FCC staffers are “actively reviewing” the meaning of the term “not-for-profit hospital,” which appears in the Communications Act, Chairman Tom Wheeler told multiple lawmakers in a Sept. 19 letter (http://bit.ly/1E18CdH). Agency officials will “seek to reach a determination in as expeditious a manner as possible,” he said. The meaning of the term came into question as the FCC seeks to implement its Healthcare Connect Fund.
Congress needs to give “serious consideration” to the Respecting Senior Performers as Essential Cultural Treasures (RESPECT) Act after a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ruling against SiriusXM for pre-1972 public performance royalties (CD Sept 24 p7), said Seth Cooper of Free State Foundation (FSF) in a paper released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1nLtJMs). Because legal questions on the protection of pre-1972 public performance royalties remain unresolved in other states, HR-4772 “could provide certainty,” he said. Although the RESPECT Act doesn’t pre-empt state law protections for such recordings, the bill provides “safe harbor for digital music services providers from state copyright infringement lawsuits,” said Cooper. The ruling also highlighted copyright law’s “unfair favoritism” toward terrestrial radio, he said. That terrestrial broadcasters aren’t obligated to pay public performance royalties for any sound recordings “infringes on the rights of copyright holders” and is “unfair to digital and satellite radio services,” said Cooper. “Free market copyright policy should include an eventual transition, even if piecemeal, toward greater reliance on contract bargaining and less on government rate-setting,” he said. “It’s apparent that FSF has very little understanding of the unparalleled free promotional value that broadcast radio provides artists and record labels,” said an NAB spokesman. Many cases are pending on pre-1972 public performance royalties for digital broadcasters, but “none of those lawsuits were brought against over-the-air radio stations,” said NAB. “There’s no reason to believe the outcome of these cases will impact” terrestrial broadcasters, it said. The Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 16), which would prohibit any new taxes or royalties on broadcast radio stations, has 232 co-sponsors (http://1.usa.gov/1rM1GfK). HR-4772 has 14 co-sponsors (http://1.usa.gov/10lsRDj).
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, jointly asked the GAO Wednesday to do a study on how the FCC’s broadcast TV incentive auction may affect low-power TV (LPTV) broadcasters and translators and their served communities, (http://1.usa.gov/1mR9L1V). Eshoo and Barton want to know the number of low-power stations that offer original programming or show local news and information, “especially those serving racial and ethnic minority communities”; “a projection of the number of such LPTV stations and TV translator stations that will be unable to locate to or operate on replacement channels after the auction”; and “a projection of the number of viewers that will lose over-the-air access to at least one such local LPTV station that provide[s] local news and information, especially to underserved communities of interest,” a Barton news release said. They asked for recommendations from GAO on the FCC and Congress “on ways to remedy adverse impacts ... .” Barton has circulated a draft bill that would protect such low-power entities, which Eshoo had voiced concerns about in a legislative hearing in late July.
The FCC is “actively working on initiatives” in line with recommendations in a GAO report on how the agency should improve the accountability and transparency of its high-cost program funding, Chairman Tom Wheeler told members of Congress from both chambers and parties in a Sept. 19 letter the agency released this week. The GAO report advised the agency to show “how high-cost funds are being used to improve broadband availability, service quality and capacity, and by conducting analyses of carrier data and publicly reporting this information annually in a granular and accessible manner,” Wheeler said (http://bit.ly/1ue8raJ). “We agree with the GAO’s findings and its recommendation,” he said, having “carefully reviewed” the report. “Specifically, based on the GAO’s recommendation, we are working to quantify where recipients have used high-cost funds to increase broadband deployment, penetration, and available speeds.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., is continuing to work with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to deal with “political tantrums” over the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), he said during an event Wednesday. Experts consider CISPA (HR-624) and CISA (S-2588) relatively analogous, though CISA’s proponents say it has better privacy protections than CISPA. Critics of CISA argue those privacy protections are insufficient (CD July 30 p6). “Tantrums” over CISA threaten to result in “holds and other things” in the Senate that could kill the bill’s prospects for the rest of the 113th Congress, Rogers said during a Washington Post event. Rogers said he fears if the Senate isn’t able to pass CISA during the post-election lame-duck session, the legislative process “all starts over.” Rogers and Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., are retiring at the end of the 113th Congress, adding to future problems for cybersecurity information sharing legislation, Rogers said. There aren’t any holds on CISA because the bill “hasn’t been hotlined,” a committee aide told us. Senate Intelligence hopes to address all potential issues before it’s hotlined “to allow it to be passed,” the aide said.
Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., has continued to weigh potential problems with Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable. He met with members of the Writers Guild of America, West for an informal briefing at the Capitol Tuesday that included Alfredo Barrios, known for his work on the TV show Burn Notice, and Patric Verrone, a past guild president. Cardenas is concerned about “the potential for both vertical and horizontal integration issues surrounding the potential Comcast-Time Warner merger, and how those could lead to both media consolidation and a shortage of independent voices in front of the camera, along with fewer job and growth opportunities in production and other trades,” his spokesman told us. The spokesman said the briefing’s key takeaway was the Guild’s objection to Comcast/TWC due to creation of “more homogenized programs, with far fewer opportunities for diverse, unique voices to be heard.” Cardenas signed a letter to the heads of Comcast and Time Warner Cable this summer expressing concerns. In September, Cardenas and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with independent producers to discuss the transaction. Comcast has defended the proposed acquisition as ultimately good for consumers.
American Commitment has gathered 2.4 million letters from constituents asking Capitol Hill lawmakers to stop what it says is the FCC attempt to “impose regulations on the Internet,” the free market-oriented group said in a news release Tuesday. “A Washington takeover of the Internet would be disastrous for free speech, commerce, and the future of the Internet as a sphere of innovation,” said American Commitment President Phil Kerpen in a statement. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., also issued a statement welcoming the letters as part of the net neutrality debate: “We have said all along that these rules continue to be a solution in search of a problem. We will continue working to get government out of the way in our effort to create jobs, boost the economy, and spur innovation.” The group had included a form letter at StopInternetRegulation.org, which said it would send a petition to the FCC as well as to the sender’s relevant member of Congress. “The unregulated Internet is probably the greatest success story of the century,” said the form letter, which does not explicitly mention net neutrality. “Tens of billions of private dollars pour into its networks every year, even in a bad economy. The only reason to change this is to appease a small left-wing political faction that is ideologically obsessed with government control over the economy.”
TVFreedom lambasted Congress for the different policies that have come up this year during the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization process. TVFreedom is a broadcaster coalition with NAB among its members. “Current Congressional efforts to regulate the video marketplace are unfortunately myopically focused on one faulty premise -- that TV blackouts have reached epidemic proportions due to retransmission consent disputes between broadcasters and pay-TV providers,” TVFreedom’s spokesman Robert Kenny wrote in a Monday op-ed for The Hill (http://bit.ly/1DSkWwN). He attacked the pay-TV industry in broad terms and backed two senators he views as pursuing these problems -- Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., for introducing an amendment to curb “gratuitous set-top box rental fees,” and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., for introducing an amendment on pay-TV billing practices and expected to hold a hearing on the issue. “Congress can reverse this trend of constant consumer abuse as it embarks on reforming the nation’s video marketplace,” said Kenny. “Let’s hope lawmakers see passed pay-TV’s ‘fat-cat’ lobbying tactics and take action to help lower consumers’ monthly cable and satellite TV bills that have risen at twice the rate of inflation for the past two decades.” Kenny attacked congressional provisions that would limit broadcaster joint retransmission consent negotiation as well as, without naming it directly, the broadcast a la carte proposal known as Local Choice, which was dropped from a Senate STELA reauthorization bill. Pay-TV companies have united to lobby against broadcasters on many of these issues through the coalition known as the American Television Alliance.
The Telecommunications Industry Association told Congress that telehealth should be a covered benefit. TIA had joined other groups, including the American Telemedicine Association, the App Association, Intel, Panasonic and Qualcomm, to submit a letter Friday to the House Commerce Committee on its 21st Century Cures initiative. “Congress has the responsibility to take necessary steps to help Americans realize the benefits of these solutions,” they said (http://bit.ly/1wREE73). “Congress should immediately address restrictions in Section 1834(m) of the Social Security Act, which have resulted in arduous constraints on telehealth services, particularly via its geographic and originating site limitations. Restrictions in the law such as those in 1834(m) significantly limit patient access to new technologies, effectively discouraging providers from utilizing advanced [information and communication technology] ICT solutions in their practices and depriving millions of Americans the benefits of cutting-edge care available today.” They submitted other recommendations and said lawmakers should request a Congressional Budget Office study of “the costs and benefits associated with the expanded use of telehealth during 4Q 2014.”
NCTA fought back in defense of a Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (S-2799) provision that would repeal the set-top box integration ban. “Public Knowledge has been flooding inboxes calling on their network to take a stand on what they describe as an anti-consumer measure in must-pass video legislation,” said a Monday NCTA blog post (http://bit.ly/1rwikyj), referring to a recent PK campaign (CD Sept 26 p12). “A closer look shows that Public Knowledge is distorting the impact of this change in spite of the fact that these changes would benefit consumers. The integration ban is an outdated rule which forces cable operators -- and cable operators alone -- to include a separate piece of descrambling equipment known as a CableCARD in the set-top boxes they lease to customers, which adds costs, wastes energy and provides no benefit.” Public Knowledge “appears oblivious to this injustice, perhaps blinded by their seemingly endless desire to criticize the cable industry,” NCTA said. The House approved a similar provision in July. The battle over this STAVRA provision prevented the Senate from approving a Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act proposal earlier this month (CD Sept 22 p1).