Compulsory copyrights show the need to keep an FCC rule preventing multichannel video programming distributors from using their blanket licenses to carry games in markets where they're blacked out on broadcast TV, professional baseball and football said. They cited Sections 111 and 119 of the Copyright Act, which let cable and DBS companies carry distant broadcast signals without getting the permission of leagues whose games are on TV. Like baseball and the NFL, the NAB also opposed a petition from a sports fan organization that has gotten backing from pay-TV companies and four public interest groups asking the commission to junk the 1975 rule. Five Democratic senators and nine professors said it’s time to kill the requirement.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Giving the FCC significant added “jurisdiction over a slice of the ecosystem” in electronic privacy policy would be “a recipe for trouble ahead,” a cable attorney said. “They want to have a role in the future” of federal policy, but “I don’t think they know what that role will be,” Paul Glist of the Davis Wright law firm said late Monday. “They have been negotiating with people on the Hill and in industry about what that role might be -- and probably with the FTC as well.”
Legislation giving the West Virginia Public Services Commission “authority and duty to regulate the practices, services and rates of broadband deployment projects,” is only in the discussion stage, sponsors told us. Senate Bill 491 (http://xrl.us/bmryeb) is intended to level the playing field within state broadband employment, said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. David Sypolt, a Republican.
The FCC sought comments on whether it should extend requirements that cable operators deliver must-carry DTV stations in analog and digital. The further notice of proposed rulemaking released Friday (http://xrl.us/bmrx7n) had been expected (CD Feb 8 p5). In it, the commission asked whether it should extend the requirement, which made sure that analog cable subscribers could still watch must-carry programming after the DTV switch, and allowed digital subscribers to watch the stations in digital. The notice tentatively concluded that FCC rules that exempt smaller cable systems from carrying must-carry stations’ HD signals should be extended.
AT&T’s proposed buy of T-Mobile “clearly” crossed a line and posed a risk to competition, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Monday at a Silicon Flatirons conference on “The Digital Broadband Migration.” Genachowski also indicated the FCC may reopen its receiver standards inquiry.
Cable operators still will be able to scramble all channels, as FCC staff are working toward an order allowing encrypting on the basic tier, agency and industry officials said. They said work continues to be slowed by concerns that some consumer electronics wouldn’t work at all with encrypted systems (CD Feb 9 p4). But top aides in the Media Bureau and office of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski are still believed by CE and cable officials to be inclined to circulate for a vote by commissioners an order allowing encrypting. Operators have said encrypting all broadcast and other expanded-basic channels would let them reduce carbon dioxide emissions when technicians drive to customer homes to turn on and off video, though CE companies still say those claims are overblown.
With Cincinnati Bell considering strategic alternatives for its recently acquired data center unit CyrusOne (CD Feb 13 p11), analysts said the market for transactional activity in the data center sector is strong, especially in smaller assets.
The White House renewed an emphasis on wireless broadband in President Barack Obama’s FY 2013 budget, released Monday (www.budget.gov). “High-speed, wireless broadband is fast becoming a critical component of business operations and economic growth,” the budget said. “The United States needs to lead the world in providing broad access to the fastest networks possible.” The budget also proposes significant funding for cybersecurity research. In total, the 2013 budget proposes $140.8 billion for federal R&D, 1.4 percent more than the 2012-enacted level. The overall increase is the same as the rate of inflation.
The intersection of antitrust law and intellectual property is likely to be “the single most important” antitrust issue of the next decade, said former Department of Justice antitrust chief Christine Varney during a Monday panel at a Silicon Flatirons conference on digital broadband migration. Varney also warned that federal regulators have much more trouble sorting through vertical market power issues than they do traditional horizontal issues. She said she has continuing concerns about the Comcast-NBCU deal, approved while she was chief of DOJ’s Antitrust Division.
GENEVA -- African, Arab and European officials have preliminarily agreed to mobile allocations, with the entry into force immediately following the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), an official told us at the 2012 conference. The resolution, given initial approval at our deadline, calls for an allocation to the mobile service in the band 694 to 790 MHz in ITU region 1 on a co-primary basis with other primary allocated services, and to identify it for International Mobile Telecommunications, the international standard for advanced wireless communications. Broadcasters continued to raise concerns. More approvals will be needed.