If the President wants to send you a text, you'll be required to receive it on your smart phone under a new emergency alert system that the FCC and FEMA are rolling out in NYC and D.C. by the end of the year. Announced today, the new Personal Localized Alerting Network [PLAN] lets customers who own an enabled mobile device "receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area." If you don't want The Man telling you there's an imminent threat to your safety, you can opt out of a second tier of alerts, such as warnings about less catastrophic natural disasters or AMBER Alerts. But the messages from Obama are going to be shoved down your cell phone's throat, just like health care! more ›

Could Fox Television lose control of channel 9 (WWOR)? While highly unlikely, it is a distinct possibility now that the FCC has announced [PDF] that it is investigating allegations that Fox lied or willfully misled the Commission in filings. At stake are the company's license to air on both stations it currently owns. more ›

The FCC is expected to enact net neutrality regulations later today, and officials are currently holding hearings on the order, which the Times reports would "broadly create two classes of Internet access, one for fixed-line providers and the other for the wireless Net. The proposed rules of the online road would prevent fixed-line broadband providers like Comcast and Qwest from blocking access to sites and applications. The rules, however, would allow wireless companies more latitude in putting limits on access to services and applications." And yet, CNN wonders why no one outside of the FCC has seen the final draft of the order. Officials say it won't be published until "several days" after the vote, but what do you expect—it's just not technologically possible to share this information with the world! more ›

Last night, over three million Cablevision customers were able to watch Fox programming once again—right before Game 3 of the World Series—after Cablevision ended its dispute with News Corp. over transmission fees. According to Cablevision, it conceded because News Corp. is really mean and greedy and the FCC didn't do anything! Well, at least folks will be able to see today's Jets-Packers games on WNYW Fox 5, right? more ›

As Cablevision customers contemplate what bars to head to or which antenna to buy to watch the World Series tonight, Cablevision president and CEO (and Knicks owner) James Dolan sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski yesterday, saying that he could be in D.C. this morning for an FCC-run meeting with News Corp., because only with the FCC's involvement could good faith talks occur. However, News Corp., which served Cablevision a cease & desist letter (because the cable company's reps were allegedly telling customers how to illegally access Fox programming online) said that Dolan's letter was a "stunt." more ›

Cablevision and News Corp. are still feuding over transmission fees, a situation that has left millions of Cablevision customers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania without Fox programming, like, oh, football games, the ALDS baseball games, Glee, House, The O'Reilly Factor and Good Day, New York since October 16. And given the current tenor of "negotiations," it seems that these lowly customers may miss the World Series. Well, unless they decide to (illegally) watch Fox programs online—the media company claims that when a Fox employee with Cablevision service called Cablevision, the Cablevision rep told them which websites streamed Fox shows! more ›

A federal appeals court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission "lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks," the NY Times reports. The FCC had sanctioned Internet service provider Comcast for slowing down its customers' access to Bit Torrent, but the judges decided, 3-0, that the Congress did not give the agency "untrammeled freedom to regulate activities." more ›

Last summer Special Olympics made waves when they came out in full force to protest Ben Stiller's , after a challenge this season where Joan Rivers created a detergent ad called "Jesse James and the Midgets." The chairman of the conference told reporters, "Historically, the word 'midget' has been used to objectify people, like in the circus." He would like to see the FCC ban the word and has written an open letter to NBC. The president of the Little People's Long Island chapter told Newsday, "It's not acceptable to call people the N-word, just as it's not acceptable to call people the M-word. The chosen term now is LP, or little person." Little people have not made it onto Wikipedia's LP disambiguation page, where they hope to one day be listed alongside Launchpad McQuack. more ›

According to the FCC, the switch to digital television has been smooth. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said, "It's looking more like Y2K than the Bay of Pigs," while acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps used a baseball analogy, "We're safe on third right now... We all need a bit of patience and perseverance. This is a momentous change and it'll take time to get it right." About 800,000 people have called the FCC's hotline in the past week and a little over 400,000 called on the Friday and Saturday, which is lower than the 600,000-3 million calls the agency expected for the first day of transition; on Friday, most calls came from the NYC market. However, some people found themselves needing to buy new, stronger antennas. The FCC says it will keep staff available to answer questions on the hotline until the end of June, at least. Here's the FCC's DTV guide. more ›

As of midnight, TV stations made the switch to DTV. WABC 7 said it started its transition at 12:30 p.m. yesterday, "Many people calling WABC-TV on Friday needed to rescan their converter boxes or had antenna. In some cases, the fix was as simple as moving or expanding the antenna. In other cases, a new antenna was need." (The FCC says to make sure all channels are rescanned.) In Baltimore, one station's programming director said, "One person called in, and it turned out she hadn't turned her converter box on." While those with cable or satellite connections are fine, it's estimated that 1 million people are unprepared for the switch. Cincinnati's Freestore Foodbank gave away free converter boxes; one man who waited over four hours but was told they ran out spoke to the AP, "I'm on disability, and I can't really afford to buy one. I can't get anything on my TV now, so I guess I'll have to go to friends' houses if I want to watch anything." The FCC's DTV site is here; here's the converter box troubleshooting guide. more ›

After some delays, the country is finally switching its TV signals from analog to digital. And the government is expecting a lot of confusion from the estimated 1 million people who are unprepared for the switch—the AP reports, "The Federal Communications Commission put 4,000 operators on standby for calls from confused viewers, and set up demonstration centers in several cities. Volunteer groups and local government agencies were helping elderly viewers set up digital converter boxes that keep older TVs functioning." If your TV is hooked up to cable or satellite feeds, you should be fine, but if you're wondering, the Star-Ledger has a good guide on the new world of DTV (did you know the FCC is still giving $40 coupons for convertor boxes—they just take 9 business days to arrive). Here's more at the FCC's DTV.gov site. more ›

Earlier this week, it seemed all but certain that the Tribune Company would sell Long Island newspaper Newsday to the News Corporation. But given News Corp.'s ownership of the Post and Wall Street Journal, not to mention two NYC area TV stations (WNYW and WWOR), criticism of the potential deal has given Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman an argument why he's better suited to buy the paper. more ›

WWOR/channel 9 got a wake-up call that it's supposed to be a New Jersey TV station when the FCC held a hearing about the station's license renewal. Critics say the station's license shouldn't be renewed because it has failed to discuss NJ news and issues. The station, owned by News Corporation whose local media holdings include WNYW/Channel 5 and the NY Post, was moved to NJ in 1986 due to FCC law that each state... more ›