Most signs point to Dish Network emerging as the dominant winner in the H-block auction, which continued at the FCC Monday. Through 11 rounds Monday provisionally winning bids total only $415.5 million, well below Dish’s commitment to bid $1.564 billion. Meanwhile, 117 of 176 licenses had provisionally winning bids through that round. Stifel Nicolaus said the bidding is not a surprise. Under FCC rules, the commission doesn’t reveal the identify of bidders until the auction is complete.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly encouraged commission restraint Monday, as he detailed his policy priorities to a Hudson Institute audience (http://bit.ly/1i4SpJ1). As commissioners prepare to vote on an order Thursday that would set procedures for proposing and evaluating IP transition trials (CD Jan 27 p7), O'Rielly cautioned that trials must not impede the innovation that’s already been happening as the telecom industry has moved to IP. He also elaborated on his vision of “economic freedom” and what it should mean to the FCC.

The FCC’s WRC Advisory Committee (WAC) agreed to disagree Monday on a proposal on whether the U.S. should recommend that the 460-890 MHz band is suitable for both mobile broadband and broadcasting, in any position paper to be submitted to the next World Radiocommunication Conference. NAB has insisted a U.S. position is premature, especially since the FCC has yet to approve a band plan for the 600 MHz band tied to the incentive TV auction (CD July 9 p1).

LAS VEGAS -- Protecting consumers’ private information is a crucial link to making the connected home a reality, said representatives from LG, Verizon and Lowe’s during an informal panel sponsored by Lowe’s at CES.

The take-up of providing platforms for addressable advertising through multichannel video programming distributors is on the verge of rising, said TV ad technology providers in interviews Monday. Efforts include a partnership disclosed Monday between Dish Network and DirecTV to offer a platform for tailored ads by political campaigns.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Fox’s petition for a rehearing on its request for an injunction against Dish Network’s AutoHop and PrimeTime Anytime features of the Hopper DVR. In July, the court unanimously ruled that Fox didn’t successfully demonstrate its breach of contract claims against Dish (CD July 25 p6). PrimeTime Anytime allows consumers to record primetime shows on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, while AutoHop lets users play back the recordings without commercials starting the day after broadcast.

A text-to-911 item slated for a vote at Thursday’s FCC meeting is largely a follow-up item that takes on over-the-top texting (OTT), but mostly fills out the record on issues that are already open and before the agency, FCC and industry officials said last week. The commission will take up a policy statement and further NPRM on texting to 911, according to a notice released Thursday (http://fcc.us/KQ20qQ). Potentially controversial is the policy statement that tells OTT providers and smaller carriers they need to adopt procedures by the end of the year to accommodate emergency texts or could face regulation, agency and industry officials say.

ISPs and websites working together to enhance quality of service (QoS) to broadband subscribers or site blackouts akin to TV station retransmission consent contract disputes are possibilities in the U.S., post-net neutrality court remand, said lawyers observing the industry Friday. There are some reasons to think ISPs such as cable operators and online video distributors won’t undermine each other, said Howard Homonoff, a former lawyer at NBC’s cable networks who now consults for media incumbents and new entrants, and Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant. The next few years will “see the market evolve around this” month’s remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit of the FCC 2010 net neutrality order (CD Jan 15 p1), “as opposed to an aggressive thrust of legislation or regulation coming out of the FCC,” said Homonoff responding to our question at a Technology Policy Institute panel (http://bit.ly/1mDoOpZ).

With the FCC apparently set to embrace Partial Economic Area (PEA) licensing in the incentive TV auction (CD Jan 16 p1), the big debate has shifted to whether the FCC should allow package bidding. Small carriers warned of the dangers of package bidding, while AT&T said it is necessary, especially if the FCC embraces license sizes smaller than Economic Area (EA) licenses for the auction. Package bidding allows a carrier to make a single bid for a particular package of licenses, rather than bid for each on an individual basis.

A federal appeals court decision (http://1.usa.gov/1cWoAVt) upholding a lower court’s decision that the Town of Greenburgh, N.Y., had unlawfully denied Crown Castle’s application to install a distributed antenna system (DAS) in a public right of way is not precedent-setting but a positive for industry nonetheless, PCIA Director of Government Affairs Jonathan Campbell told us Friday. But other wireless lawyers said the decision is mostly in keeping with other developing case law. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals released a summary decision, which the court said does set precedent.