The FCC should use its media ownership rulemaking proceeding to look at the issue of retransmission consent, advocates for changing the retrans rules told Media Bureau officials last week, an ex parte notice shows. They asked the commission to examine whether the major broadcast networks’ involvement in affiliates’ retrans negotiations violates FCC’s ownership rules. Under current rules, a single company is barred from owning TV stations that reach more than 39 percent of the country’s households, the notice said. “The FCC should examine whether a national network’s veto power or right of approval over its affiliated stations’ retransmission consent agreements give the network an attributable interest in those stations, which would result in the network’s violation of the national ownership cap.” Representatives from the American TV Alliance including DirecTV, Mediacom, American Cable Association, Dish Network, Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and USTelecom asked Media Bureau staff to study whether the practice of jointly-negotiated retransmission deals between multiple stations in a given market violates FCC rules. They also asked the staff to examine the effects of a station having multiple major network affiliations through multicasting. The ATVA released a research paper that found broadcasters’ increased retrans revenue hasn’t been used “to enhance their provision of local news and public affairs programming.” The study, by Fordham University professor Philip Napoli, suggests that “retransmission consent provisions are not accomplishing their original goal of enhancing broadcasters’ commitment to localism.” A spokesman for the NAB said the premise of the study is absurd. “There is more local news on broadcast TV now than in any time in history,” he said. Moreover, “revenue derived from retransmission consent is not just used for news, but to keep the most-watched entertainment and sports programming from migrating to pay-TV."

The GOP overcame Democratic opposition to FCC process reform proposals, approving two bills Wednesday in the House Communications Subcommittee. On a party line vote, the subcommittee voted 14-9 on HR-3309, which requires rulemaking shot clocks, cost-benefit analyses and a variety of other process changes. However, Democrats supported HR-3310, a bill that would consolidate many FCC reports and eliminate others. The subcommittee approved that bill by voice vote but said more work needs to be done before the next markup in the full committee.

ST. LOUIS -- The FCC is careful not to disturb states’ role as it revamps the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system, said Wireline Bureau officials at NARUC’s annual meeting Tuesday. They didn’t address the timing of the order’s release, though several state officials expect it to be out before Thanksgiving.

FCC staff appear to be willing to compromise on the pending broadband outage reporting requirements, telecom officials told us. Industry met with staff on Thursday, trying to discourage staff from adopting performance metrics in its reporting requirements (CD Nov 7 p2). Though they made no concrete promises, staff suggested they might be willing to heed industry’s concerns, the officials said. Just in case, eight associations and 11 companies signed on to an ex parte notice Monday urging the commission “to undertake a thorough and careful cost-benefit analysis and work with industry to identify a more targeted approach to achieve the Commission’s stated goal in this proceeding.” Industry views the proposed outage requirements as “unnecessarily broad,” the notice said (http://xrl.us/bmimvs). It was signed by the American Cable Association, CTIA, CompTel, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, NCTA, the American Cable Association, the VON Coalition, USTelecom and several telcos and cable companies. “The proposed rules for outage reporting of broadband networks and interconnected VoIP are not narrowly-tailored and would establish specific service quality thresholds related to latency, jitter, and packet loss that would require providers to file outage reports with the Commission even where a user is able to communicate with public safety officials,” the letter said.

ST. LOUIS -- State members of the USF Federal/State Joint Board, the Federal/State Jurisdictional Separation Joint Board and the Federal/State Joint Conference on Advanced Services were schedule to meet with the FCC officials attending the NARUC meeting in here late Monday, after our deadline, John Burke, chair of the NARUC telecom committee told us. The FCC attendees, including Commissioners Michael Copps, Mignon Clyburn, Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett and Deputy Bureau Chief Carol Mattey, were expected to talk about the timing of the release of the full universal service fund/intercarrier compensation order and an overview of what is in the order, Burke said.

FCC staffers are trying to finish an order that would establish pilot programs in which Lifeline and Link-Up customers would be allowed to buy broadband Internet at subsidized prices, telecom officials told us. Staff is hoping to have the order ready for the Dec. 13 FCC meeting, the officials said. The order would structure a pilot program that would convert Lifeline subsidies to some kinds of broadband vouchers, the officials said. Lobbyists have increased their presence at the commission in recent days as word of the proposed order trickled out, filings in docket 11-42 showed. AT&T, USTelecom, Verizon and a handful of state officials have either written to or met with FCC staff on Lifeline changes in recent days. A telecom official said agency staff are worried about finding legal justification for supporting broadband with Lifeline funds.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s staff cancelled a meeting with industry that was supposed to have been convened to discuss the pending broadband outage reporting order (CD Nov 7 p2), commission and telecom officials told us Monday. Nearly 30 executives from industry -- including executives from USTelecom, CTIA, NCTA and the VON Coalition -- were to have sat down with Genachowski’s special assistant, Josh Gottheimer, Tuesday to lay out their concerns about the order. It was canceled because of a “scheduling conflict,” Gottheimer said in an email Monday.

Industry is worried that the FCC is apparently trying to put together an order on VoIP outage reporting for the December meeting, telecom lobbyists told us Friday. CTIA, USTelecom, NCTA, the VON Coalition and NTCA, among others, have all exchanged emails in recent days seeking letters and organizing meetings with FCC staff, urging the FCC not to adopt standards for “outage” that industry believes are arbitrary and unnecessary (CD Aug 10 p7).

The telecom world largely responded cautiously as the FCC on Thursday adopted its Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime changes. But telecom officials and observers predicted lawsuits would begin pouring in after the 400-plus page order is published and digested. Meanwhile, the order itself hadn’t been finished, an FCC official told us. Staff were continuing to incorporate edits agreed upon by the commissioners late in the process but before the vote, and the order won’t be ready for release until at least the end of next week, the official said. Less-substantive changes are also still being made.

AT&T is clinging “to an outdated and unworkable conception of intercarrier compensation” when it lobbies against cable operators’ request to allow CLECs to charge the same access rates as ILECs even when the CLECs don’t terminate calls, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable said in a letter filed Monday (CD Oct 24 p6). The dispute between the two companies flared up late last week, as the sunshine rules took effect and closed lobbying on the pending Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system order. AT&T was trying “to maintain ILEC-centric rules,” but is striving “mightily to obscure a simple, fundamental point,” the cable companies said.