Few media items of major import are likely to get FCC action in the foreseeable future, as the agency continues to focus on other areas, predicted all the agency and industry officials we asked. Votes on proposed AllVid and program carriage rules (CD May 3 p8) appear to be the near-term exceptions to what may prove to be the rule, they predicted. It may be a while before the commission releases a long-anticipated mathematical model showing how TV stations’ coverage areas would be affected by the repacking of TV channels the FCC seeks as part of its hoped-for incentive auction plan. Broadband, spectrum and changing the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system likely will keep dominating the commission’s attention, said agency and media industry officials.
The FCC “should abandon” its proposal for reverse auctions and instead create three new, separate funds to overhaul the universal service system, state members of the Joint Board on Universal Service told the commission in comments posted late Monday. The state members said the three new funds should be: (1) A “provider of last resort” fund to be “a comprehensive cost-based support mechanism to provide sufficient support to carriers that accept provider-of-last resort duties, adjusted for broadband services. (2) A “mobility fund” that would provide “grants to finance the building of wireless towers in areas the FCC designates as under-served or unserved by wireless broadband.” (3) A “wireline broadband fund” that would award grants “to finance broadband wireline facilities in areas the FCC designates as under-served or unserved by wireline broadband.” The comments were posted to docket 10-90.
The U.S. must learn from Japan in what worked and didn’t in communications following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that hit the country in March, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday at the start of the agency’s earthquake preparedness forum. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said major earthquakes are unique among natural disasters in the amount of damage they can do to communications and other systems.
AT&T and Sprint Nextel started their battle over the AT&T/T-Mobile merger at the state level, with filings in states including West Virginia. Despite varying levels of jurisdictions, AT&T also filed in Hawaii, California, Arizona and Louisiana.
Sending HD versions of new films to multichannel video programming distributors remains in testing by major studios, Chris Dodd said in his first speech in Washington since joining the MPAA about seven weeks ago. “Not every studio has made the same decision” to test “the viability of it,” he told us during a Q-and-A before media executives and lobbyists and FCC staffers. During prepared remarks at a Media Institute lunch on Tuesday and in answering questions, the new MPAA chairman several times said new technologies are spurring people to view movies in theaters. Dodd used his speech to seek a crackdown on piracy.
Congress must update the Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978 to account for the use of personal communication devices and social networking sites by White House staffers, said members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Tuesday. Lawmakers are considering revisions to the law which dictates the preservation of any record created in the course of official White House business. At the hearing, lawmakers discussed provisions to ban the White House’s use of personal email accounts and enhanced archiving of Web communications.
FARMINGTON, Pa. -- The NTIA has convened a working group to formulate the Obama administration’s position on pending Universal Service Fund changes, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said at an FCBA conference over the weekend: “The issue is important enough that the White House should have its own position on that.” The work group is led by John Morabito, head of the NTIA Office of Policy Analysis & Development, Strickling told us Saturday.
Dish Network and EchoStar’s $500 million settlement with TiVo marked a win for all sides involved, Dish CEO and EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen said on the DBS company’s earnings call Monday. The settlement includes an initial payment of $300 million to TiVo, with the last $200 million paid out in six equal annual payments between 2012 and 2017, the companies said in a news release Monday. The agreement ends all pending litigation between the companies “with prejudice” and dissolves all injunctions against Dish and EchoStar, the companies said. The settlement effectively ends several expensive years of litigation between the two companies over Dish’s alleged infringement of TiVo’s time-warp patent, which allows DVR recording of one program while watching another.
Career staffers continue working out how the FCC should implement legislation passed last year intended to put low-power FM stations on equal footing with other types of radio stations, agency and industry officials said. They said officials from the Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel have been figuring out what steps to take to fulfill the requirements of the Local Community Radio Act, signed into law in January by President Barack Obama. A possibility is the release of a rulemaking notice on how the legislation affects an auction of translator stations and another one on other effects of the law, communications lawyers watching the staff work said. No items appear ready to be circulated for a vote, officials inside and outside the commission said.
The FCC is starting to get some “grassroots” push back against AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, with several dozen consumers filing short statements in recent days. Heavyweights opposed to the deal are expected to weigh in later this month, based on the comment cycle established last week by the FCC. Petitions to deny are due May 31.