TiVo let loose another volley in its quest to prevent a provision’s attachment to Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation, its battles in the House lost and now focused on the Senate. The House approved a five-year STELA reauthorization bill (HR-4572) Tuesday by voice vote. It included the provision which would kill the set-top box integration ban compelling cable operators use CableCARDs instead of built-in security in set-top boxes. Senate Commerce Committee leaders of both parties told us the provision would possibly be part of their draft in process, slated for consideration in September.

Obama administration officials dismissed perceived misnomers about NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and argued at an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) conference on Internet governance Tuesday that the transition has made impossible calls for intergovernmental control of those functions. The event was webcast from the think tank’s Washington conference center. Academics and domain experts warned of an increasing climate in favor of government control for Internet governance that could threaten to derail the progress of the multistakeholder model. It’s “possible” that the State Department could become involved in a legal proceeding on the requested aquisition of the country code top-level domains for Iran, North Korea and Syria in lieu of unpaid damages to the victims of terror attacks involving those nations, said Daniel Sepulveda, deputy assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs. Sepulveda said he’s looking into the case.

Amid the more than million comments to the FCC, many of them focused on the continuing debate over whether net neutrality rules should be based on Section 706 or Title II of the Communications Act, were several ideas that purportedly sought a middle ground. But rather than triggering a consensus, most proposals -- like AT&T’s for a voluntary agreement for ISPs not to block or discriminate against edge providers, or Mozilla’s idea to use Title II only for the ISP/edge relationships -- only stirred more criticism. There were no real game changers in the deluge of comments, those interviewed on both sides of the debate said in interviews, but pro- and anti-Title II advocates each saw significant reasons for optimism.

The Federal Aviation Administration has indicated in recent weeks it expects by September to publish its long-awaiting NPRM on commercial operation of small drones, and that it will be “a multiyear process from beginning to end,” Mike Senkowski, who heads the new unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) practice at the Wiley Rein law firm in Washington, told a Law Seminars International tele-briefing Monday. However, Senkowski personally is “skeptical” that the FAA’s September time frame is “realistic,” he told us in a Tuesday email.

The House, scheduled to vote Tuesday on legislation to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, is poised to clear its version of the must-pass legislation before Congress enters its August recess. Attention then turns to the Senate, which also must pull together legislation from its two committees of jurisdiction and advance a bill before the year’s end, when STELA expires. Industry lobbyists told us many pieces in the debate are still moving and not to expect anything settled any time soon.

Several states’ attorneys general and utility regulators endorsed FCC action on net neutrality, with most urging the commission to use its authority under Title II of the Communications Act to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service. Three major groups connected with state telecom regulation also endorsed new FCC net neutrality rules, though of the three only the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) endorsed Title II reclassification as its top preference. Cities of Los Angeles and Philadelphia also weighed in on the FCC’s proposed NPRM. Comments on the net neutrality NPRM were due at the FCC Friday.

FCC approval of the $963 million purchase by Sinclair Broadcast of Allbritton Communications’ TV stations is expected to come by way of a Media Bureau decision on delegated authority this week, broadcast attorneys and public interest officials told us. The Department of Justice filed a consent decree announcing its conditional support for the deal last week (CD July 16 p8), and the FCC traditionally issues its decisions on deals after DOJ weighs in, several broadcast attorneys said in interviews Monday. Sinclair has asked the bureau to issue a decision before July 27, because the purchase agreement allows either party to terminate the deal on or after July 28 (CD May 30 p1). It’s unlikely that the Media Bureau would allow the clock on the deal to run out without weighing in, and the time limit makes it doubtful that the decision would be a full commission vote, the attorneys told us. The FCC’s next open meeting is August 8.

A Monday congressional briefing on 73-year-old music licensing consent decrees was temporarily disrupted by David Lowery, a songwriter and business lecturer at the University of Georgia, when he threw bags of T-shirts on the panel’s table, saying Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) paid him $17 for his co-written songs that had more than 1 million plays. The shirts were from his band, which “has nothing left to lose except the shirts on our backs,” he said in an interview. The bags were addressed to the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), NAB and the Digital Media Association (DiMA), all of which support consent decrees and had representatives on the panel, Lowery said. The example of consent decrees should be in “every textbook about why government meddling in the affairs of private business is wrong,” he said. “All of this is completely upside down.”

The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council and 41 other civil rights and social services organizations essentially backed FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s net neutrality strategy, including basing rules on Section 706. At a Monday news conference, MMTC cited concerns that using Title II would deter deployment of more broadband into minority communities. In doing so, they echoed the anti-Title II arguments of many broadband providers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (CD July 18 p1). One FCC official predicted it would make it more difficult for commission Democrats to support Title II reclassification, but others downplayed the impact.

Advocates for public, educational and government channels expect their partnership with TVfreedom.org to help with the push to keep PEG channels on the basic tier of cable service and to encourage movement on the Community Access Preservation (CAP) Act, S-1789, they said in interviews. American Community Television (ACT) joined TVfreedom.org, which put its support behind the CAP Act (CD July 9 p19). The legislation, introduced in December by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., would require cable operators to provide support for PEG channels (CD Dec 11 p6). The groups also plan to work together to ensure that the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization doesn’t harm PEG interests, they said.