Clear Channel hires Tim Spengler, ex-Interpublic Group’s Magna Global, as president-content marketing and revenue strategy, new position … Viacom promotes Mike Tedone to executive vice president-national and direct response sales, Viacom Media Networks Music and Entertainment … Technology Policy Institute hires Charles Hulten, University of Maryland, as adjunct senior fellow … 21st Century Fox promotes Michael Biard to president-distribution, Fox Networks … EWTN Global Catholic Network promotes Michael Warsaw to chairman, and he remains CEO, and Doug Keck to president, and he remains chief operating officer … ITV Studios US Group hires Jenise Caiola, ex-Universal Music Group, as executive vice president-human resources.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology released the preliminary version of the Cybersecurity Framework Tuesday, meeting skepticism from some cybersecurity experts. Early reaction from industry groups praised NIST’s inclusion of industry in the framework’s development, but the groups said they needed to review the framework more thoroughly. NIST had said it wanted to release the new version for public comment as soon as possible since it missed its original Oct. 10 deadline because of the government shutdown. NIST said it believes it will be able to meet the February deadline to release a final version of the framework.

Officials from several ILECs met with FCC Wireline Bureau officials the Thursday before the shutdown to discuss the transition from legacy support to model-based support under Phase II of the Connect America Fund, a USTelecom ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1fJ3Oio). The officials from AT&T, Verizon, Windstream, FairPoint and USTelecom walked through the amount a company would get where it accepts a state-level commitment, in a state where its legacy support exceeds support calculated under Phase II. In that situation, the ILEC officials suggested a five-year transition to the Phase II support level. The ILECs also discussed a process where the FCC would sunset legacy price cap company eligible telecom carrier designations, and create a new ETC designation under the Phase II program for companies electing to accept support under that program.

The FCC pole attachment order survived judicial review, as the Supreme Court on the first day of its term declined to hear the case. American Electric Power had appealed the February decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which upheld the rules (CD Feb 27 p9). It’s a big win for telcos and cable providers, which will soon see lower costs and reduced delays when attaching lines to utility poles, said Stifel Nicolaus. AEP and other electric utilities had said the rules, if upheld, could shift hundreds of millions of dollars in cost to electric ratepayers. DTE Electric, Minnesota Power, National Grid and South Carolina Electric & Gas told the Supreme Court in seeking review that the new rules could mean “billions of dollars” in pole ownership and maintenance costs are shifted from ILECs to electric utilities (CD July 8 p3).

USTelecom promotes Anne Veigle, ex-Warren Communications News, to senior vice president-communications … Nielsen Vice Chairwoman Susan Whiting retiring at year’s end … Microsoft promotes Janet Kennedy to president, Microsoft Canada … Global Telecom & Technology hires Corey Eng, ex-Comcast Business Services, as chief marketing officer of Internet Protocol network company … Local TV promotes Jim Himes to president and general manager, WGHP High Point, N.C. … Entercom hires Phil Zachary, ex-Curtis Media Group, as vice president and market manager, Boston … Comcast promotes David Tashjian to vice president-sales and marketing, Mile High Region.

A cybersecurity framework will work only if “we all understand the costs and benefits of adoption,” USTelecom Vice President-Industry and State Affairs Robert Mayer planned to tell a group of security officials and professionals Thursday, at a Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Protection summit in Washington. Officials leading the implementation of the administration’s executive order “are making good-faith efforts to listen and to engage industry in a constructive dialogue,” he said, according to a copy of prepared remarks he provided us. “This is not to say that we don’t have challenging conversations or that we see eye-to-eye on every issue. But we seem to be listening to each other and working together to define a relationship that will only become more critical over time.” Mayer said the nature of the threats and the country’s growing reliance on infrastructure would make it difficult to claim victory in the cybersecurity area. “It is one thing to have a document that is well-written and well-organized, and quite another thing to have a framework that can be effectively implemented and evaluated across multiple enterprises in 16 critical infrastructure sectors,” he said.

Many corporations unfamiliar with the process at Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers/ICANN weighed in on proposed risk mitigation for name collision issues, during the public comment period which closed Tuesday. USTelecom, General Electric and several electric utilities, as well as regular ICANN participants like Microsoft, Yahoo and Verisign, asked the organization to delay its new generic top-level domains program to allow additional study of the name collision issue. New gTLD applicants issued similarly broad comments taking issue with the risk mitigation proposal and urging ICANN to move forward more quickly with the delegation process.

The FCC’s rural call completion order has been circulated, agency officials said Tuesday. The order will “enhance the FCC’s ability to investigate and crack down” on the problem of calls that don’t reach their rural destinations, said Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn in a written statement (http://bit.ly/17HI1li). A safe harbor would exempt carriers from reporting requirements if they use no more than two intermediate providers, an agency official told us.

The FCC’s tribal engagement rules raise Administrative Procedure Act, First Amendment, and Paperwork Reduction Act concerns, officials from USTelecom, CTIA and NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association told agency officials Wednesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/15ViyaV). The groups repeated their 2012 request that the commission clarify its “further guidance” rules on tribal engagement are “intended to provide a best practices guide.” They also said there’s a need for written guidance clarifying that Form 481 reports need not address compliance with the rules.

Auction budgets for Phase II of the Connect America Fund should generally be set at the state level based on support amounts determined by the FCC Connect America Model, officials from USTelecom and its member ILECs told Wireline Bureau officials Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/189CqHg). The appropriate geographic unit for bidding should be counties, the groups said. They also discussed the transition from legacy funding to CAF Phase II funding in an auction context, and incentives that telcos would likely balance in assessing the state-level commitment and potential auction proceedings.