The firm provides its media clients a wide array of services to address the regulatory requirements and legal and business issues facing participants in the broadcasting, multi-channel video, print and online communications industries.  Our clients include broadcasters ranging in size from single-station licensees to major market group owners, cable system operators, television and cable networks and other program producers and distributors, newspaper and magazine publishers, financial institutions and investors, equipment manufacturers and online service providers.

Wiley Rein also has a long history of involvement in the legal and business issues associated with emerging technologies, including high-definition television, direct broadcast satellite services, fiber optics, high-speed data services and the latest wireless data transmission deregulations. Because many of the most contentious policy debates affecting the media occur on Capitol Hill and in the Executive Branch, we work closely with the firm's Public Policy Group on legislative initiatives and draw from our "natural instincts on how to interact with the agencies and Capitol Hill" (Chambers USA 2009).

Broadcasting

Wiley Rein provides radio and television station clients a wide array of services to address the regulatory requirements and legal and business issues facing participants in the industry. Our broadcast clients range from single station licensees to major market group owners, as well as financial institutions and other investors, television networks, program producers and distributors and providers of various Internet services, including “web-casting.”  In ranking Wiley Rein among the top tier of Telecom and Broadcast: Regulatory firms nationwide, the 2009 edition of The US Legal 500 noted how "the firm's success in translating an unrivalled history of achievement in the Washington, DC communications market to a modern practice equipped to handle the rapidly changing needs of clients has helped them to lead the market for over two decades."

In recent years, we have helped our clients to successfully complete numerous complex transactions involving mergers, leveraged buyouts and the use of limited partnership structures.  Our efforts include:

• Facilitating acquisitions, mergers and sales of broadcast facilities.
• Offering guidance on complying with the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC’s) national and local media ownership rules and foreign ownership limitations.
• Assisting in the transition to digital broadcasting.
• Participating in and monitoring agency rulemaking proceedings.
• Counseling on compliance with FCC technical and operational rules.
• Defending against enforcement actions.
• Advising on antitrust and competition issues.
• Advancing First Amendment claims and providing defamation counseling.
• Supplying strategic advice on channel allocations, station licensing and auction proceedings.
• Assisting in contract negotiations and other business matters.
• Counseling and litigation concerning intellectual property rights.
• Providing appellate litigation representation in federal and state courts.
• Advancing policy goals before Congress, the Executive Branch and state legislatures.

On the policy making front, we have taken part in FCC proceedings dealing with virtually all of the key broadcast and related media policy issues facing the industry today, including the many issues involving the digital broadcasting transition, the ongoing legal challenges to media ownership restrictions, the re-emergence of broadcast Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules, and the current proceedings examining "localism" and communications with local audience members.  In addition, because many of the most contentious policy debates affecting broadcasters occur on Capitol Hill—such as the final stages of the digital television transition and proposed political advertising restrictions in campaign-finance reform bills—we work frequently with the firm's Public Policy Group on legislative initiatives.  We also work to advance our media clients’ goals with the Executive Branch, including the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), as well as at other independent agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Cable and Multichannel Video

Wiley Rein’s Communications attorneys represent a variety of domestic and international clients involved in cable television and similar multichannel video program distribution (MVPD) services, such as digital broadcast satellite (DBS) service.  Our assistance covers the full range of law and regulation that any client may confront, from federal rules to state laws to local franchising requirements. 

Our specialists regularly counsel system operators and industry associations on the local franchising process and the FCC rules and regulations governing cable.  We also advise video programmers, equipment manufacturers, financial institutions and other investors on federal and state laws and policies that affect their interests in the multichannel video industry. 

Our efforts include:

• Representing cable operators in franchising and licensing matters.
• Participating in and monitoring agency rulemaking proceedings.
• Counseling on compliance with FCC technical and operational rules.
• Defending against enforcement actions.
• Advising on antitrust and competition issues.
• Advancing First Amendment claims and providing defamation counseling.
• Offering investment and transactional counseling.
• Providing litigation services concerning private disputes and appeals of FCC and court decisions.
• Advising on copyright and intellectual property matters.

A large amount of Wiley Rein's work in this area concerns the complex regulatory and financial issues involved in buying and selling cable properties.  In addition, we frequently counsel clients on issues relating to the emergence of new technologies.

Our practice in regulatory compliance and enforcement proceedings includes actions relating to signal carriage, cable EEO rules, FCC ownership restrictions and technical standards. 

Our intellectual property law experience includes negotiation of programming contracts and rights clearances, as well as representation of clients before the Copyright Office, the Copyright Royalty Tribunal and in all courts.  In addition, we understand and advise clients on legal and business problems they encounter due to rapid technological advances, the increasing convergence of business and consumer communications services and emerging competition from telephone companies and the Internet.

Technology, Internet and Online Communications

Wiley Rein attorneys know the Internet marketplace and the technology that drives it.  We understand the evolving legal issues and are skilled at helping media businesses capitalize on technological change while protecting their interests.  Our attorneys have a long history of involvement in legal and regulatory issues associated with groundbreaking technologies, including:

• High-Definition Television (HDTV)
• Satellite-delivered CD radio services
• Direct broadcast satellite services
• Fiber optics
• Cable modems
• DSL services
• High-speed data services
• Instant messaging

Our attorneys have substantial experience at helping clients forge new ground.  We have structured online alliances and agreements to create new markets, worked to adapt intellectual property rights to new media and successfully litigated new theories to promote and protect client interests.  Our clients include webcasters, e-tailers, Internet service providers (ISPs) and online advertising firms, as well as established media companies who are developing or enhancing their online presence.

We counsel clients on wide-ranging regulatory concerns including new laws and rules that affect providers of interactive offerings and web-delivered content, DSL and cable modem services, Internet infrastructure and backbones and wireless transmissions services.  In addition, we have represented trade associations that focus on Internet policy and regulation.

Recent cases in which our attorneys have helped clients include:

• Successfully represented America Online in obtaining FCC approval for the landmark AOL Time Warner Inc. merger.
• Served as a key member of an online industry negotiating team promoting general business and ISP protections in connection with Internet-related elements of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, including the “Good Samaritan” provisions of the Communications Decency Act.
• Played a significant role in the private-sector negotiations leading to the enactment of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
• Filed an amicus brief on behalf of seven Internet trade associations in A&M Records v. Napster, a case involving copyright liability for online peer-to-peer exchanges of sound recordings.
• Filed an amicus brief on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the Supreme Court review of the Communications Decency Act.
• Structured a licensing agreement for the nation’s first privacy seal program.
• Obtained a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the Commonwealth of Virginia “harmful to juveniles” statute against ISPs.
• Handling hundreds of affiliation and venture agreements and mergers and acquisitions.
• Representing several trademark holders in domain-name disputes.
• Serving as general counsel to several major trade associations on Internet privacy issues.
• Litigating numerous First Amendment and privacy cases.

Wiley Rein also has significant experience addressing the wide range of legal issues that confront companies with a website presence.  These issues include:

• Liability due to improper advertising, indecent and defamatory postings, changing legality of various content and activities such as online gambling and liquor sales, violations of privacy rights and infringements of IP rights
• Electronic signatures
• The Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act
• Network security

Related Practice Areas

Defamation and Media-Related Litigation
At the intersection of our Communications and Litigation practices lies the firm’s experience in the area of defamation and other media-related litigation.  Wiley Rein regularly represents media interests in defamation and privacy actions in state and federal courts across the country.  We specialize in pre-publication and pre-broadcast advice in an effort to help our clients guard against unnecessary suits.  Finally, we represent our clients in all manner of media-related litigation, including actions seeking access to newsworthy material and First Amendment challenges to regulations that impede the constitutional guarantee of a free press.

Advertising
Wiley Rein attorneys are experienced in a wide variety of advertising-related issues involving corporate, advertising agency and media clients.  We counsel on copy clearance and claims substantiation and regularly represent clients before the FTC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state agencies, in self-regulatory proceedings before the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and in Lanham Act matters.

The firm is actively involved in First Amendment and other challenges to proposals to censor the content or placement of ads.  This includes opposition to state regulation of national advertising (particularly concerning environmental, nutrition and health claims), as well as testimony before Congress concerning various proposals to restrict advertising.

International Transactions
Our clients are well served by the firm’s extensive experience in and knowledge of transnational business undertakings, including the problems of moving people, products, intellectual property and money from one jurisdiction to another.  Structuring communications joint ventures and financing arrangements for U.S., British, European, Asian and South American clients is just one example of the special role our lawyers can play in transactions that bridge national and continental boundaries.  In addition, we have been retained to assist in foreign privatization initiatives, including advice on regulatory and spectrum management issues.

Contact Us

Richard E. Wiley
202.719.7010  | rwiley@wileyrein.com

James R.W. Bayes
202.719.7064 | jbayes@wileyrein.com

Kathleen A. Kirby
202.719.3360 | kkirby@wileyrein.com