A group of education and technology experts is “developing a blueprint” to use technology as a “catalyst to transform and improve American education,” the newly formed Leading Education by Advancing Digital (LEAD) Commission announced Thursday. LEAD plans to incorporate input from a cross-section of educators, parents, students and government officials and expects to release its findings later this year. “I'm pleased these leaders are rising to the challenge [Education] Secretary [Arne] Duncan and I set out to harness technology to help our students reach their full potential,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. “I'm confident the LEAD Commission’s blueprint will chart a course to ensure that education technology will help prepare students to compete in the 21st century global economy.” Genachowski and Duncan said they would “provide input” to the LEAD Commission’s efforts. The group was founded in response to the National Education Technology Plan released by the Department of Education in November 2010 and the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, released two years ago this month. LEAD plans to catalog current efforts, trends, costs and obstacles to technology adoption, and examine the potential of how technology and digital content could “positively impact teaching and learning over time,” the group said. The blueprint will recommend policies and funding vehicles needed to ensure successful incorporation of technology into school systems. The group is co-chaired by Columbia University President Lee Bolinger, TPG Capital Co-Founder James Coulter, former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Common Sense Media Founder James Steyer. “While the human interaction of student and teacher, critical thinking and classic texts remain essential parts of what we mean by an ‘education,’ we also know that new communications technologies can greatly enhance teaching, learning and research,” Bollinger said. “We hope that our growing body of experience in the use of these transformational tools in higher education can provide useful insights for our nation’s schools.” “Our goal with this commission is to help policy makers to more swiftly and effectively integrate digital learning into our national curriculum,” Coulter said. By synthesizing data about what has worked and hasn’t worked throughout the country, LEAD hopes to provide a “top-down” look at the issue that the Department of Education doesn’t really provide in the high-tech space, he said. With its different personalities, Coulter believes the group is in a great position to study the issue and provide recommendations to policymakers at all levels. “The group is coming together to look at this issue which everybody believes is critical, and if you don’t look at it, you risk falling behind,” he said.
Q4 sales at ValueVision Media, which runs ShopNBC, fell 17.5 percent from a year earlier to $147.5 million. Its net loss ballooned to $8.3 million from $1.4 million a year earlier. Lower sales of consumer electronics devices hurt the company’s results, CEO Keith Stewart said. “We expect our Consumer Electronics business to remain challenging during the first half of the year,” he said. “However, we have developed and are executing plans to help restore growth in this business segment."
AMC Networks Q4 sales increased 14 percent from a year earlier to $339 million, the company said. Sales at its domestic networks gained 12 percent while its international networks added 15 percent. Profit increased about 50 percent to $29.5 million, a result of a one-time $10 million loss on discontinued operations the company recorded in the year earlier period. AMC shares fell 4.4 percent Thursday.
Radio One Q4 sales increased 38 percent from a year earlier to $98.1 million due to the fact that the company now consolidates the results for its TV One division. The company wrote down about $22.3 million, leading to a net operating loss of about $19.1 million. The net loss was 29 percent smaller than a year earlier. “Our fourth quarter radio revenue was impacted by a combination of tough political comps, non-recurring national accounts and certain format changes,” at stations during the quarter, CEO Alfred Liggins said.
Commissioner Robert McDowell said the FCC appears to be moving too slowly to wrap up all aspects of Universal Service Fund reform, including the Rural Health Care Program. His remarks came in a speech Thursday at the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center Summit in Charlottesville, Va. The FCC approved last year the start of USF distribution reform and an order on the Lifeline program in January. But other work remains to be done, McDowell said. “I understand that some of you have been anxiously waiting for the FCC to move forward on finalizing our efforts to reform the rural healthcare program,” he said. “So have I. As part of the implementation of that plan, the commission has already reformed some of the other USF programs on a piecemeal basis.” McDowell said that in a “perfect world” the agency would have taken on all USF spending programs at the same time, while also completing contribution reform. “Consistent with my long-standing advocacy for truly comprehensive reform, I will continue to press the commission to complete all of its reform efforts, including reform of the rural healthcare program, as quickly as possible,” he said. McDowell said he saw the importance of telehealth during a trip to Alaska during his first year as a commissioner. “The most memorable portions of the trip were the health clinics,” he said. “There I could see how medical images from the most remote corners of Alaska were transmitted to specialists in Anchorage. I learned how using telehealth technology can actually save money because, in many instances, having that technology close at hand means the patient can avoid flying hundreds of miles to a hospital.” McDowell noted that while the FCC created the healthcare program in 2007, it asked for comments on possible changes in 2010. “The commission has not only garnered valuable information from those who commented but also has learned a tremendous amount from participants in the pilot program,” he said. “All of this information will be incredibly valuable as the commission moves to the next step in the reform process."
A federal appeals court reversed a district court’s decision upholding an Oregon-approved interconnection agreement between Qwest and Western Radio Services. Western disputed the Oregon Public Utility Commission’s approval of the agreement and claimed that Qwest failed to negotiate the agreement in good faith. The U.S. District Court in Portland had supported the Oregon commission and dismissed the good-faith claim. But in a ruling (http://xrl.us/bmybpi) released Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision to uphold the PUC and ordered the PUC to hold further proceedings consistent with the opinion. However, the appeals court affirmed the district court’s decision to dismiss the good-faith claim. The interconnection agreement violates the 1996 Telecom Act “insofar as it applies access charges, rather than reciprocal compensation, to calls exchanged between a [commercial mobile radio service] provider and a [local exchange carrier], originating and terminating in the same [local access and transport area], when those calls are carried by an interexchange carrier ('IXC'),” wrote Judge David Ebel for the San Francisco-based court. The involvement of an IXC does not alter the parties obligation to pay reciprocal compensation, he said. The 8th and 10th circuit courts have issued similar rulings and the FCC cited that case law “approvingly” in its Connect America Fund report and order, Ebel said. “While the PUC and the district court obviously did not have this clear guidance available to them at the time they rendered their respective decisions below, the FCC’s newly promulgated interpretation of the statute must yet be given effect.”
The FCC’s proposed consumer protection measures for cable customers affected by operators’ encryption of the basic-programming tier aren’t enough, a maker of consumer electronics that use unencrypted clear QAM signals said. “Giving a free set top box to my mother, as an example, who is retired and uses clear QAM with her TV set in her kitchen, would be a workable solution assuming it had the correct connections to her TV set (an RF connection with HD pass through would most likely be acceptable to her),” Hauppauge Computer Works said. “A good number of consumers including many Hauppauge customers might not be covered if they do not fall under the income test as described in the proposed rules.” CEO Ken Plotkin reported in a filing posted Wednesday to docket 11-169 (http://xrl.us/bmybm6) that he told commission aides about the company’s proposed transition plan for cable operators to give clear QAM-users free digital-to-digital converter boxes (CD March 7 p13).
The FCC missed the House Commerce Committee deadline to answer questions related to LightSquared, a GOP committee spokeswoman said. The committee asked the FCC Feb. 28 to respond to several questions by Tuesday. On Thursday the committee was still waiting for a response, the majority spokeswoman said. The committee also has “not received any documents from the FCC yet,” but the March 13 deadline was only for responses to questions, not for documents, the spokeswoman said. “The FCC is continuing to cooperate with the Committee to provide the information we requested and we expect to see their responses and documents very soon,” Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said in a written statement. The FCC “will be responding consistent with our discussions with Committee staff,” a commission spokesman said. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has blocked FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel until the agency delivers LightSquared documents related to communications among the commission, White House and LightSquared investor Harbinger. In a floor speech Thursday about “Sunshine Week,” Grassley said it’s “idiotic” for the FCC to say it only has to respond to requests from the House and Senate Commerce committee chairmen. The Iowa Republican also criticized FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski for not keeping a promise to let Grassley interview commission staff about the LightSquared matter. “Actions speak louder than words,” Grassley said. “People can get away with lying, and they are stonewalling, pure and simple.” House Commerce members have indicated they will share the documents with Grassley, but observers say Rosenworcel and Pai are likely to face further hurdles to confirmation (CD March 12 p1).
Games that don’t sell out won’t necessarily be televised if the sports blackout rule ends, said a group with pay-TV ties that’s petitioned the FCC to end the regulation (CD March 1 p3). Compulsory copyright statutes “curtail pay TV providers from carrying games” if the FCC junks the blackout rule, the Sports Fan Coalition said in a handout given to Commissioner Robert McDowell. DBS companies are “prohibited from importing” a blacked-out game from a distant market, and “cable providers would have to pay six months of copyright fees for one game,” said the document, a copy of which the coalition filed in docket 12-3 (http://xrl.us/bmybkg). “Broadcasters would likely invoke retransmission consent to limit out-of-market use of their signals.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was to have visited the FCC Wednesday to meet with McDowell to defend the blackout rule, which the league has supported, the coalition said. An NFL spokesman declined to comment.
LightSquared’s main satellite experienced a disruption March 7, forcing the company to move its customers to its old MSAT satellites, said a spokesman. The company has started an investigation into the problems for the satellite, Skyterra-1, but the cause hasn’t yet been determined, though the solar flare last week may be involved, he said. LightSquared has reconfigured services on Skyterra-1 and command and control are working, though the company won’t move the customers back onto Skyterra-1 until an investigation is completed, said the spokesman. There are about 300,000 LightSquared satellite devices operational in North America, he said.