A deregulation bill (SB 135) in Kentucky faced sharp criticism and even got the state attorney general’s attention, though state regulators were neutral after revisions were made. Meanwhile, while the industry saw another bill (HB 209) in the state that would establish outage reporting requirements as burdensome, supporters said the measure is “modest” and necessary.
The federal government should tread carefully when it comes to using antitrust laws as way to regulate the high-tech sector, a group of antitrust attorneys said Wednesday at a Federalist Society luncheon. “Antitrust authorities ought to be very skeptical about jumping in to start cases against them,” said Ronald Cass, chairman of the Center for the Rule of Law at George Mason University and ex-U.S. International Trade Commission member. Government has “a real problem of foresight” and that’s especially so in high-tech, he said. “The more we do to try to rein in the leaders in the field, the more we discourage investment and innovation, and the more we risk taking steps that harm American consumer health."
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell is questioning whether the time frame for a voluntary incentive auction of broadcast spectrum laid out by a top FCC official last week is realistic. Amy Levine, a senior aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski, predicted an auction would occur in the next 18-24 months (CD March 7 p3). McDowell suspects it could take at least twice as long, given the complexities involved.
House Republican leaders are planning to bring at least four cybersecurity bills to the House floor sometime after the Easter/Passover recess, hill staffers told us. Republican leadership is in the process of scheduling a so-called “cyberweek” where they will bring the various cybersecurity bills to the floor and begin voting on them separately, staffers said.
The satellite industry must continue working to keep pace with voice, video, data traffic and other networking technologies, executives said Wednesday at the Satellite 2012 conference. As satellite communications expand globally, they said the industry must become more simplified and integrate with terrestrial systems. Mobile devices will help expand the global satellite industry, said Jerry Creekbaum, an IP network senior solutions architect at Verizon. Satellite needs to incorporate into the global network just like all other technologies have done, and “we think satellite needs to become a node on the network,” said Senior Vice President Brad Boston of Cisco.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he’s “pleased” TV station blackouts on subscription-video providers seemed to have been kept in check as retransmission consent contracts expired and often were renewed at year’s end. Retrans blackouts and “very serious disruptions to consumers” were kept to “a minimum” in the cycle of agreements that expired around Dec. 31, he said Wednesday. “I know that took some work on the part of cable operators and broadcasters to get there -- so that’s good news.” Cable executives also speaking to an American Cable Association conference said FCC retrans rules need fixing, while broadcast officials said the system works.
The TV station market seems poised for a wave of M&A activity in 2012, LIN TV CEO Vincent Sadusky told analysts during the company’s Q4 earnings teleconference Wednesday. But for LIN to participate in buying stations, or bolster its digital media business with further acquisitions in that sector, the prices will have to be right, he said. “I would put the degree of difficulty at ’super high,'” Sadusky said when asked what it would take for LIN to want to put its cash to use buying new assets.
Chairman Julius Genachowski voiced hope that the FCC will get data on broadband availability from small cable operators to help the agency direct money to fast-Internet projects in areas unserved by any ISP. The commission is “committed” to not funding broadband projects in areas that are already served and needs help from American Cable Association members in providing relevant information, he told the ACA’s convention Wednesday. He pledged the FCC will be careful to seek only what it needs so as not to overburden small companies with requests, and he hopes they'll deliver the needed documents. Genachowski also said the FCC wants to work with industry to keep a lid on viewer complaints about loud TV ads and will keep small operators in mind in reviewing whether to extend viewability rules for stations guaranteed cable carriage.
The push to use terrestrially the S-band and other mobile satellite services spectrum around the world may be a precursor for efforts in other bands, said Rupert Pearce, CEO of Inmarsat. “The risk is: Is this the thin edge of the wedge,” he said. “As pressure builds to free up spectrum, MSS bands look like really low hanging fruit” due to the number of consumers per bit, especially compared to terrestrial service. It will be important for the industry to work together to convince regulators of the services’ importance, said Pearce.
A two-day FCC workshop on receiver standards ended Tuesday with no obvious answers in sight. Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp closed the workshop saying the answer may or may not require new regulations from the agency. “It’s going to take some time, I think for the commission staff to digest it all and think about where do we go from here,” Knapp said. “The overall sense here is that something needs to be done. We don’t know what that is. … That does not necessarily mean we're moving to regulation.” In the final analysis, receiver standards are about stability “for incumbents who need certainty” and for newcomers “so that they know when they're investing in creating a new service that there aren’t going to be unforeseen problems down the road,” Knapp said.