Stephanie A. Roy Partner

Earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission released a Notice of Inquiry directed at advancing the space economy by examining in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing activities.

President Biden’s recent "Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy" promotes fair competition regulations across a diverse group of key U.S. industries and includes 72 separate initiatives involving more than a dozen federal agencies.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in FCC v. Prometheus Radio Project et al. is significant for both the decision’s effect on the regulation of the broadcast television industry and its clarifications of administrative law. In Prometheus, the Court restored the Federal Communications Commission’s 2017 order on reconsideration to repeal or modify three core broadcast television ownership rules. This client update summarizes the decision and provides key takeaways on the ruling’s implications for M&A and other transactions in the broadcast industry.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit added a new chapter in the ongoing saga over how and whether to regulate providers of broadband internet access service when, on October 1, 2019, it largely upheld the Federal Communication Commission’s repeal in 2018 of net neutrality rules, but vacated its effort to preempt state regulation of the same and remanded several other issues without vacatur.

With the transition in presidential administrations well underway, we have a good idea on what the Federal Communications Commission will focus on over the course of 2017, and the agenda looks both more limited and very different than it has looked over the last eight years.