Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., flagged potentially high costs of an FCC proposal requiring TV stations to post political ad files online. The proposal “makes no mention of the costs associated with the creation and ongoing maintenance that will be required with this new database,” he said in a Feb. 6 letter. The agency doesn’t take into account the proposal’s impact on small businesses, he said. Forcing broadcasters to compile a list of all sponsorship identifications “is a burdensome and unnecessary new recordkeeping requirement for stations,” Burr said. The senator asked the FCC to send him an estimate of costs to government and industry. Eight other senators last week backed the FCC’s plan, which may be put to a commissioner vote next month (CD Feb 23 p12).
A California woman was fined $432,000 for sending 27 junk faxes advertising her company, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Thursday. Teresa Goldberg, d/b/a Software Training Co., sent the unsolicited faxes offering courses in “hands-on consulting and training” for QuickBooks. The bureau contacted Goldberg in December 2010 in response to a consumer complaint about an unwanted fax; Goldberg responded that the company was no longer in business. Yet within two months, the commission received more complaints about identical faxes sent to 27 other consumers, this time from entities called “Software Business Management” and “Software Managing Systems.” A bureau investigation showed those two companies were merely aliases for Goldberg’s supposedly out-of-business company. Goldberg, whom the commission had fined before under her alias “Tammy Pocknett,” received the maximum penalty of $16,000 for each violation because she “appears not only to have repeatedly violated the prohibition against faxing unsolicited ads, but also to have done so intentionally and in an egregious manner,” the bureau said.
Crown Media’s Q4 sales gained 10 percent from a year earlier to $99.6 million, the company said. Ad sales were up 19 percent to $81.7 million, it said. The company also recently renewed its distribution agreements with Cox and Dish Network. Strong ad sales and the growth in distribution of its Hallmark Movie Channel helped results, CEO Bill Abbott said. Its net income of $29.8 million was about the same as a year earlier.
The FCC plans a two-day workshop on spectrum efficiency and receivers March 12 and 13 at the agency’s headquarters. Receiver standards have emerged as a major topic at the commission (CD Feb 16 p5), especially in the aftermath of the LightSquared fight. The workshop will be conducted by the Office of Engineering and Technology with the cooperation of the Wireless Bureau and the Office of Strategic Planning. “The role of receivers in enabling access to spectrum for new services implicates federal stakeholders, as well as the private sector,” said a public notice released Friday. “Receiver performance issues have often arisen as a conflict between legacy stakeholders and new entrants where deployment of new technologies and services threatens to adversely impact an incumbent or place restrictions on the new entrant.” More details are to follow.
Q4 TV sales at the E.W. Scripps Company fell 16 percent from a year earlier to $84.7 million on lower political ad sales. Factoring out political ads, sales would have increased 11.4 percent, it said. And the Q4 2011 performance marked 15 percent increase from the same period in 2009, the previous non-election year. Retransmission consent revenue increased 30 percent from a year earlier to $3.9 million. Its acquisition of McGraw-Hill’s broadcasting division was completed Dec. 30 and didn’t affect Q4 results, it said.
Comcast will cut prices in some markets for standalone broadband, starting by March 15. “Effective January, 2012, Comcast adjusted standalone” unbundled broadband “services throughout service areas” where the product is offered, the company said. It reported on standalone fast Web service in a report the FCC required in OK'ing last year Comcast’s buy of control in NBCUniversal. Costs for an “economy” service with maximum download speeds of 1.5 Mbps and top upload transmissions of 384 kbps were reduced 4.8 percent to $39.95 monthly in parts of South Florida. The company will stop offering in 2012 that tier to new customers, said the filing posted Thursday to docket 10-56 (http://xrl.us/bmuvb7). Some markets in Florida also had a 1.7 percent reduction in the cost of a 50/10 Mbps service to $114.95 monthly.
Viacom said it plans to raise $750 million in two debt offerings. It will sell $500 million of 1.25 percent senior notes due 2015 at a price of 99.789 percent of their principal amount, and another $250 million in 4.5 percent senior notes due 2042 at a price of 98.063 percent of the principal amount, it said. Viacom said it plans to use the cash for general corporate purposes, repaying other debts and buying back some of it shares.
WTSM(FM) Woodville, Fla., faces a possible $10,000 FCC fine for not keeping all required documents in its public inspection file, said a Media Bureau notice of apparent liability (http://xrl.us/bmuuyq).
NextG Networks, which operates and installs distributed antenna systems (DAS), told the FCC it expects to save $750,000 a year, “based only on existing nodes,” as a result of the FCC’s pole attachment order. At least 11 owners have already reduced the rates they charge, consistent with the order, “with a much greater number expected to come into compliance for 2012,” NextG said in a filing at the commission (http://xrl.us/bmus6w). NextG is also having an easier time gaining ready access to pole tops for its DAS nodes, the company said. “So far five electric companies ... who had previously refused pole top attachments are working with NextG to develop construction standards” and as a result of the order “utilities are receptive to collaborative discussions regarding how NextG’s antennas may be attached above electric power in full compliance with the National Electric Safety Code."
President Barack Obama should consider “dig once” broadband conduit policy as a method to speed national infrastructure projects, Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a letter Thursday to Obama. Klobuchar and Warner have filed an amendment (CD Feb 23 p4) to add to the Senate’s surface transportation bill their “dig once” proposal requiring states to include broadband conduit during the construction of federal highways. The policy would promote broadband deployment and competition and save taxpayer money, the senators said.