The Federal Register ran two FCC NPRM notices Thursday, the first since the agency mostly shut Jan. 2 and subsequent resumption of operations Monday. The Office of the Federal Register said it couldn’t discuss any FCC backlog but has seen “a significant increase” in document submissions since Monday over what it usually would get during a three- or four-day span. It said 80 percent of the pending documents have been submitted since 8:45 a.m. Monday. The FCC didn't comment. Comments are due Feb. 15 on Ion’s request to change the community of license for Tennessee’s WNPX Cookeville to Franklin, replies Feb. 25. Comments are due March 18, replies April 16 on a draft NPRM for an optional unified license that covers satellites and earth stations in a geostationary fixed satellite service network, and repealing or streamlining some annual reporting requirements of satellite operators.
Matt Daneman
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
The commercial space industry is closely watching the FCC-proposed update of rules governing orbital debris (see 1811020003) to ensure the agency "threads the needle" between avoiding undue burdens on industry and addressing a growing concern, said Vector-Launch Washington operations Director Courtney Stadd on a Space Foundation panel Wednesday. He said nations need to be more aggressive about debris. Panelists agreed commercial space has strong momentum, though Made in Space CEO Andrew Rush called the industry “simultaneously strong but really fragile." Allen Herbert, vice president-business development and strategy at commercial space station company NanoRacks, said emerging new players in space such as the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Africa could help drive more commercial opportunity. "The jury is out" on what kind of collateral effects the federal shutdown had on commercial space, said Stadd. He said the FAA's draft regulatory overhaul of launches will be pushed further out. Rush said the shutdown "pinched" a hiring push at his space manufacturing company, though it's now tentatively resuming. Inmarsat Senior Vice President-Government Strategy and Policy Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch said shutdowns mean an even slower regulatory process, leaving her company to look to other nations for launches. Space Foundation CEO Tom Zelibor said the industry faces challenges of workforce and educational focus and to explain developments and measure them. Stadd said miniaturization of satellites is leading to an "unbelievable change in the economics" of deploying assets and should lead to “unbelievable” new applications. Rush said just as the launch industry has moved from expendable to reusable rockets, the satellite industry is next with reusability via reconfigurable and repairable satellites.
Some on the FCC eighth floor remained active during the partial federal shutdown, according to commissioners and judging by ex parte filings and social media. Some worry about what any resumption of the partial federal shutdown next month could mean for progress on issues before the agency. The commissioners had a handful of ex parte conversations during the shutdown, and most were active on Twitter throughout.
Pointing to electronic systems and databases not fully accessible during the partial federal shutdown, the FCC is again extending filing deadlines, said a public notice Tuesday (see 1901290014). Filings due Jan. 3-7 remain due Jan. 30. Now, those due Jan. 8-Feb. 7 aren't due until Feb. 8. Responsive pleadings to filings with new deadlines get an extension of the same amount of time after the comment deadline. Any transaction shot clocks that froze Jan. 2 when the agency closed restarted Tuesday. Universal licensing system applications and notifications due Jan. 3-Feb. 8 now have a Feb. 8 deadline. ULS filings held during the shutdown and afterward will be considered received as of Tuesday. The large number of ULS filings received during the shutdown will be entered in batches over weeks, with a Jan. 29 receipt date. Written provider responses to informal consumer complaints filed via the complaint center that became due during the shutdown now are due Wednesday. Online public inspection quarterly filings due Jan. 10, and all non-quarterly filings required for a station’s online public inspection Jan. 3-28, now must be submitted by Feb. 11. Filings during the shutdown must be resubmitted to the proper online public inspection file site. The FCC said it can't waive statutory deadlines but won't consider itself open for the filing of documents with statutory deadlines -- other than filings related to spectrum auctions -- until Wednesday. Special temporary authorities that would have expired Jan. 3-29 are extended until Feb. 8. Fee and other payments that can be made only through the fee filer system and due Jan. 3-Feb. 7 are extended by the same schedule as regulatory filings. Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee membership nominations to BDAC@fcc.gov are needed by Feb. 4. The tower construction notification system, electronic Section 106 system and antenna structure registration system resume Jan. 30. Related deadlines and tribal review timelines are tolled Jan. 3-30. Tribal nations have 30 days to review an application uploaded to the E-106 system. The PN supersedes earlier guidance. A separate PN said the Media Bureau will set new deadlines on NAB/NCTA's election cycle notification proposal in the Federal Register. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai got positive reactions for moving next month's meeting to Feb. 14, the day before the next shutdown would occur if there's no new budget, and making the tentative agenda the same as originally planned for this Wednesday (see 1901290031).
Broadcasters and networks are supporting NAB/NCTA's election cycle notification proposal (see 1812100051). Meredith said in an FCC docket 17-317 posting Monday that sending election notices only in a change of election would reduce hundreds of letters to "handfuls" and minimize "'gotcha' gamesmanship" since the status quo would remain absent affirmative broadcaster choice. Meredith said certified mail is expensive and slow, and the proposal should apply to all MVPDs, including direct broadcast satellite, since two rules regimes would be confusing. The ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC TV affiliates associations and their networks said the current system often "devolved into gamesmanship" with arguments about technicalities of who hadn't fulfilled obligations, and the compromise could make "such useless sparring a thing of the past." Nexstar and Ion Media backed it (see here and here).
Media deals making their way through federal court -- AT&T/Time Warner at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Disney/Fox at U.S. District Court in Manhattan -- shouldn't face a delay in judicial action due to the partial federal shutdown, antitrust and law experts told us. The month-long shutdown also isn’t seen having much effect on broadcast deals, analysts and attorneys told us.
Though Comcast plans to launch its own video streaming service in the first half of 2020 (see 1901140030), it anticipates licensing content to other over-the-top players, depending on what prices it can command, executives said in a Q4 call. CEO Brian Roberts said Comcast's streaming aim is to better monetize online viewership by offering its content online "with a very light ad load." He said it should be scalable, taking it quickly to breakeven. Comcast said as it rolls out the offering internationally in some countries, it will launch subscription VOD only, without advertising, or employ other strategies. Consolidated revenue for the quarter, including Sky, was $27.9 billion, up 26 percent year over year. It's increasing the 2019 dividend by 10 percent to 84 cents a share. The operator ended 2018 with 25.1 million residential broadband customers, up from 23.9 million; 21 million residential video customers, down from 21.3 million; and 10.2 million voice customers, down from 10.3 million. Comcast closed on its Sky takeover in October (see 1810090028). Roberts said Comcast rolled out 1 GB to nearly all 58 million homes and businesses in its footprint in 2018. Many won't need those speeds, a panel heard later Wednesday (see 1901230053).
The public commenting systems of numerous regulatory agencies are, like the FCC's electronic comment filing system, seemingly frozen at the point where the agency was shut down, according to experts and our analysis. Government transparency advocates say that's better than nothing, though concerns are strong that the partial federal government shutdown could scare away the public from taking part in ongoing proceedings.
A fight before the Supreme Court about whether public, educational and governmental channels could be deemed state actors (see 1810170027) is also becoming a venue for a skirmish between NCTA on one side and NATOA and PEG access groups on the other over constitutionality of cable operators' PEG requirements. The respondents in the Supreme Court case also got support from the New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) and Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute in amicus briefs posted Friday. Oral argument is Feb. 25.
Experts on space and orbital debris said no particular orbital plane is too crowded for further use now, but that day is coming. The FCC's orbital debris NPRM adopted in November (see 1811150028) is laudable but needs to focus also on convincing other nations to adopt similar guidelines since debris is inherently a borderless problem, said Ram Jakhu, McGill University associate professor. The FCC should have looked at tighter orbital debris rules years ago, he said.