New Happy Birthday Song, Copyright-Free
In a recent decision reversing FCC-imposed conditions on Charter Communications’ 2016 acquisition of Time Warner Cable, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals raised significant questions about the FCC’s...more
As MuniBlog readers may be aware, public access television airs programs ranging from school district and municipal government meetings to publicly hosted programs. Sometimes a program may offend viewers or be critical of...more
On June 17, 2019, the United States Supreme Court decided Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, No. 17-1702, holding that a private nonprofit corporation that operates the public-access channels on the cable system in...more
February 27, 2019 On February 26, 2019, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously affirmed the district court’s denial of a Department of Justice (DOJ) bid to permanently...more
Talk about a shellacking. In his recent opinion in the latest incarnation of U.S. v. AT&T, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon rejected, in no uncertain terms, the U.S. Justice Department’s efforts to block AT&T’s...more
The District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the request by the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) to enjoin the merger of AT&T’s television distribution business with Time Warner’s video content...more
While federal officials have stated their intent to persist in questioning vertical relationships that they hypothesize cause downstream economic effects on product flow and prices, a recent loss by the Department of Justice...more
Following a six-week trial, federal Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently approved AT&T’s 85-billion-dollar acquisition of Time Warner Inc. AT&T Inc. (along with its subsidiary,...more
On June 12, 2018, after a six-week trial, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon denied the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to block AT&T Inc.’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc., one of the most high-profile...more
On June 12, 2018, following a six-week-long bench trial, Judge Richard J. Leon of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner does not violate the...more
On November 20, 2017, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed suit in the District Court for the District of Columbia to block AT&T’s attempted acquisition of Time Warner Inc. AT&T (through its cellular network, its...more
AT&T’s chief is weighing in the DOJ’s call to sell CNN in order to make its deal with Time Warner go through, and, as Randall sees it, “selling CNN makes no sense”....more
January was a busy month for independent contractor misclassification – and IC compliance. In addition to Lowe’s $2.85 million settlement with installers whom it classified as ICs, Lufthansa agreed to pay $1.1 million in...more
A Time Warner customer filed a putative class action suit against it alleging that it violated the Cable Communications Privacy Act because it stored personal information of customers improperly. In particular, he alleged...more
With approval of their proposed merger pending in the FCC, Charter and TWC recently filed an application to amend service provider certifications of operating authority with the Public Utility Commission of Texas. On Friday,...more
Local Governments Can Protect Themselves and the Public By Filing Comments - Charter Communications, Inc., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Advance/Newhouse Partnership recently filed a public interest statement with the FCC...more
Charter Communications, Inc., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Advance/Newhouse Partnership recently filed a public interest statement with the FCC seeking approval of the proposed merger of the companies. The FCC must determine...more
The proposed merger of the two largest cable operators in the country, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and the related system swaps and sales involving Charter Communications, have generated an enormous amount of press...more
On May 22, 2014, the General Court of Justice of Rutherford County, North Carolina issued an important Order and Opinion interpreting a state statute governing the maximum lawful pole attachment rates that North Carolina...more
This is a story of persistence and perseverance, if not patience. The cable industry finally obtained some control over skyrocketing pole attachment rates charged by cooperative utilities in North Carolina when the...more