The FCC asks a battery of questions about reallocating spectrum for wireless broadband, in a long-expected public notice released Wednesday. The notice asks numerous questions specific to broadcast spectrum, but opens the door to comments on government, satellite and other spectrum as well. Meanwhile, a coalition of 103 companies and nine trade associations sent FCC commissioners a letter stating the general case that the U.S. needs more spectrum, without taking on the touchy issue of whether it should be set aside for licensed or unlicensed use.
News Corp. is working on delivering TV programs and content from its newspapers to mobile devices using its broadcast TV spectrum, Chairman Rupert Murdoch told a conference at the Federal Trade Commission Tuesday. “For newspapers, the spectrum could well prove an economic vehicle,” he told the meeting on the future of the news industry. “Today’s news consumers do not want to be chained to a box in their homes or offices to get their favorite news and entertainment -- and our plan is to meet the needs of the next wave of TV viewing by going mobile.” His remarks come as the FCC looks at ways to reallocate some of the spectrum held by TV broadcasters. (See separate report in this issue.)
News Corp. is working on delivering TV programs and content from its newspapers to mobile devices using its broadcast TV spectrum, Chairman Rupert Murdoch told a conference at the Federal Trade Commission Tuesday. “For newspapers, the spectrum could well prove an economic vehicle,” he told the meeting on the future of the news industry. “Today’s news consumers do not want to be chained to a box in their homes or offices to get their favorite news and entertainment -- and our plan is to meet the needs of the next wave of TV viewing by going mobile.” His remarks come as the FCC looks at ways to reallocate some of the spectrum held by TV broadcasters. (See separate report in this issue.)
The NTIA and RUS received a bevy of proposed rule changes as they prepare to move ahead with the second and final round of broadband stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In comments on the agencies’ November request for information (CD Nov 12 p1), broadband providers and others cited many problems in the first round that they said discouraged participation or colored results. Many of the comments were unreadable Tuesday due to problems on the agencies’ stimulus Web site, BroadbandUSA.gov.
A law firm with radio and TV clients again asked the FCC to reverse course on a media ownership form’s requirement that filers use commission registration numbers whose disclosure has raised privacy concerns among broadcasters (CD Nov 20 p7). “In their apparent, and as yet unexplained, rush to adopt changes to the Form 323, the Commission has failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act,” said a late Monday petition for reconsideration by Fletcher Heald. “The Commission has failed to provide drafts of the revised Form 323 to the public in a timely manner and has failed to provide notice of, and the requisite opportunities for comment on, the proposed changes to that Form.” Media Bureau staffers have been revising the form, not yet publicly available at our deadline, but expected to be out soon. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment. The law firm filed the petition as a preventative measure so the commission can’t claim that issues relating to Form 323 weren’t raised now and so can’t be brought up in the future, Fletcher Heald attorney Harry Cole told us. “We filed today because this is the 30th day after the FCC’s last order in the Form 323 matter.”
The team writing the National Broadband Plan could be hard pressed to complete and submit the plan to FCC members in advance of what is expected to be a Feb. 11 meeting where it would be considered by commissioners. To give commissioners the usual three weeks to review what is likely to be a complicated set of proposals, Chairman Julius Genachowski would have to circulate a draft broadband order Jan. 21.
The allegedly deceptive cash-back and free-trial online offers under investigation by the Senate Commerce Committee have shown up in a different form in litigation against Facebook and online game maker Zynga.
The allegedly deceptive cash-back and free-trial online offers under investigation by the Senate Commerce Committee (WID Nov 18 p1) have shown up in a different form in litigation against Facebook and online game maker Zynga. A lawsuit seeking class-action status in U.S. District Court in San Francisco claims that popular games available on Facebook, including Mafia Wars, Zynga Poker and FarmVille, include offers that hoodwinked players into buying subscriptions or charged them for products even after they canceled within the trial window. It asks for at least $5 million in refunds. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus’s video-captured admission that he “did every horrible thing in the book” to quickly raise money figures prominently in the complaint. A Senate Commerce aide told us the committee was “familiar” with the online-game issue, “but it’s not part of our investigation.”
GENEVA -- Countries are at odds over what’s needed to protect critical networks and stem cyberthreats, they said in preparations for U.N. meetings this week and next year on information security. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council meet this week with 10 other countries for the first time on the issue. The organizational meeting through Thursday will set the stage for future talks on strengthening security in the global information and telecommunications systems, documents said.
The FCC is continuing to hold off deciding on three petitions against AT&T and Comcast over the companies’ digital carriage of public, education and government (PEG) channels, several commission and industry officials said. The petitions from December and January by towns and municipal groups ask the commission to require pay-TV providers to treat PEG channels the same as others. The petitions are among the media items that could get FCC approval this or next quarter, and in the past some officials there have sought action, but the regulator for now is taking a wait-and-see approach, said commission officials and communications lawyers.