The FDA's decision Thursday (May 5) to regulate e-cigarettes has prompted Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to renew her call for restricting ads for those smokeless nicotine-delivery systems.

"Now it is time for the federal government to follow California's lead and ban the outrageous marketing of e-cigarettes to children," she said this week.

"Yes, Senator Boxer has expressed concerns about the outrageous marketing of e-cigarettes to kids," said a Boxer spokesperson, who said she is "urging the Administration/FTC to ban marketing aimed at children and teens."

Following the FDA decision, Boxer sent a thank you letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Cardiff and at the same time called on the Federal Trade Commission to impose an ad ban. 

Boxer has long pushed for restrictions on e-cigarette ads, including introducing the Protecting Children from Electronic Cigarette Advertising Act, which would allow the FTC to determine what constitutes marketing the devices to children and work with states attorneys general to enforce a ban.

Former Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) put a spotlight on e-cigarette marketing, with Boxer strongly sharing his concern.

Following his retirement, Sen. Boxer picked up the gauntlet.

She was particularly incensed at that hearing by e-cigarette flavors like cotton candy, gummy bears, Captain Crunch and Bazooka Joe, and ads that appeared to feature Smurfs toking on the e-cigarettes, which are smokeless liquid nicotine-delivery systems.

The issue did not get traction in the Republican-led Senate. Now Commerce Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) in a 2014 hearing pointed out that e-cigarettes have no tar and may be helpful to the extent that they reduce consumption of combustible tobacco. He suggested it was an emerging technology that people needed to have an open mind about as a nicotine replacement therapy, an argument e-cigarette makers have often made. 

In December, a group of Democratic senators including Boxer and led by veteran children's advocate Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called on FTC chair Edith Ramirez to investigate liquid nicotine retailers for unfair and deceptive practices.

Online video platform FilmOn TV is adding a new channel to FilmOn.com's children's section.

The company said it is teaming up with iRead2Know founder Nancy Hahn to stream the Chidren's Reading Channel.

It is just the latest addition to the FilmOn platform, which the company says has already added close to 50 channels in 2016 alone.

“We are all about positive change at FilmOn and studies show that engaging children in reading is the surest way to effect social change in the world,” said FilmOn TV Networks CEO Alki David in a statement.

FilmOn has 800 free channels plus premium cable offerings.

New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) called on the Obama Administration to back off a plan to let the U.K. serve wiretap order directly on a Google or Facebook in order to surveil online conversations or access stored e-mails of British suspects in terror investigations.

OTI suggested the drafters of the Constitution would not be pleased.

New America is a nonprofit tech think tank. It's board is chaired by Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet (formerly Google).

The Washington Post broke the story of the negotiations between the U.S. and U.K.

That comes just as the U.S. and the European Union have just struck an agreement on a new voluntary safe harbor for EU citizen data stored in the U.S. by companies like Google and Facebook, an agreement necessitated by EU's concerns over company’s ability to secure that data’s privacy given the Edward Snowden leak revelations about government surveillance.

“The idea that the U.S. government would allow wiretapping inside the United States by a foreign country’s national security authorities under legal standards that are far lower than what is required of our own police, is a horrible betrayal of our constitutional principles," said OTI director Kevin Bankston "I can only expect that our founders, who wrote the Constitution that this deal disregards, are rolling in their graves."

OTI said Congress should press the White House to rethink that plan. "We call on lawmakers who care about privacy—both from the left and the right—to tell the Obama Administration that they will not stand for it," said Bankston.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said this week that former Aereo founder Chet Kanojia talked to him about his planned Starry competitive wireless Internet access service at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month in Las Vegas and the chairman's response was that he was for "competition, competition, competition."

Wheeler talked about the exchange at a press conference following the FCC's Jan. 28 public meeting.

Kanojia unveiled the service this week, which will use so-called millimeter wave bands (above 24 GHZ) to deliver Internet over-the-air from rooftop transmitters (Kanojia is the one who tried to upend the broadcast TV distribution model with mini-antennas, now he is taking on traditional ISPs).

Wheeler said he understood Kanojia may need some waivers to operate in the 38 GHz high-frequency band and the FCC would "look at that appropriately."

The FCC is currently seeking comment on opening up those higher-frequency bands above 24 GHz for wireless broadband and is being pushed to allow for multiple uses on multiple platforms.

On the Internet competition front, using airwaves for Internet access via satellite has yet to reach the 25 Mbps downstream/4 Mbps upstream high-speed threshold that even gets it on the radar when the FCC is looking at broadband deployment.

But using the high-frequency bands, Starry is looking to deliver up to one gig, which would make it competitive with Google Fiber, though Starry points out its buildout costs are a fraction of putting fiber in ditches and on poles.

Asked how the 24 GHz proceeding could help Kanojia's plans, Wheeler said that they key concept in the proceeding was the transition from analog to digital and the ability to slice and dice the spectrum in new and creative ways. "We have always divvied up the spectrum allocation chart based on analog assumptions and 'this is the size of the waveform' [that

phrase was delivered in a sing-song suggesting repeating something by rote]. you get one signal through that space. Now you can get a bunch. That is the kind of decision we are making," though he added that he did not know how that would affect Kanojia's plans.

Following news reports that the AT&T/DirecTV deal approval order had been circulated, Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler confirmed the stories and outlined the key conditions in the deal, including disallowing data cap carveouts for affiliated online video services and requiring AT&T to submit interconnection agreements to the FCC for perusal.

In a statement, Wheeler said that the conditions included expanded high-speed broadband buildouts, as well as conditions related to broadband speeds and interconnections. It had been clear from the outset that broadband speed and access issues were key to the deal-vetting.

“An order recommending that the AT&T/DirecTV transaction be approved with conditions has circulated to the Commissioners. The proposed order outlines a number of conditions that will directly benefit consumers by bringing more competition to the broadband marketplace," Wheeler said. "If the conditions are approved by my colleagues, 12.5 million customer locations will have access to a competitive high-speed fiber connection. This additional build-out is about 10 times the size of AT&T’s current fiber-to-the-premise deployment, increases the entire nation’s residential fiber build by more than 40 percent, and more than triples the number of metropolitan areas AT&T has announced plans to serve."

The deal approval has been expected for several weeks, with network neutrality and interconnection-related conditions said to have been part of the holdup.

Wheeler said that AT&T won't be allowed to exempt affiliated fixed broadband video services from data caps and will have to submit its interconnection agreements to the FCC.

Wheeler also said the FCC will require that an independent compliance officer will oversee those and other conditions. "These strong measures will protect consumers, expand high-speed broadband availability, and increase competition.”

The FCC's Media Bureau has opened a docket (15-149) on the proposed merger of Charter and Time Warner Cable (valued at $78.7 billion), and the associated acquisition of Bright House by Charter ($10.4 billion).

The companies have not yet filed their applications for transfer of control. The deal was announced May 26. (http://www.multichannel.com/news/cable-operators/charter-agrees-buy-time...).

Opening a docket means that commenters now have an official place to start commenting for and against the deals. It is also where parties meeting with the FCC about the deals must provide ex parte notices of those meetings. The FCC reminded those parties in the public notice announcing the docket that they have to provide a summary of the substance of those meetings, saying just a list of subjects covered or a "one-or-two sentence description of the views" likely wasn't going to cut it.

According to sources familiar with the FCC's progress on the network neutrality order, the final language could be realeased this week, with one source saying that could be as early as tomorrow (March 12).

Once that order is released, it goes to the Federal Register, and after it is published there--likely in a week or two--the 60-day countdown begins until the rules take effect.

While the FCC already voted to approve the order Feb. 26, and the FCC outlined the order before the vote and explained its highpoints during the public meeting, Republican commissioners have signaled the devil, at least for opponents of the Title II approach, is in the details.

Commissioner Ajit Pai has suggested that the FCC leaves itself linguistic wiggle room to apply Title II rate regs or unbundling it is initially not going to apply.

The FCC has been incorprating and responding to issues raised in the dissents from the two Republican commissioners, which are said to be lengthy documents. It is required to do so per instructions from a federal court, the same one that will likely be asked to hear the promised legal challenges to the order.

According to sources, the FCC's new open Internet rules, a draft of which is expected to be circulated Feb. 5, will include interconnection, at least to the extent that the FCC will look on a case-by-case basis at whether a paid peering deal's access fees have the effect of degrading access in violation of network neutrality rules.

That would be a way to work the issue into the rules, but with a case-by-case approach that is similar to the program access regime. That might not please activists seeking stronger Interconnection language since many feel the program access complaint regime has not worked very well.

According to a source familiar with the proceedings who spoke not for attribution, the idea is that a Netflix or Cogent could complain that a paid peering deal is an effort to "extort" fees, but the rule would not include a specific interconnection-related regulation, only the opportunity to make the case that such interconnection fees have the effect of violating a no-blocking or degrading rule.

That would appear to be only a one-way street, as in only the edge provider, not the carrier, could complain about the deals since it is based on price and the edge provider is the one paying.

The key for the Netflix's and Cogents', said the source, will be how strong the FCC guidance on such interconnection complaints is. "Will they get something that makes them feel confident the FCC will take these complaints seriously? Or will the language suggest that the FCC will rely on "market negotiations" to set interconnection prices?"

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has said that he sees peering as a separate issue, but  one that he has concerns with. But Netflix and others have been pushing to apply nondiscrimination to that traffic, not just the nondiscriminatory access to content by ISP customers

(http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/comcast-keep-peering-ou...), and the chairman may have found a way to finesse interconnection into the new rules.

Neftlix has pushed for bringing interconnection under the network neutrality regime, saying that ISP's are extorting money out of them using their power over the last-mile connection to the home. ISP's counter that Netflix slowed traffic to make its issue in Washington and that peering, including paying for traffic exchanges, is an accepted business practice and that Netflix is trying to get out of paying.

A spokesperson for the chairman had no comment on the draft, echoing the chairman's no comment at a press conference following the FCC's public meeting Jan. 29.

The White House Tuesday outlined President Obama's proposals to boost access to "affordable high-speed broadband for all Americans, which will include calling on the FCC to "end laws that harm broadband service competition." It was a preview of one of the President's State of the Union initiatives, and the Administration made clear that the state of broadband was not fast enough.

That is according to Jeff Zients, director of the National Economic Council, and Andy Berke, Mayor of Chattanooga, Tenn., who were on a call with reporters previewing the Presidents plans, to be outlined in a speech Wednesday and later in the Jan. 20 State of the Union.

Zients stopped short of saying the President was supporting FCC preemption of state laws limiting municipal broadband, something FCC

Chairman Tom Wheeler has suggested the FCC should do, but Chattanooga is one of a pair of cities (Wilson, N.C., is the other) that has asked the FCC to preempt state regulations limiting municipal broadband buildouts, which cities argue are one way to deliver affordable broadband. A fact sheet from the White House seemed to make clear that the President was providing Wheeler backup for preemption efforts, just as the President offered support and encouragement for Title II reclassification of broadband.

"Laws in 19 states — some specifically written by special interests trying to stifle new competitors — have held back broadband access and, with it, economic opportunity," the White House said. "President Obama is announcing a new effort to support local choice in broadband, formally opposing measures that limit the range of options available to communities to spur expanded local broadband infrastructure, including ownership of networks. As a first step, the Administration is filing a letter with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging it to join this effort by addressing barriers inhibiting local communities from responding to the broadband needs of their citizens."

He made clear the Administration thinks there is not enough competition for high speed broadband. "Broadband matters, but a lot of us have a commonly frustrating experience," said Zients on a call with reporters. "Even when we are unhappy with the speed and performance of our Internet service, we don't have a choice. There are no alternative providers we can switch to. Three out of four Americans live in a location that has no competition or service at the broadband speeds increasingly required for many online services."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has already signaled that 25 Mbps is the new table stakes, and the White House also seemed to be signaling that underserved areas would be defined by speed, not just whether or not there was service.

Zients said the lack of broadband was rarely a lack of demand, but more often the cost of infrastructure, and "a combination of laws that rpevent communities from providing incentives." He said Americans want and need better and faster broadband.

Also part of the President's plan to get higher-speed broadband to everyone:

"Expanding the National Movement of Local Leaders for Better Broadband: As of today, 50 cities representing over 20 million Americans have joined the Next Century Cities coalition, a nonpartisan network pledging to bring fast, community-supported broadband to their towns and cities. They join 37 research universities around the country that formed the Gig.U partnership to bring fast broadband to communities around their campuses. To recognize these remarkable individuals and the partnerships they have built, in June 2015 the White House will host a Community Broadband Summit of mayors and county commissioners from around the nation who are joining this movement for broadband solutions and economic revitalization. These efforts will also build on the US Ignite partnership, launched by White House in 2012, and which has grown to include more than 65 research universities and 35 cities in developing new next-generation gigabit applications.

"Announcing a New Initiative to Support Community Broadband Projects: To advance this important work, the Department of Commerce is launching a new initiative, BroadbandUSA, to promote broadband deployment and adoption. Building on expertise gained from overseeing the $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program funded through the Recovery Act, BroadbandUSA will offer online and in-person technical assistance to communities; host a series of regional workshops around the country; and publish guides and tools that provide communities with proven solutions to address problems in broadband infrastructure planning, financing, construction, and operations across many types of business models.

"Unveiling New Grant and Loan Opportunities for Rural Providers: The Department of Agriculture is accepting applications to its Community Connect broadband grant program and will reopen a revamped broadband loan program, which offers financing to eligible rural carriers that invest in bringing high-speed broadband to unserved and under served rural areas.

"Removing Regulatory Barriers and Improving Investment Incentives: The President is calling for the Federal Government to remove all unnecessary regulatory and policy barriers to broadband build-out and competition, and is establishing a new Broadband Opportunity Council of over a dozen government agencies with the singular goal of speeding up broadband deployment and promoting adoptions for our citizens. The Council will also solicit public comment on unnecessary regulatory barriers and opportunities to promote greater coordination with the aim of addressing those within its scope.

The White House briefing was a preview of the President's visit to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he will talk about his high-speed broadband agenda in advance of the State of the Union (SOTU) (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/president-promote-broad...). Broadband deployment has been a feature of previous SOTU's

Last year, for example, the President announced that the FCC and some major telecoms and edge providers were getting together to help connect 15,000 schools to high-speed broadband (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/president-announces-new...). In 2012, the President said one of the nation's construction challenges was an "incomplete high-speed broadband network" that prevented some small businesses from reaching world markets. (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/news-articles/president-cites-inco...

In the 2011 SOTU, the President announced the National Wireless Initiative and pledged that "within the next five years, we will make it possible for business to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans. This isn't just about a faster Internet and fewer dropped calls," he said at the time. "It's about connecting every part of America to the digital age."

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association blogged about the President's anticipated initiatives before the White House call.

Saying the reports of his Iowa visit seemed "like a good opportunity for us to take stock of the current state of broadband and how we might connect more Americans to fast broadband networks. Over the last two decades, America’s cable providers have invested over $230 billion to extend and upgrade fast broadband connections to  communities large and small, urban and rural, in all corners of America. In just the last decade, the average cable broadband customer has  seen top speeds increase a whopping 3200%..."

"Cable’s pace of technological progress shows no signs of abating," NCTA said. It did identify two areas where government could help, and one where it could hurt.

"While the cable industry continues to deliver on faster broadband at declining per-Megabit prices for Americans consumers, we know that that there are two discrete areas that may warrant targeted government attention," NCTA said. "First, for some very rural areas, private economic incentives may not be sufficient to justify network investments. In such areas, government incentives can play a constructive role in promoting universal service. Second, we know that for some Americans, the availability of broadband infrastructure is insufficient to spur adoption. The cable industry is committed to closing this digital divide by educating consumers about the benefits of broadband and by offering programs to help families overcome barriers they may face, including discounted service. You can learn more about those programs on our Closing the Digital Divide page."

But where the government could hurt was in the Title II arena, NCTA said.

"Instead of building on policies that have helped spur private investment, President Obama’s call to reclassify broadband as a Title II telecommunications service threatens to raise the cost of capital associated with network investment and slow continued progress in building faster and better broadband. Given the FCC’s ability to restore net neutrality rules without taking such extreme action, Title II appears particularly misguided."

Zients was asked about the impact of Title II. He said the Administration did not think it would have an adverse impact.

“I welcome the President’s focus on deploying high-speed broadband and improving competition in communities across America, particularly in rural areas," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).  "Broadband is long past the point of being a luxury – it is a necessity, and the gap between urban and rural America is not closing nearly fast enough.  The lack of adequate choices for consumers is also one of the main reasons why the FCC must act swiftly to protect an open Internet.  I stand ready to work with the President and other Members of Congress to enact policies that will ensure that all Americans, whether they live in rural or urban areas, have access to fast and affordable broadband.”

WASHINGTON -- As expected, the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 19 on The FANS Act, legislation backed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that would remove the antitrust exemption for sports leagues that include blackouts of game broadcasts in their licensing agreements.

It is actually the rescheduling of a hearing initially targeted for before the election.

At the urging of Blumenthal, among others, the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year voted to eliminate its sports blackout rules, which backstopped those contractual blackouts, but that did not change the fact that the leagues -- the National Football League was the prime target -- were still free to make such blackouts part of their rights contracts.

 The NFL argued the policy was to protect the stadium revenues and jobs sustained by fans in the seats.

 The hearing is titled: "The FANS Act: Are Sports Blackouts and Antitrust Exemptions Harming Fans, Consumers, and the Games Themselves?"

Things overheated for LeBron James as ABC’s telecast of Game 1 of the NBA Finals rematch between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat surpassed last year’s opener.

The June 5 telecast of the Spurs' 110-95 win over the Heat on June 5 averaged 14.85 million watchers, up 4% from the first game of the 2013 championship series that was also taken by San Antonio.

Thursday night’s game will always be remembered for the malfunctioning air-conditioning system in AT&T Center that pushed on-court temperatures into the low 90s. James missed much of the fourth quarter with severe cramping as San Antonio ended the contest on a 31-9 run.

It will be interesting to see if LeBron's laboring will draw viewers to ABC for Game 2 on Sunday night at 8 p.m.  Last year' Finals series didn't take off with the Nielsens until Game 6 and Game 7.

PopularResistance.org and Fight for the Future last week organized a protest and camp-out in front of (and to the side of) the FCC’s D.C. headquarters this week, demanding the FCC protect the Internet by applying common carrier regs. At press time they were still there and pledging to remain until the May 15 vote on the new rules.

We talked to Margaret Flowers from PopularResistance.org, who was helping pound in a protest sign, “One Internet for Everyone,” on a grassy strip where the handful of protestors—eight at the time—were camped out along a side entrance to the commission. She said she had been there since the morning of May 7 and that the group, which she said was growing, would be there until the FCC’s May 15 vote on the new rules. Flowers said Code Pink was helping out, as was Free Press, and that Occupy Wall Street planned to join the protest. The  goal is to get the FCC to classify Internet access under Title II.  “We want the vote to include reclassifying the Internet as a common carrier service,” she said.

Wheeler has said the item will ask whether that should be done. “He basically said if I have to reclassify, I will.’ We’re saying ‘you have to reclassify it.’ People feel  very strongly about this issue.”

Flowers said she had gotten a call the first day here from top aide to Tom Wheeler Gigi Sohn, former head of Public Knowledge, who said a meeting was a possibility, though one had not been scheduled at press time. She said she expected the group to have a “Very strong presence” at the FCC meeting. Asked whether they might interrupt the meeting, she said they didn’t know what they would do. “it all depends on how the week goes and what we feel is appropriate. “We don’t interrupt unless we feel like it is going to gain us something.”