Sending HD versions of new films to multichannel video programming distributors remains in testing by major studios, Chris Dodd said in his first speech in Washington since joining the MPAA about seven weeks ago. “Not every studio has made the same decision” to test “the viability of it,” he told us during a Q-and-A before media executives and lobbyists and FCC staffers. During prepared remarks at a Media Institute lunch on Tuesday and in answering questions, the new MPAA chairman several times said new technologies are spurring people to view movies in theaters. Dodd used his speech to seek a crackdown on piracy.

Congress must update the Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978 to account for the use of personal communication devices and social networking sites by White House staffers, said members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Tuesday. Lawmakers are considering revisions to the law which dictates the preservation of any record created in the course of official White House business. At the hearing, lawmakers discussed provisions to ban the White House’s use of personal email accounts and enhanced archiving of Web communications.

FARMINGTON, Pa. -- The NTIA has convened a working group to formulate the Obama administration’s position on pending Universal Service Fund changes, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said at an FCBA conference over the weekend: “The issue is important enough that the White House should have its own position on that.” The work group is led by John Morabito, head of the NTIA Office of Policy Analysis & Development, Strickling told us Saturday.

Dish Network and EchoStar’s $500 million settlement with TiVo marked a win for all sides involved, Dish CEO and EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen said on the DBS company’s earnings call Monday. The settlement includes an initial payment of $300 million to TiVo, with the last $200 million paid out in six equal annual payments between 2012 and 2017, the companies said in a news release Monday. The agreement ends all pending litigation between the companies “with prejudice” and dissolves all injunctions against Dish and EchoStar, the companies said. The settlement effectively ends several expensive years of litigation between the two companies over Dish’s alleged infringement of TiVo’s time-warp patent, which allows DVR recording of one program while watching another.

Career staffers continue working out how the FCC should implement legislation passed last year intended to put low-power FM stations on equal footing with other types of radio stations, agency and industry officials said. They said officials from the Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel have been figuring out what steps to take to fulfill the requirements of the Local Community Radio Act, signed into law in January by President Barack Obama. A possibility is the release of a rulemaking notice on how the legislation affects an auction of translator stations and another one on other effects of the law, communications lawyers watching the staff work said. No items appear ready to be circulated for a vote, officials inside and outside the commission said.

The FCC is starting to get some “grassroots” push back against AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, with several dozen consumers filing short statements in recent days. Heavyweights opposed to the deal are expected to weigh in later this month, based on the comment cycle established last week by the FCC. Petitions to deny are due May 31.

The FCC should extend a video description deadline for TV stations and cable operators, and the agency’s proposed Jan. 1, 2012 start is too soon, those industries said. The commission proposed in March to require Big Four broadcast network affiliates in the 25 largest markets and multichannel video programming distributors with more than 50,000 subscribers to have descriptions by then. NAB sought until Oct. 1, 2012, and NCTA asked the rules take effect in the fourth quarter of next year.

The many millions of dollars in higher expenses from carrying the Tennis Channel more widely on Comcast systems far outweighed any benefit the cable operator would get from striking the deal the independent programmer sought, a Comcast executive testified late Thursday afternoon. It appears that few or no cable subscribers would cancel their service if they couldn’t get the sports channel on popular programming packages, said Greg Rigdon, hired by Comcast to begin overseeing cable programming starting in February 2011. Likewise few customers would sign up if the channel were available more widely than on the sports tier, where it costs $5 a month, he said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s staff has concluded that the nation’s broadband gap may be widening, with up to 26 million Americans lacking access to high-speed Internet, FCC officials told us. But critics are already lining up to condemn the report’s methodology and implications. The report, which began circulating earlier this month, said broadband is still not reaching Americans “reasonably” or “timely” (CD April 26 p11). Like last year’s report, the so-called section 706 report relies on subscribership data from form 477 to set the lowest end of the broadband gap range. Unlike last year’s report, Genachowski’s staff uses data from NTIA’s broadband map to determine the high end of the range -- 26 million Americans, FCC officials told us. Last year, the commission used data from models in the National Broadband Plan to determine that up to 24 million Americans were without high-speed broadband.

Telco companies and agencies are working to restore services in Alabama and other states impacted by the tornadoes and severe storms that struck the Southeast this week. Companies’ natural disaster response teams are ready for the hurricane season, they said.