The FCC understands that broadcasters need more answers before they can evaluate whether to share channels with an eye on selling off some of their spectrum in an upcoming incentive auction, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake said Tuesday at an FCC workshop on channel sharing. Lake said this first session was just a beginning and more information will be forthcoming. The next step is a notice of proposed rulemaking later this year, he said. The incentive auction was made possible through the spectrum legislation signed into law three months ago Tuesday. Wireless carriers view the auction as one of their best hopes for getting more spectrum in play for wireless broadband.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to bring a cybersecurity bill to the Senate floor in June, setting up a pivotal vote in Congress’s attempt to secure the nation’s cyberassets from attack. But the path forward is unclear as lawmakers strive to resolve major differences over two of the Senate’s leading cybersecurity bills, the Cybersecurity Act (S-2105) and the SECURE IT Act (S-2151).
BOSTON -- A market-based approach to antitrust oversight, rules and technology is sought by administration officials and regulators from both political parties. Rather than being based on method of distribution, policies and their underlying laws ought to be based on how products are used, they said in a Q-and-A by at a Cable Show luncheon Tuesday. FTC members of both parties and NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said voluntary codes of conduct are a way to ensure consumers’ online privacy.
Global satellite revenue grew 5 percent last year to about $177 billion, led by revenue increases in the satellite manufacturing and launch sectors, the Satellite Industry Association said in a report. While the rate of net job losses decreased from 2.7 percent in 2010 to less than 1 percent last year, employment in the industry continued to drop in the first three quarters of 2011. The State of the Satellite Industry Report (http://xrl.us/bm8ydw) was done by Futron Corp., SIA said. Futron surveyed more than 80 satellite companies and assessed performance in the satellite services, manufacturing, launch and ground equipment sectors.
BOSTON -- Usage-based data pricing can spur competition in broadband, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said of ISPs’ moves to systems not always charging flat prices regardless of consumption. NCTA CEO Michael Powell asked Genachowski about the practice in a Q-and-A Tuesday at The Cable Show, noting ISPs of all sorts, including cable operators, are starting to charge based on consumption. “Business model innovation is very important, particularly in new areas like broadband,” Genachowski replied. The commission’s 2010 net neutrality order allowed such practices. Nonprofits that backed the order criticized Genachowski’s remarks, while AT&T supported the comments.
SILICON VALLEY -- The Viacom-YouTube case is ancient history as a controversy between Google’s video site and copyright holders, said Warner Bros. Entertainment’s chief intellectual-property lawyer. “You would be hard-pressed to find a content owner” that has a current grievance against YouTube, with its Content ID system for identifying infringing material and giving rights holders ways to remove it or take commercial advantage of it, said Dean Marks, a senior vice president at the studio. He said late Monday that he keeps hoping the sides will just settle the case “and move on.” Seeing it through to a final court decision seems likely only to make relations between content makers and Web companies “more murky,” Marks said at the Legal Frontiers in Digital Media conference of the Media Law Resource Center and Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet & Society.
Likening ubiquitous fiber to the printing press in its capacity for igniting economic growth, Internet evangelists and community planners gathered at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Md., Monday for the Freedom to Connect conference. Panelists were enthusiastic about the possibilities even after Internet pioneer Vint Cerf accidentally kicked the router that morning, briefly knocking out the free conference Wi-Fi.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski named David Turetsky, a communications lawyer at Dewey & LeBoeuf, as new chief of the Public Safety Bureau. The appointment is effective after Memorial Day. Acting Chief David Furth will return to duty as a deputy chief of the bureau. Turetsky becomes the second chief under Genachowski, following his initial appointment of retired Rear Adm. Jamie Barnett, who left the agency at the end of April.
BOSTON -- Updating the Telecom Act or 1992 Cable Act is on the radar screens of aides from both parties on the House and Senate Commerce committees, they told a panel Monday at the Cable Show. They generally agreed that any update to the 1996 law could take years, and some said a more piecemeal approach could move on Capitol Hill more quickly but still would take time. Representatives from both parties said their bosses backed the FCC’s approach to reforming the USF, with an aide to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., saying that if the commission doesn’t keep up its momentum on the contribution side, the Hill could eventually step in.
The Copyright Royalty Board published proposed regulations in the Federal Register that set the rates and terms for Section 115 Copyright Act statutory licensing of musical works (http://xrl.us/bm8sk3). Besides physical copies, the rules cover permanent digital downloads, ringtones, interactive streaming and mixed service bundles. Comments are due June 18.