Dish Network urged the FCC to hold a hearing or ask “searching questions” on Media General buying New Young Broadcasting. In retransmission consent negotiations with Dish, Media General “has attempted to extend the retransmission terms it demands for its stations to the Young stations, too,” said Dish in a letter in docket 13-191 (http://bit.ly/17nUBtQ). Programming from Media General stations in 17 markets hasn’t been available to Dish subscribers in those markets since Oct. 1 (CD Oct 3 p13). Dish filed a complaint with the FCC against Media General (CD Oct 21 p7). This conduct “may reflect improper coordination between the two companies, as the two applicants are still separate competitors,” and it shows a “propensity to engage in further anticompetitive behavior that is relevant to the commission’s public interest evaluation,” Dish said. It asked the FCC to condition the Media General/New Young deal “on baseball-style arbitration and a standstill provision in the event of retransmission impasses, modeled on the corresponding condition imposed in NBC-Comcast.” Dish’s letter “is nothing new and represents a continuation of the meritless claims made in their Oct. 18 complaint,” a Media General spokeswoman said.

The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee meeting delayed by the federal shutdown is now back on, scheduled for 1 p.m. Dec. 13 at Commerce Department headquarters (http://1.usa.gov/1a9ZkcK). With the group’s spectrum sharing reports done, the new focus is on the work of six new subcommittees: Enforcement; Transitional Sharing; General Occupancy Measurements and Quantification of Federal Spectrum Use; Spectrum Management via Databases; Federal Access to Non-Federal Bands; and Spectrum Sharing Cost Recovery Alternatives. Meanwhile, NTIA plans a meeting that morning on lessons learned from the CSMAC working group process, starting at 9 a.m. and also at the Commerce Department’s headquarters (http://1.usa.gov/1ioUltN).

Mass surveillance and reports of tapping of European politicians’ phones are the subject of Monday to Wednesday talks in Washington between U.S. authorities and the European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, said the European Parliament in a news release. One priority is to gather all relevant information from U.S. sources, said delegation leader Claude Moraes (U.K., Socialists & Democrats). Lawmakers plan to meet with congressional members, lawyers, academics and civil society representatives, the parliament said. Also on the agenda are reform of EU data protection laws and possible suspension of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, a move that the European Parliament recommended last week (CD Oct 24 p10). Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee is visiting New York and Washington to discuss the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The negotiations are of “crucial economic and political importance for the USA and the EU in the new global order,” said committee Chairman Elmar Brok (Germany, European People’s Party). The U.S. should “stop blocking the stagnating negotiations” on a U.S.-EU agreement for data protection, he said. Both committees will exchange views Wednesday at the White House with Karen Donfried, National Security Council senior director-European affairs, the release said.

The European Commission set up an expert’s group on voluntary terms for cloud computing contracts, it said Monday. The goal is to identify best practices for addressing the worries of consumers and small companies that are often reluctant to buy cloud services because contract terms are unclear, it said. Panel members represent cloud service providers, consumers, small and medium-sized businesses, academics and lawyers. The first meeting is scheduled for Nov. 19-20, and the group is expected to report in the spring, the EC said. The input will feed into a policy paper launching a public consultation on possible ways forward on cloud computing contracts for consumers and small enterprises, it said.

The FCC proposed $52,200 in total fines for violations of rules governing radio stations, translators and antennae structures, said Media Bureau notices of apparent liability released last week. The commission proposed a $25,000 fine for Four Corners Broadcasting (http://bit.ly/HkpXWm) for its Durango, Colo., radio stations KIQX(FM), KRSJ(FM) and KIUP(AM) and studio transmitter links WHB352, WLD73 and WPNG746. Four Corners was operating the STLs from unauthorized locations, said the NAL. The commission also proposed a $4,200 fine for Coastal Television Broadcasting (http://bit.ly/16AXYYe) for failing to notify the commission of a change in ownership in an Anchorage, Alaska, antennae structure. The commission also proposed an $8,000 fine for Iglesia Cristiana Ebenezer (http://bit.ly/19F6yIV) for operating Greenville, Texas, translator station K295BF from an unauthorized location, and a $15,000 fine for Juan Nieves (http://bit.ly/19F6ysd) for operating an unlicensed radio transmitter on the frequency 97.7 MHz in Summerfield, Fla.

Connect Ohio and State Sen. Joe Uecker (R) announced the creation of the Ohio Broadband & Technology Caucus, which will bring together legislators from across the state to monitor state and federal broadband policy, said Connect Ohio in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1d87Pti). The caucus will build awareness and broaden resources available to address issues of broadband access, adoption and use throughout Ohio, said Connect Ohio. Founding members include State Sen. Lou Gentile (D), along with State Reps. Ryan Smith (R) and Stephen Slesnick (R).

The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue plans to announce two privacy resolutions at a meeting Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1hgdbp8), where European Union and U.S. officials are scheduled to discuss the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), said TACD Information Society Co-Chairman Jeff Chester. TACD, a coalition of U.S. and European consumer organizations, views the free trade negotiations between the U.S. and EU “as a digital ‘Trojan Horse’ to circumvent the proposed EU data regulation,” said Chester, also Center for Digital Democracy executive director, in an email. One resolution focuses on U.S. privacy practices while the other calls for a review and revision of the safe-harbor program, which gives a process for U.S. companies to comply with EU directives on personal data privacy, he said. Tuesday’s event will address “the most important issues for consumers and citizens” who would be covered under TTIP, and will feature FTC Chairman Edith Ramirez and EU officials, said the agenda (http://bit.ly/1hgdbp8).

AT&T postponed the filing of certain TDM-based special access service plan changes to allow for more discussion. The telco intends to end TDM-based plans longer than 36 months as part of its ambition to go all-IP by 2020, the telco told business customers in a letter Friday. States affected include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, said the letter. Several companies had protested the proposed AT&T change to tariffed TDM services, originally set to be effective Nov. 9. “To address questions and concerns that customers have raised regarding the tariff changes, AT&T has decided to postpone the filing of those changes by approximately 30 days,” AT&T said in its letter to business customers. “AT&T now plans to file the tariff changes to grandfather the term plans on November 25, 2013 (rather than October 25, 2013), to become effective on December 10, 2013 (rather than November 9, 2013). This additional time will enable discussion of your questions and concerns and exploration of alternative arrangements for your TDM and IP-based services.” It encouraged such customers to talk to AT&T about migrating to IP-based services.

Free Press and Sinclair Broadcasting exchanged dueling press releases Thursday over a Free Press report (http://bit.ly/15PdbHU) released earlier in the week accusing Sinclair and other companies of using shared service agreements (SSAs) and joint service agreements (JSAs) to get around FCC ownership rules (http://bit.ly/1d3D1Kn, http://bit.ly/1c4NSCt). Sinclair called Free Press’s report “inaccurate, irresponsible and potentially defamatory” and criticized the group for ignoring Sinclair’s overtures to discuss their differences before the report was released. Sinclair did not comment on whether it was considering legal action against Free Press. “Contrary to the apparently intentionally uninformed views expressed by Free Press, there is no question on the positive contributions and the substantial investments we have made in the local markets we operate, especially in the newsrooms,” said Sinclair’s release. Free Press said Sinclair’s defense of sharing arrangements is “bogus” and attacked the broadcaster’s contention that the FCC has a history of authorizing SSAs and JSAs as “highlighting the farce” identified in the report. “Contrary to its claims, Sinclair is not helping independent, struggling stations stay on the air,” said Free Press. “Instead, it’s using its shell companies to buy these stations and drive independent owners out of business.” The broadcaster and public interest group have been exchanging similar arguments over the issue of sharing arrangements in filings connected with Sinclair’s purchase of Allbritton’s TV stations (http://bit.ly/HlK6dG), and Free Press has also attacked the use of sharing agreements in pending transactions involving Tribune and Local TV. “The bottom line is that fake owners shouldn’t be given real broadcast licenses,” said Free Press. The public interest group “is ignoring the changes in the dissemination of information that have occurred in the last almost 70 years,” Sinclair said. That should be a “red flag that the organization is not working in the public’s best interest and is simply disconnected to the real world and its multiple voices found in newspapers, cable networks, radio, outdoor, television and the Internet,” said Sinclair.

The Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform weighed in on the patent litigation revamp bill (HR-3309) from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., in a Thursday letter (http://bit.ly/1bk9YQC). The group -- which includes many large manufacturing, information technology and medical companies -- praised the new bill for creating “consistent claim construction rules” but criticized the bill’s expansion of the covered business method program and the stays of discovery pending claim construction. The letter expresses similar concerns as a number of high-profile tech companies, but stands in opposition to many trade groups and legal experts, which have heavily supported the bill (CD Oct 25 p11).