Six major TV programmers and movie studios opposed Comcast’s request (CD Feb 22 p4) to change the types of people who can read programming contracts that online video distributors seeking access to shows from the cable operator and NBCUniversal struck. CBS, Disney, News Corp., Sony Pictures, Time Warner and Viacom opposed a Feb. 17 request by Comcast to change the confidentiality provisions of the benchmarking provision for OVDs in the FCC order approving the combination of the cable and broadcast networks. Comcast/NBCU said the inability for its executives and in-house lawyers to see OVDs’ deals with other broadcast, cable and film content owners “made it impossible for NBCUniversal to make progress in good faith negotiations with OVDs seeking to invoke the Benchmark Condition.”
Sky Angel petitioned a federal appeals court for a writ of mandamus, its latest step in long-lingering program access dispute against Discovery Communications. IPTV distributor Sky Angel complained to the FCC in March 2010 that Discovery had withdrawn its distribution agreement over concerns with Sky Angel’s distribution technology. Outside of a June 2010 order from the Media Bureau denying Sky Angel’s standstill petition, the FCC hasn’t acted on the complaint. A writ of mandamus, considered a judicial rarity, would require the FCC to issue a final order one way or the other. An FCC spokesman declined to comment.
LightSquared’s failure to satisfy the FCC’s requirements for the company to begin terrestrial service makes LightSquared’s request for a declaratory ruling moot, said Deere in comments at the FCC on the request (http://xrl.us/bmwc3o). LightSquared asked the agency to issue a declaratory ruling spelling out the legal protections afforded to GPS. That request was made before the FCC proposed to pull LightSquared’s terrestrial authorization, which means it’s unnecessary for the FCC to take up the issue, said Deere. Other filers urged the FCC to wait for a Comptroller General receivers report before taking on receiver standards.
A key definition within the new spectrum law has raised questions among communications lawyers about possible drafting errors and/or congressional intent, the lawyers said. The concerns are with the definition within the bill of “reverse auction,” which seemed to limit the authority to only broadcast spectrum, said the lawyers. The confusion is largely due to a misunderstanding of legislation and the bill is meant to allow FCC interpretation, said House and Senate aides.
Depending on who you listen to, FCC regulation of interconnection agreements between IP networks is either crucial to the future of telecommunications, or is the latest example of government overreach in an Internet-based industry that has flourished at the hand of private deals. In comments filed Friday, carriers large and small tried to sway the commission on what’s best for the public interest.
Sprint Nextel’s decision not to buy MetroPCS, news of which broke late Friday, had few regulatory implications. None of the analysts looking at the deal mentioned potential regulatory complications. When Sprint announced a merger agreement with Nextel in late 2004, then-FCC Chairman Michael Powell all but welcomed the deal, projecting the new company to be an enhanced rival of Verizon Wireless and AT&T, then Cingular. Potentially more concerning for the FCC this time around is the extent to which Sprint has emerged as a wounded warrior after it led the fight to beat back AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile last year.
Retransmission consent fees aren’t being used by TV stations to fund local content, according to research by academics, including some funded by foes of the current retrans system, several professors said Monday. The 1992 Cable Act authorizing retrans payments to broadcasters by multichannel video programming distributors was meant to preserve and promote local programming, said Prof. Philip Napoli of Fordham University. There’s a “body of literature” showing that’s not now happening, he said at an event on Capitol Hill organized by the American TV Coalition, a group of MVPDs and nonprofits seeking to change FCC retrans rules. The NAB responded that TV stations are producing more and not less news.
The FCC should “future proof” upcoming spectrum auctions by not imposing overly restrictive rules and giving carriers room to maneuver, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said in a speech at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. McDowell said he does not want to see a repeat of 2008’s 700 MHz auction, where “onerous encumbrances” imposed by the FCC led to a less successful auction. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski also spoke to the GSMA.
The mobile emergency alert system pilot project, led by PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has the potential to foster more collaboration between public and commercial broadcasters and also between public broadcasters and their local alert and public safety organizations, some public broadcasting and mobile professionals said Monday at the Public Media Summit sponsored by the Association of Public Television Stations. For the pilot, three public TV stations will create and distribute emergency alerts using video, text and other media, through devices manufactured by LG Electronics (CD June 6 p 11). The test networks are Vegas PBS, Alabama Public Television and WGBH TV and Radio in Boston.
With ex-Cablevision executive Tom Rutledge now in charge of Charter Communications, analysts want to know how some of the strategies he deployed as chief operating officer of Cablevision might translate to Charter. During Charter’s Q4 earnings teleconference Monday, Rutledge fielded question after question about what new products or tactics Charter could introduce soon. In response, Rutledge largely stuck to his script: “We have a network that is highly capable from a physical perspective,” he said. It was a theme he repeated several times during the discussion.