Time Warner’s movie studio isn’t getting enough value from Netflix and Redbox, and it’s time to take a look at arrangements with the low-price DVD rental businesses, said the parent company’s CEO. The Warner Bros. studio already imposes a 28-day delay in releasing DVDs to those platforms, and Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes said Wednesday on the company’s Q4 earnings teleconference that having the window is better than not. “It’s getting kind of clear that the acceleration in consumer usage of these kinds of services … makes it a good time for us to reevaluate the terms,” he said. “We can’t be more specific at this time. We just think the value that our film company should get for that period of exhibition is considerably higher than what’s there now,” he said. Netflix and Redbox didn’t immediately respond to our queries.

Broadcasters would be among those required to run nationwide tests of the emergency alert system (EAS) in conjunction with federal agencies and other programmers, under a draft FCC order that commissioners may vote on soon, commission and industry officials said Tuesday. The Public Safety Bureau circulated an item on EAS Jan. 20, the FCC website said. That’s a draft order to require nationwide tests to be done annually, perhaps starting this year, commission and industry officials said. The order would turn into rules the proposals in a January 2010 rulemaking notice (CD Jan 15/10 p5), FCC officials said.

Municipal wireless in the U.S. “is not dead,” said Ben Lennett of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative during a panel discussion sponsored by the group Tuesday.

New Jersey’s Legislature is considering a bill to lift several telecom regulations. The proposal would harm consumers and leave the state’s telecom regulators with little authority, consumer advocates told us, saying some provisions conflict with federal law.

Requiring Voice over Internet providers to pay legacy access charges “would be a fundamental mistake,” the Voice on the Net Coalition said in comments on the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation rulemaking notice. “The commission is about to embark on real reform of the intercarrier compensation system precisely because the legacy system does not work with modern communications technologies,” VON Executive Director Glenn Richards said in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski posted to dockets 01-92, 07-135, 04-36 and 09-51. “Access charges are part of a regime that regulators designed 30 years ago before the advent of IP-based services.”

Cable and telecom ISPs are continuing efforts toward IPv6 deployment, as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority issues the last five IPv4 address blocks, executives told us Tuesday. Cable operators and consumer electronics manufacturers are working together and with other companies affected by the looming transition to IPv6 from IPv4, said CableLabs and CEA officials.

Monday’s announcement that NTIA is looking at the 1755-1850 MHz band for possible reallocation for wireless broadband could lay the groundwork for the biggest single spectrum auction since the 700 MHz sale in 2007, industry officials said. The wireless industry has been pushing hard for an auction pairing the cleared 1755-1780 MHz band with the AWS-3 band. Recent signs have been that the 1755-1850 band was getting NTIA and FCC attention (CD Jan 14 p1).

Dish Network agreed to buy DBSD for about $1 billion Tuesday, potentially giving Dish access to 20 MHz of valuable mobile satellite spectrum. The purchase of bankrupt MSS/ancillary terrestrial component licensee, which is subject to approval from the bankruptcy court and the FCC, offers Dish several options, said industry executives. The agreement follows the FCC’s waiver approval last week that allowed LightSquared to offer terrestrial-only services in spectrum allocated for MSS (CD Jan 27 p1). Dish may have similar hopes for the DBSD spectrum, said observers.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Egypt’s Internet cutoff vindicates support for strong net neutrality and opposition to online censorship, said Free Press President Josh Silver. A lesson is that neither governments nor corporations should be allowed to shut down or censor the Internet, he said at the Commonwealth Club civic forum Monday evening.

The Obama administration, working with companies like Facebook, Intel, IBM, Google and Hewlett-Packard, has created a Startup America campaign to help technology entrepreneurs, officials said Monday at a White House briefing. The effort proposes to speed up patent reviews and provide tax relief and credits as well as funding. Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and Chairman of the Case Foundation, will chair the partnership.