Contract negotiations between Verizon and unions representing wireline workers continued Monday. The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) called a strike after the contract for 45,000 employees throughout the mid-Atlantic region expired 11:59 p.m. Saturday without agreement on issues like healthcare and pensions. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., “is monitoring the situation and encouraging the parties to work towards an agreement,” his spokeswoman said.
A proposal to delay FCC enforcement of emergency alert system rules doesn’t go far enough for many broadcasters seeking a longer extension, while EAS equipment makers said the plan makes sense. The comments in interviews came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency asked the commission to delay by four months until Jan. 31 penalizing broadcasters that can’t encode and decode alerts in FEMA’s new format (CD Aug 8 p3). Public TV stations, state broadcasters and the NAB, among those seeking a delay, want it to apply to the rules taking effect, their representatives said. Executives of equipment makers said FEMA’s proposal could be a workable compromise for their industry and for all EAS participants.
Dropping disclosure of a radiation measurement from a San Francisco ordinance on cellphone sales “removes any reasonable legal objection that CTIA could have” to the legislation, said a city lawyer. The association’s announcement that enactment of a new version of the ordinance would prompt revival of a suspended court challenge (CD Aug 5 p7) came as no surprise, said Deputy City Attorney Vince Chhabria: CTIA had made it clear that the lawsuit would go away only if the regulation did. “Even if they have a 2 percent chance of winning, it’s worth the pocket change” of perhaps $500,000 in legal costs for the association to pursue the First Amendment and federal preemption case in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, he said.
Windstream’s Q2 profit was $93.2 million, up from $79 million in the same period last year. Though more work needs to be done, the USTelecom-brokered USF proposal is a good start, CEO Jeff Gardner said during an investor call Friday.
The agency that developed a new alerting standard sought a delay in the FCC enforcing compliance with it among radio and TV stations. The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked the FCC to hold off for four additional months in enforcing compliance with FEMA’s Common Alerting Protocol for emergency alert systems. The current EAS deadline, which a wide array of multichannel video programming distributors and commercial and nonprofit broadcasters want extended (CD Aug 2 p12), shouldn’t be enforced until Jan. 1, FEMA said. The industry entities want the deadline that’s now set at Sept. 30 extended by at least six months after the commission comes up with certification standards for CAP. Google said more time than the current deadline may be needed.
The U.S. GPS Industry Council used its reply comments in the broadband for native nations proceeding to take a swipe at LightSquared in docket 11-41 (http://xrl.us/bk5o48). “In its comments, LightSquared takes credit for the planned distribution of up to 2,000 MSS satellite phones to units of the Indian Health Service. … LightSquared then closes its comments with a request that the Commission consider extending waivers to cover LightSquared’s 4G LTE terrestrial mobile service base stations in order to facilitate deployment of satellite infrastructure on Tribal Lands,” the council said in its comments. “These two aspects of LightSquared’s comments are fundamentally at odds.”
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a vigorous opponent of the FCC’s net neutrality order -- approved over his dissent Dec. 21 -- said last week he hopes the Office of Management and Budget will examine the costs of the order for businesses large and small. McDowell noted questions raised by some Congressional Republicans, including Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida (CD July 8 p5), about the cost of the rules.
The Justice Department, sticking with a consent decree it agreed to with Comcast to clear its buy of NBCUniversal, answered a federal judge’s questions on how the proposed settlement’s terms affect online video distributors disgruntled with the combined company. Justice said the antitrust deal gives a choice to OVDs that can’t get deals for the rights to carry cable or broadcast online content from the company. They can complain to the FCC, which can order arbitration, or go to DOJ, which can send it to arbitration that can’t be appealed. The filing expanded on what a DOJ lawyer told U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in his courtroom a week and a half ago: The commission is the likely venue for OVD complaints. The filing listed tradeoffs in taking a case to the FCC versus Justice.
Viacom is poised for years of steady revenue growth from digital, as its traditional pay-TV distributors and new entrants into digital distribution vie for the rights to its TV programming, executives said in the company’s Q3 earnings call. “We have a lot of confidence in what we see ahead,” CEO Philippe Dauman said. The company said it expects affiliate sales to increase by high single-digit percentage points or more each year for the foreseeable future, driven by growth in digital distribution. “The number of players out there continues to increase,” Dauman said. “And there is great demand for our content for obvious reasons,” he said. Viacom’s shows tend to target younger audiences who are more likely to watch on new platforms, he said.
T-Mobile USA lost 50,000 subscribers in Q2, the first full quarter since AT&T agreed to buy it. The loss was an improvement from the previous quarter when it lost 99,000 customers. The U.S. remains a difficult market for parent company Deutsche Telekom, whose profit fell 27 percent year-over-year to $496 million, said CEO René Obermann during a conference call Thursday.