Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) will “shortly” introduce a bill to reauthorize the Corp. for Public Bcstg (CPB), an aide told us. The CPB was last reauthorized in 1992. Meanwhile, public broadcasters are bracing for the perennial assaults on issues such as objectivity and balance in their programs and local vs. national programming at a July 13 reauthorization hearing called by McCain, even as they hope that the reauthorization is straightforward. They also expect to be probed on proposals for a trust fund in exchange for early return of their analog spectrum. Differences have cropped up over the voluntary nature of the proposal by the Assn. of Public TV Stations and suggestions from PBS that a $5-$10 billion payment into the trust fund from spectrum auctions replace annual appropriations.

FCC Chmn. Powell is proposing an 800 MHz rebanding plan that would require Nextel to pay for public safety retuning, but not the value of the spectrum itself, unlike an earlier proposal that had been floated, sources said Wed. The order also would require Nextel to provide an additional 2 MHz at 800 MHz as a buffer for public safety communications, a proposal made by the carrier in June.

The markup of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA) in the House Judiciary Committee scheduled for today (Wed.) could include an amendment to speed local-into-local distribution through an antitrust exemption. Sources said Reps. Boucher (D-Va.) and Goodlatte (R-Va.) could propose the exemption. Industry sources said while DBS providers haven’t lobbied for the amendment, they won’t oppose it.

Vice-presidential hopeful and retiring Sen. Edwards (D-N.C.) has received many donations from prominent figures in the broadcasting and entertainment industry, as well as some in high- technology. But he has been all but ignored by telecom donors. Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, selected his chief primary rival, Edwards, to join his ticket Mon. Kerry also was strongly favored by mass media donors in his primary campaign. Edwards was a prolific fund-raiser in the primaries, drawing in over $33 million. He closed his campaign in the black -- a rarity for presidential candidates -- and now vows to raise funds for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Initially most of Edwards’ money came from lawyers and law firms, particularly trial lawyers, but his donor list diversified somewhat as he saw success in the polls and early primaries. Still, a breakdown by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) found the vast majority of the money that went into his Senate coffers in the 108th Congress -- more than $10.7 million out of $11.5 million -- came from his attorney base. Communications -- which includes telecom, mass media and high-tech -- totaled $584,586. Most of that money was from mass media donors, according to both CRP and a study of online donation records kept by the Federal Election Commission. Donors from the broadcast, movie and music industries gave $318,047 to Edwards in the 108th Congress, ranking them 9th among sectors and comprising more than 1/2 his communications total. Computer and Internet companies came in 18th with $88,589 and telecom companies didn’t make the top 20. In fact, in all 3 Congresses in which Edwards has served, telecom -- a sector that gives generously on the Hill -- has never made Edwards’ top 20. Mass media was 11th in the 107th and 106th Congresses. In the 106th Congress, Edwards’ first after upsetting Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.), he was on committees not of high interest to communications companies -- Banking, Governmental Affairs and Small Business. In the 107th Congress, however, when Democrats held the Senate majority, Edwards was on 2 choice committees, Commerce and Judiciary. The reduced number of Democrats in the 108th Congress cost Edwards his Commerce seat, but he still is on Judiciary. He’s not running for re-election. Edwards has eschewed PAC money in his Senate account and his presidential run, so virtually all donations have come in personal hard-money form. Among the $2,000 donors to Edwards’ presidential campaign from the broadcast industry are NBC Exec. Producer Neil Baer, Capital Bcstg. Pres. Barbara Goodmon and Muirfield Bcstg.’s Charles Morris. Sky Radio CEO Marc Holland gave $1,000. Cable donors giving the federal maximum $2,000 primary donation include HBO CEO Christopher Albrecht, while music industry officials giving the maximum include Universal Music Pres. Zach Horowitz and BMG Entertainment’s Strauss Zelnick. Studio executives giving $2,000 include Walt Disney Studios Pres. Nina Jacobson, DreamWorks SKG co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, Universal Studios Pres. Ronald Meyer and Saban Capital CEO Haim Saban. Many lower-level employees of broadcasting, music and studio companies also gave, some as much as $1,000, $250-$500 was more common. Among entities represented were ABC, AOL Time Warner, BET, Granite Bcstg., Imagine Entertainment, Lucasfilm, MTV, NAB, NBC Studios, Paramount, Studios USA TV, TiVo, Universal Studios, Vivendi Universal, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox. Despite the largess from mass media employees, Edwards didn’t directly address in his campaign the contentious issue of media ownership. He and Kerry missed a Sept. 2003 Senate floor vote that would have nullified the FCC rules allowing more media consolidation. That motion of disapproval passed 55-40. Kerry and Edwards in 2002 voted in favor of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), opposed by some in the bcstg. community because of its restrictions on ads. Kerry received donations from employees of high-tech companies, including Cisco Systems, IBM, Intel, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems, as well as the industry advocacy group TechNet. More than a dozen Microsoft employees gave to Edwards, topped by Senior Vp Janet Levinger with $2,000. Some nonexecutive telecom employees -- from companies such as Nextel, Qwest, Sprint, Verizon and Verizon Wireless -- contributed to Edwards. So did employees at satellite players including Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Vice-presidential hopeful and retiring Sen. Edwards (D- N.C.) has received many donations from prominent figures in the broadcasting and entertainment industry, as well as some in high-technology. But he has been all but ignored by telecom donors. Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, selected his chief primary rival, Edwards, to join his ticket Mon. Kerry also was strongly favored by mass media donors in his primary campaign.

This week’s markup of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA) in the House Judiciary Committee could include an amendment to speed local-into-local distribution through an antitrust exemption. Sources said Reps. Boucher (D-Va.) and Goodlatte (R-Va.) could propose the exemption. Industry sources said while DBS providers haven’t lobbied for the amendment, they won’t oppose it.

Public broadcasters failed last week to reach a consensus on a trust fund they are seeking from Congress in exchange for early return of public TV’s analog spectrum. PBS had called a meeting of officials of the Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS), Corp. for Public Bcstg. and NPR to resolve differences over trust fund proposals (CD July 1 p6). Although the discussions were “very positive and very constructive,” no specific agreement was reached, a PBS spokeswoman said. The differences center on the voluntary nature of the APTS proposal and suggestions from PBS that a $5-10 billion payment to the trust fund from analog spectrum auction proceeds replace annual federal appropriations.

Sen. Lautenberg’s (D-N.J.) office has been informed by GAO that it will investigate possible illegality should the FCC proceed as expected and endorse a plan that would give Nextel spectrum at 1.9 GHz as part of an 800 MHz rebanding plan, Lautenberg’s office confirmed Thurs. Lautenberg wrote GAO Tues. raising questions about the proposal. At our deadline, the FCC announced that the order would be on the Commission’s agenda for the July 8 meeting.

FCC Media Bureau Chief Kenneth Ferree told a group of communications lawyers that there are several issues in the media ownership decision by the 3rd U.S. Appeals Court, Philadelphia, (CD June 25 p1) that could warrant Supreme Court scrutiny. Ferree stressed that the Solicitor Gen.’s Office, in consultation with the FCC’s Gen. Counsel, would ultimately make the decision on whether to appeal to the Supreme Court. He also said he had not yet consulted with the commissioners on whether the agency wanted to seek certiorari or take another course. But Ferree told a meeting of the Federal Communications Bar Assn.’s Mass Media Practice Committee that he did feel it was ripe for review. He said it wasn’t a perfect case, “but not a bad one” for the high court, given a number of inconsistencies and potential problems he sees in the ruling.

A recent U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling on wholesale access rules will cost small and medium-sized businesses about $4.9 billion annually, according to a study released Tues. by CompTel/Ascent and NuVox Communications. The study said the decision “threatens to prevent” facilities-based CLECs from accessing high-capacity lines they use to deliver phone and Internet services to small and mid-sized businesses. CompTel CEO Russell Frisby and NuVox Vp- Regulatory Affairs Jake Jennings called on the FCC to act quickly to preserve access to DS-1 facilities at cost-based rates while new rules were developed. They said the new rules were “critical to the future direction of competition because the Bell companies already have indicated that they intend to raise wholesale rates unilaterally by the end of the year, if not before.” The study said unless the new rules ensured that CLECs retained “affordable” access to high-capacity lines, CLECs would be forced to pay “significantly more to provide the same service” by buying special access service, and the cost to business customers would rise 25%. It warned most CLECs would be forced to abandon the DS-1 market if required to pay special access rates. “Price increases for DS-1 services will add to inflationary pressures in the economy as small and medium businesses pass through at least some of cost increases in the price they charge for their own products,” it said. The study also estimated costs to small and medium-sized businesses could rise by $464 million a year in N.Y., $428 million in Cal., $351 million in Tex., $266 million in N.J. and $250 million in Ill. ALTS Pres. John Windhausen said in a statement he hoped the FCC would issue “new, permanent rules as quickly as possible to restore our companies’ rights to purchase the essential elements needed by facilities-based competitors. Failure to act soon could impose a dramatic rate hike on American small businesses across America, putting a stake in the heart of the nascent economic recovery.” But an SBC spokesman called the study “a series of guesses pulled out of thin air.” He said SBC’s wholesale customers would have “the same access to our network tomorrow that they have today. The sky hasn’t fallen and no one is taking anything away.” The spokesman said “the door remains open for business-to-business commercial agreements… That’s the best way to provide added certainty for our competitors’ businesses.”