the FCC’s Eligibility List for the upcoming reverse spectrum auction, listen up. The Incentive Auction Task Force and the Media Bureau are … Continue Reading
The Second Circuit has weighed in on the on-going litigation by unpaid interns looking for pay. Who says that unpaid internships don’t teach interns anything? Why, just recently a number of unpaid interns learned an important lesson: what a trial judge giveth, an appeals court can taketh away. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the … Continue Reading
Twice this morning, I was faced with the question of whether a business needs a license to play a radio or TV station on their premises, once in a story in one of the broadcast trade publications (see the article here, in the You Can’t Make This Up column toward the bottom of the article)… Continue Reading
Unlike California and New York, the Florida sun doesn’t shine on Flo & Eddie’s claim of performance rights for pre-1972 sound recordings. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Flo & Eddie were suing Sirius XM in California and New York, so why not do the same in Florida? What could possibly … Continue Reading
Earlier this week, we wrote about the Court of Appeals decision denying appeals of the FCC’s 2014 order setting the framework for the incentive auction to reclaim spectrum used by TV stations and repurpose it for use by wireless companies to provide more high-speed wireless broadband opportunities. But, in addition to the appeals, there… Continue Reading