Seeking to double federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the next five years, public broadcasters are planning a campaign that includes enlisting station board members who contribute to congressional and presidential candidates to lobby for increased funding. Leaders of national public broadcasting organizations have “discussed in principle” what it would take to double CPB appropriations, said John Lawson, president of the Association of Public TV Stations. And they have concluded that public broadcasters need to make a “very solid case statement of what public TV and radio would do with increased federal funding,” he said.
Qwest got support from AT&T and Verizon as it campaigns to do away with ARMIS reporting requirements. But everyone else filing in the FCC proceeding opposed Qwest’s forbearance petition. Competitors and consumer groups told the FCC that the reports sometimes are the only data available for tracking a Bell’s dominance. The views came in reply comments filed Friday. “ARMIS” refers to Bells’ filing the reports through the Automated Reporting Management Information System. Qwest seeks elimination of many, though not all, of the reports, calling them time-consuming and unnecessary.
Vermont regulators Friday rejected Verizon’s proposed $2.7 billion transfer of its landline assets to FairPoint. But the Public Service Board said it would reconsider its denial if the companies submit a revised proposal reducing the substantial financial risks that turned the board against this deal. The companies indicated they don’t see Vermont’s action as a deal killer, and that they'll try to ease board concerns.
The FTC approved the Google-DoubleClick merger Thursday with no conditions, to the dismay of privacy groups and a dissenting commissioner. The FTC majority said the evidence “failed to show that DoubleClick has market power,” and it’s “unlikely that Google could effectively foreclose competition” with the acquisition. The FTC also released “self-regulatory privacy principles” for the behavioral targeting industry, saying it will be watching online marketing. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission cleared the merger this year and one of three Brazilian regulatory agencies involved has recommended approval. A European Commission hearing on the deal is Jan. 21.
Last-minute changes to a controversial FCC media ownership order (CD Dec 19 p1) drew criticism at the agency and on Capitol Hill, with predictions that the agency soon will face appeals of its deregulation of cross-ownership. The FCC’s two Democrats said in interviews that they didn’t have enough time to review important changes made only hours before Tuesday’s meeting. House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., chided the late tweaks. He joined many in Congress criticizing the order clearing the way for radio and TV stations to buy daily papers in big markets.
On December 14, 2007, the Senate passed its version of H.R. 2419, the Farm Bill Extension Act. The House passed its version of H.R. 2419 on July 27, 2007. According to the Library of Congress' Thomas Web site, the Senate has requested a conference with the House to resolve differences between the two versions. (See ITT's Online Archives or 07/31/07 news, 07073199 2, for BP summary on the House passage of H.R. 2419.) (Congressional Record, dated 12/14/07, available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r110:@FIELD(FLD003d)@FIELD(DDATE20071214).)
A split FCC approved Tuesday a media ownership order -- clearing the way for radio and TV stations to buy daily newspapers in large markets -- and reimposed a national cap on how many subscribers cable companies can have. As expected (CD Dec 18 p1), FCC Democrats voted against the order, which lets a broadcaster combine with a newspaper in any of the top 20 markets, as long as it isn’t one of the top four TV stations and eight other independent broadcasters and major papers would remain after the deal.
An FTC decision on the Google-DoubleClick merger is “imminent,” Center for Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester told reporters during a Tuesday conference call. “It could be this week, could be before the end of the year,” he said. The merger is “far more important in terms of media diversity… than what’s going on at the FCC,” he said. “We need to reiterate the need to address privacy concerns as part of this review,” he said, saying “a number of commissioners are concerned” and “if the commissioners fail to act… it will be a violation of trust, an abuse of their own role.” An EU hearing is set Jan. 21. FTC Chairman Deborah Majoras’ decision not to recuse herself from the merger review was “unprofessional,” he said. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, agreed that Majoras hasn’t “satisfactorily answered the questions” about remaining involved in the matter. EPIC has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for details, not to delay the merger as some have alleged, he said. EPIC is building a legal challenge to Majoras’ refusal to recuse herself, and this could be made in an appeal of a merger approval if it comes soon, he said. European consumer group BEUC amplified those concerns in a Tuesday letter to Neelie Kroes, EU competition commissioner. DoubleClick’s ad-serving tools, offered on a standalone basis and not controlled by DoubleClick, nonetheless are “used by almost all top publishers to function as a kind of ’spigot’ for ad networks to access the inventory that publishers do not sell directly,” the group said. The merger will “eliminate nascent competition” between Google and DoubleClick for ad- serving tools and integrated ad networks, said BEUC. Web publishers likely would see lower revenue from ads served by Google, which could block non-Google ad networks from “interoperating” with publisher tools from DoubleClick, now seen as an “honest broker,” BEUC said. Consumers may see less content and less innovation online if Google raises rates for advertisers, who then pull back their advertising, hurting publishers downstream, it said. The so-called privacy race between search providers, which have all instituted data retention limits in recent months, may slow to a crawl, as “Google will lose any incentive” to tighten its privacy policies as its market dominance expands. Privacy is especially important to European audiences, BEUC said. The group also warned that Google could discriminate against customers based on price or other “commercial conditions,” if advertisers have access to consumer profiles held by Google that show, for example, a consumer is an “impulse buyer.”
A Minnesota Public Utilities Commission hearing officer denied Qwest’s motion to close a PUC investigation into the wholesale rates because the commission lacked jurisdiction over prices for unbundled network elements provided under section 271 of the Telecom Act. Qwest cited federal court rulings and decisions by seven state commissions to support its claim that the PUC lacked jurisdiction to set rates for network elements no longer subject to section 251’s cost- based unbundling obligations. But the PUC said the cases that Qwest cited involved state orders compelling incumbents to provide network elements delisted by the FCC from section 251, or ordering that rates for such delisted UNEs be set at total element long run incremental cost. The PUC said neither of these requirements is under consideration in the Minnesota wholesale rate review (Case P-421/CI-05-1996). The commission said no federal edict has preempted the PUC’s duty under state law to ensure intrastate wholesale telecom service rates are just, reasonable and nondiscriminatory. The commission said it has legal authority to ensure that telecom carriers provide “reasonably adequate services and facilities,” and guarantee that rates for all services “are fair and reasonable for the intrastate use thereof.” Qwest also asked that the PUC delay the wholesale rate review until the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis decides an appeal involving the same jurisdictional issues, which the carrier raised in Minnesota. But the PUC said Qwest offered no compelling reason to wait for the federal court’s action and set an April 8 date to open wholesale rate review hearings.
A bill that would raise statutory limits on damages for intellectual property infringement drew fire at a Thursday House IP Subcommittee hearing from witnesses and some members. Damages for infringing the copyright of a compilation are capped at $30,000. Section 104 of the PRO-IP Act (HR-4279) would allow courts to make “multiple awards of statutory damages” when compilations are infringed. Other parts of the bill also are aimed at strengthening U.S. IP enforcement.