The Justice Department will have a chance to defend its opposition to the AT&T-Time Warner merger Dec. 6, when oral arguments are to be presented before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The DOJ contends that the merger violates antitrust laws, while AT&T rejects the idea that the acquisition will stifle competition.

Disney is said to be preparing to auction off 22 regional sports networks, as part of its deal with 21st Century Fox, by providing bid books to banks and distributors. Those companies reportedly include Sinclair Broadcast Group, Amazon and Google.

Clippers CourtVision, a feature of the Fox Sports app for pay-TV customers in the Los Angeles market, lets viewers choose among three ways of watching a Clippers game. They include "mascot mode," which adds graphic elements such as lightning bolts, and "player mode," which shares real-time stats about players on the court.

It's time for the FCC to take a fresh look at the 5.9 GHz band. After two decades and millions of dollars in wasted government subsidies, the Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) experiment in the 5.9 GHz band has clearly failed. The growth of Wi-Fi over the last two decades and the potential of this spectrum to deliver better Wi-Fi only amplify this failure in policy. The time is now for the Commission to open all or a substantial part of the 5.9 GHz band to unlicensed innovation and consider flexible options for addressing the spectrum needs of automotive technologies. Read more.

The percentage of unresolved problems consumers experience with smart home devices has more than doubled to 12%, Parks Associates says in a report that cites connectivity problems as the most prevalent issue. Other surveys suggest the issues could stem from the number of people who want to install the devices themselves.

NAB Show New York featured executives such as Fox CEO Jack Abernethy and Nexstar Media Group President and CEO Perry Sook discussing their support for Next Gen TV, citing its major benefits to advertisers and brand managers. Executives at the event also took stock of the increase in retransmission fees; additionally, Sook noted that big media companies such as Facebook and Google can reach the entire country without restrictions.

Despite the 20 years it took for the Music Modernization Act to become law, it still has a long road ahead, with the biggest challenge now being the creation of a global database to house song information and match recordings to compositions. The new law has a new financial incentive for involved parties to contribute to the initiative now, an industry executive says.

Charter Communications wants the Federal Communications Commission to allow it to test the 32 gigahertz band in the hopes of advancing the deployment of 5G services. The FCC has not provided information about auctioning the band, which serves satellites and radio astronomy.

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office states that the Federal Communications Commission's system of gathering information about tribal lands' access to broadband is inaccurate. The GAO suggests that the FCC set up methods of obtaining tribal perspectives and collect data in ways that take tribes' actual situations into account.

Five major stations -- including Fox, Univision and NBC -- have committed to adopting next-generation ATSC 3.0 broadcast standards within two years. The technology is being tested in Phoenix, and it offers consumers digital-esque interaction, as well as mobile access to content, while giving station owners opportunities to expand ad revenue.