DirecTV, Dish Network, American Cable Association and others continued to urge the FCC to take action on the retransmission consent regime. The commission can prohibit separately owned TV stations from coordinating their retransmission consent negotiations, the multichannel video programming distributors, as well as Charter and Public Knowledge, said in an ex parte filing in dockets 10-71 and 09-182 (http://bit.ly/IZ6ZF7). The FCC can protect consumers caught in the middle of retransmission consent disputes “by establishing dispute-resolution mechanisms and requiring interim carriage in the event of negotiating impasses,” the filing said. The commission can take such actions in the context of either its 2010 rulemaking considering changes to its retrans consent regime or its pending 2010 quadrennial media ownership review, “or address them in both proceedings,” it said. “But it cannot simply permit the status quo to continue consistent with its statutory obligations to protect consumers and competition.” The filing recounted a meeting with Adonis Hoffman, chief of staff for Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.
Reports that Sprint is considering a bid for T-Mobile (CD Dec 16 p15) appeared to come from a leak inside Sprint, BTIG said in a research note Thursday. BTIG said this was unusual since the risk is that reports could drive up the price of T-Mobile, working against Sprint’s interest. “Companies leak possible deals if they are interested in how shareholders would react but SoftBank owns 80 percent of Sprint,” BTIG said. “Sprint might be expecting strong Q4 results from T-Mobile and wanted to establish a benchmark for an ‘unaffected stock price’ on T-Mobile before that rise,” the firm said. The leak also could send a message to other possible buyers or even to regulators that a deal could be on the way, BTIG said.
The FCC Media Bureau fined Billy Ray Locklear Evangelical Association $7,200 for failing to file children’s television programming reports on time and filing incorrect Class A certifications for its station WLPS Lumberton-Pembroke, N.C., said a Media Bureau forfeiture order (http://fcc.us/18Ueq7a). The fine was reduced from $9,000 because of the association’s history of compliance. The bureau also fined Central Ohio Association of Christian Broadcasters $3,000 for late children’s television reports and failing to report the violations on a renewal application for its station WGCT Columbus, Ohio, said a forfeiture order (http://fcc.us/1fIOPmo). Campbellsville University, licensee of WLCU Campbellsville, Ky., was also fined $3,000 for late children’s TV reports, said a forfeiture order (http://fcc.us/1beZmkq).
The FCC is “broken” and takes too long to respond to technological change and solve problems, said the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council in a response to the commission’s call for suggestions on how to revamp procedures (CD Dec 6 p3). MMTC’s comments propose a litany of procedural tweaks to improve the commission’s speed and responsiveness to diversity issues and tech advancements. The list includes the creation of a National Broadband Plan Advisory Committee to update the commission’s broadband plan every two years to “keep pace” with “disruptive technologies,” allowing commissioners other than the chairman to bring an item up for vote and a U.S. Supreme Court-style cert process for applications for review. MMTC also suggested commission procedure could be sped up if major decisions were each assigned a specific commissioner to shepherd them so they move “through the agency to the 8th floor expeditiously.” On diversity, MMTC suggested the Enforcement Bureau create a Civil Rights Division, that the commission hire a chief diversity officer, and that a commissioner could take responsibility “for inclusion and competitive opportunities for minority- and women-owned business enterprises.” Most of the suggested reforms could be adopted without congressional action, said MMTC. “Most of them would cost nothing and could produce savings for the Commission, as well as growth, job creation and diversity for the regulated industries."
The FCC Enforcement Bureau adopted a consent decree with KSBJ Educational Foundation for the apparent unauthorized operation of a fixed earth station. Last year, the International Bureau dismissed KSBJ’s request for special temporary authority to operate an earth station because the request was defective, the Enforcement Bureau said in an order (http://bit.ly/1bT6PsE). The International Bureau later granted a second request but because it appeared that KSBJ, based in Humble, Texas, may have operated its earth station after the station license expired, “the International Bureau referred this matter to the Enforcement Bureau for investigation and possible enforcement action,” the order said. KSBJ agreed to make a voluntary contribution of $16,000 to the U.S. Treasury, the order said.
National Religious Broadcasters continued to urge the FCC to take action on the rulemaking to allow noncommercial stations to raise funds on the air for other nonprofit organizations. It will serve a vital public interest “not only by facilitation of the charitable impulses of listeners and viewers, but also by aiding non-profit groups in meeting critical community needs,” NRB said in an ex parte filing in Media Bureau dockets 12-106 and 13-249 (http://bit.ly/18ZSlat). NRB also repeated its support for the effort to revitalize the AM band, it said. The filing recounted a meeting this week with Commissioner Ajit Pai.
EBay completed the $800 million acquisition of mobile device payment company Braintree, which will be a PayPal service and run by Braintree CEO Bill Ready, said eBay in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ce23Zx). Braintree handles payment for companies like Airbnb, OpenTable and Uber, and its Venmo app allows for payments by mobile devices, said eBay. It projected Braintree will have $12 billion in payment volume this year, a third “driven” by mobile payments. PayPal will handle $20 billion in transactions on mobile devices this year, eBay CEO John Donahoe has said.
Intelsat requested 30-day special temporary authority beginning Jan. 23 for its Nuevo, Calif., C-band earth station. Intelsat intends to use the earth station, call sign E040125, “to provide launch and early orbit phase services for the ABS-2 satellite that is expected to be launched” Jan. 23, it said in its application to the FCC International Bureau (http://bit.ly/1ce0ZEX).
The TV White Space Database Administrators Group filed a revised version of its “Database-to-Database Synchronization Interoperability Specification” at the FCC. The document (http://bit.ly/1i4nQoW) lays out a standard for database operators to exchange information on protected entities, as required by FCC rules.
T-Mobile representatives met with FCC Wireless acting Bureau Chief Roger Sherman and others from the bureau to press for spectrum aggregation limits in the TV incentive auction. “The participants observed that low-band spectrum has superior in-building penetration and propagation characteristics than other spectrum,” said a filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/19fjBEg). “Low-band spectrum is necessary to compete in the wireless marketplace and AT&T and Verizon currently control the vast majority of low-band spectrum.” T-Mobile said Verizon Wireless and AT&T hold 86 percent of commercial spectrum below 1 GHz in the top 10 U.S. markets and more than 80 percent in the top 50 markets.