OAKLAND, Calif. -- BART unanimously adopted a cell-service interruption policy Thursday, after adding general cautionary provisions at the FCC’s suggestion. The policy (CD Nov 29 p13) passed the Bay Area Rapid Transit board 7-0. Board President Bob Franklin called the policy the first of its kind in the U.S. and said it would be a touchstone as agencies elsewhere inevitably grapple with the issue.
SILICON VALLEY -- The challenges pay-TV distributors face from looming over-the-top competition pale in comparison to the challenge of managing rising programming costs, said Tom Sauer, vice president of corporate strategy at AT&T, speaking on a panel at the ScreenPlays Media Innovations Summit Wednesday. “At the end of the day that’s what’s killing us all,” he said. “These content costs continue to go up. Those are huge challenges, we have to deal with on a daily basis” and only after dealing with them can distributors begin worrying about other problems, he said.
New FCC ex parte rules were violated at least 11 times since taking effect June 1, a Communications Daily review of all filings and the agency’s own checks found. Some filings were made late -- from a day in many instances to a few weeks -- and others didn’t contain enough information on what was discussed during lobbying meetings. The filings were made by companies and associations big and small. They covered proceedings ranging from changing the Universal Service Fund to pay for broadband deployment to retransmission consent, ISP speeds, disabilities access legislation passed in 2010 and getting low-power TV stations to fully vacate the 700 MHz band for wireless broadband in the small portion they occupy.
FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel “will swim right on” through the Senate, Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller said Wednesday as his committee opened the nominees’ first confirmation hearing. Rosenworcel, who would leave Rockefeller’s staff to join the commission, and Pai, a telecom lawyer at Jenner & Block, made their first public appearance together at the hearing. They were received warmly by the committee’s senators. “I'm very pleased that I can heartily support you both,” Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told them in a packed hearing room. He teased Rosenworcel, whom he said is “very difficult to argue with” and said he was gratified that Pai grew up in Parsons, Kan., which means “there’s an automatic rural prejudice built into your DNA.”
As some broadcasters gear up for a mobile emergency alert system pilot project, they said they expect the EAS project to complement the current system and lead to further use of mobile DTV. With three public TV operations as test markets for the project, it will reassert the role of broadcasters as initial informers during emergencies and disasters, some executives said.
With an early 2012 timeframe looking more likely for passing spectrum legislation (CD Nov 30 p4), House Commerce Committee Democrats sought to delay Thursday’s Communications Subcommittee markup of the draft bill by Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. In a letter Wednesday to their Republican counterparts, full committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said members need more time to understand the new language of the GOP bill released Tuesday. A delay would also allow members to resume two-party negotiations “that we abruptly ended in early October."
The FCC Wednesday approved a long-awaited order approving a secondary spectrum allocation sought by the Alfred Mann Foundation for wirelessly connecting neuromuscular microstimulators implanted in patients with brain and spinal cord injuries and neuromuscular disorders. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell questioned why it took the FCC five years to act. The FCC approved a notice of inquiry at its July 2006 meeting asking about emerging medical technologies, including those outlined in the Alfred Mann proposal. The order approved Wednesday in a 4-0 vote allocates 24 MHz of 400 MHz band spectrum in four band segments for the MedRadio service on a secondary basis.
The U.S. already faces a “spectrum crunch” and “we should be doing something about it,” Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said Wednesday at a Roll Call forum. Stearns said the next critical step is an inventory, especially of spectrum used by the Department of Defense. Stearns is chairman of the Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The high cost of producing local programming is part of what keeps PBS the main programming supplier for noncommercial TV stations, said President John Boland of San Francisco public radio and TV stations KQED. About 10 percent of KQED-TV’s budget goes to PBS, but the programmer’s shows make up 80 percent of its schedule, he said at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club late Tuesday. PBS President Paula Kerger told the event that federal funding remains vital for public TV stations.
NARUC might not appeal the FCC’s order on Universal Service Fund as a single bloc because states have varying views on the order, telecom industry officials told us. Though it’s uncertain if NARUC will appeal, the decision would depend on how much common ground there is among states, John Burke, chair of NARUC’s telecom committee, told us. Meanwhile, the industry has been lobbying at states to prevent appeals, a state official said. Despite a few states’ different views on preemption, NARUC has been consistent with its opposition to state preemption (CD Aug 26 p5).