Largely ignored in the debate running up to the FCC’s recent decision to relax media ownership rules, public broadcasters now are seeking to leverage what they call the growing “sentiment about local control” to give a boost to their policy agenda. Although both sides in the debate on media ownership rules spoke of preservation of local media and universal service, neither side gave consideration to public broadcasting, which is the “last true bedrock” of locally controlled free over-the-air media, said John Lawson, pres. of Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS).
FCC Comr. Adelstein asked Chmn. Powell for the agency to sponsor a special forum on the emergence and importance of Spanish language media. Adelstein disclosed his request at a meeting Thurs. of the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists in N.Y.C. His media adviser, Johanna Mikes, said the details as to the timing and shape the event might take remain unclear. She said his request was unrelated to the pending merger application of Univision and Hispanic Bcstg. Corp., a deal strongly opposed by Spanish Bcstg. System. Rather, she said his interest was prompted by the recent media ownership proceeding and by recent Census figures showing that Hispanics now were the largest minority group in the country. Mikes said such a forum would be an information-gathering session that would bring together experts on the Spanish language media. “At this point, we need to gather the information and analyze the information,” she said. A call to a Powell spokesman hadn’t been returned by our deadline.
Rationale for Best Buy’s purchase of Musicland was to provide vehicle for growth by moving into “mall-based space” marked for its prevalence of female customers that it wasn’t previously addressing, Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson told annual shareholders meeting Tues. But Musicland acquisition was “certainly not a successful experience,” and in fact “was probably one of the most painful things in the history of the company and a place where we made a tremendous mistake,” Anderson said.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) unveiled Fri. the first detailed specification for a wireless development program officials have called “the mother of all sharing protocols.” Panelists at a New America Foundation (NAF) lunch said the thrust of DARPA’s NeXt Generation (XG) Communications program was in line with the FCC’s interest in making better use of “white space” spectrum that was underutilized or unused. The XG protocol is modeled after the Internet development process, XG Program Mgr. Preston Marshall said. “The policy implications of this sharing technology are huge,” said Michael Calabrese, dir.-spectrum policy program for NAF.
A compromise plan is moving forward at the World Radio Conference (WRC) in Geneva that would urge govts. to examine harmonized bands for public protection and disaster relief, U.S. officials said Thurs. But the proposal, now headed up the conference chain to a committee on allocations, wouldn’t earmark specific spectrum for such public safety uses, a stance the U.S. has favored. Apparently less far along are proposals to bridge an impasse over how to harmonize spectrum for wireless local area networks at 5 GHz. WRC-03 Chmn. Veena Rawat reminded a plenary session Thurs. that time was running short for compromises.
The Media Security & Reliability Council (MSRC), formed in the aftermath of Sept. 11, voted overwhelmingly to adopt a series of “best practice” recommendations to ensure that timely and accurate emergency information was transmitted to the public in the event of a disaster like the terrorist attacks (CD June 10 p8). Among the recommendations is one that the media should form a public/private partnership with the govt. on federal, state and local levels. How that partnership would look and what shape it would take has yet to be decided.
The Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation that would roll back several of the media ownership rules loosened by the FCC earlier this month. The bill (S-1046), which began as a restoration of the 35% broadcast ownership cap, was amended several times to include reinstatement of the cross-ownership bans and forced divestiture in some radio markets. With 5 amendments being tacked on the bill, and several others going down in defeat, passage itself was almost an afterthought as Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) nearly forgot to call for a vote on the amended final bill. It passed on voice vote and no senators asked the roll to be called.
Faced with ultimatum from EPA either to come up with acceptable financing model or close shop, majority of stakeholders of National Electronics Products Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI) announced agreement to pursue hybrid financing model that would start with advance recycling fee (ARF) and transition at some point to some form of partial cost internalization system. However, crucial NEPSI meeting at Seattle last week brought to fore split in industry group between computer manufacturers and TV makers, sources said.
The FCC is seeking comment by Aug. 15 on a joint petition by public safety groups that asked the agency to solicit feedback on legal issues involving the release of customer-specific information to public safety answering points (PSAPs) responding to 911 calls. The petition was filed last month by the National Emergency Number Assn., the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials and the National Assn. of State Nine One One Administrators. The groups asked for public comment on the “legal preconditions” related to release of customer information to PSAPs under the Communications Act and the criminal code as updated by the Patriot and Homeland Security Acts. For example, Sec. 222 of the Communications Act generally protects the confidentiality of customer proprietary network information on factors such as location and destination. It makes an exception for location data that normally would be treated confidentially for emergency calls from wireless subscribers, which could be released to a PSAP or similar emergency responder answering a 911 call. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 updated certain exceptions for disclosure of communications such as to a govt. entity if a provider “reasonably believes” an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical harm to any person “requires disclosure without delay of communications relating to the emergency.” The Patriot Act has similar language on customer records. The public safety petition said such provisions didn’t exist when the Justice Dept. advised the FCC on wireless caller location in 1996 in an opinion that said a govt. entity “may” require an electronic communication service provider to disclose a record or other information relating to a subscriber only when the govt. entity had the subscriber’s consent to such disclosure. That sets up a conflict between language in newer legislation allowing the govt. to require disclosure and the earlier opinion that a service provider “may” divulge the information, the public safety petition said. The groups said wireless carriers had varying written policies on that subject, creating a dilemma on “the frequency with which emergency calls relate to endangered property rather than endangered lives.” The petition asked how to best reconcile differences in civil and criminal statutes and whether Congress meant that disclosures under certain parts of the Communications Act should be discretionary while others were mandatory. Reply comments are due Sept. 15.
GENEVA -- To help trim the size of the agenda for the next World Radio Conference (WRC) from this year’s slate of 48 items, WRC-03 Chmn. Veena Rawat said new guidelines to vet the relevance and cost of proposals should help. “I am hoping you will hear at this conference about budget considerations,” said Rawat, who is deputy director-gen. of spectrum engineering for Industry Canada. While WRCs have faced a growing array of agenda items, from as few as 11 at WRC-97, Rawat said in an interview here this week that that was partly a reflection of demand for new wireless technology: “Technology has been coming very fast, new wireless uses have been coming very fast. The need for harmonization of spectrum has increased very quickly.”