The vehicle’s dashboard is the next technology frontier for content companies, according to panelists on the Future of Radio session at the Piper Jaffray Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference Wednesday in New York. “The battle for the dashboard is real,” said Bob Struble, CEO of HD Radio developer iBiquity Digital. Where AM/FM used to have a monopoly position in the dash, now “you can clearly assume that the dashboard will have Sirius radio built in, it will have Internet connectivity, native Pandora or Slacker or iHeart or TuneIn and Bluetooth connectivity,” he said. It will also have HD, AM/FM and hard disk storage for the user’s music collection, he said. A vehicle-based radio world is emerging where there will be a variety of choices rather than an either/or scenario Struble said. Rather than picking from Internet, satellite or broadcast radio, “they're just going to build it all in,” he said. The competition will be for “who has the most relevant content for the consumer,” he said. “There won’t be one clear winner,” he said, as consumers will “jump back and forth” between media. HD Radio, he said, makes broadcasters more competitive in that environment by offering interactivity and the ability to show album art. Lew Dickey, CEO of Cumulus Media, compared the competition for ears in the car to that for eyeballs in the living room. “This is media today,” he said. “It’s all a competition for consumers who want compelling content,” he said. Internet radio service provider Slacker, too, is “moving into drive time,” said CEO Jim Cady. Cady noted the ability of Slacker servers to keep track of listeners, offering data telling when listeners are in vehicles and when they're interacting with the service.
The commercial satellite industry can expect a short-term slow-down in government procurement as a result of budget constraints, but increasing demand for capacity and bandwidth will create growth in the market, said Claude Rousseau, an analyst for Northern Sky Research. Commercial satellite “is still a part of the solution for government markets” and there are emerging opportunities in Asia and Africa, he said Wednesday during a webinar. There must be a realization “that times are tough but it will be short-term,” he said. The troop drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan is affecting the bulk leasing of Ku-band capacity, land mobile communications-on-the-move sales, and satellite handheld equipment, he said. “Government use will be more specific and refined.” The industry can expect continued use of Ku-band capacity for unmanned aerial vehicle users, he said. If there were a transition to Ka band, “it would require retrofitting the aircraft, which is a costly endeavor,” he said. The market requirement for satellite is moving from narrowband to broadband, he said. But, there will continue to be significant need for narrowband systems in the military, he said. Commercial satellite companies will continue to obtain contracts from the government, but the rate will be slower than in previous years, he said: “People are waiting for sequestration” and how it will impact actual revenues for commercial satellite companies. Growth for commercial services also will likely be driven by the so-called “pivot to Asia” strategy, an effort by the Obama administration to shift military focus from the Middle East to the Pacific region, Rousseau said. Parts of Africa, like Mali, also are emerging as “hot spots,” he said. The French government spent 100 million euros for military missions since the war in Mali began this year, Rousseau said: “They may need more support from commercial satellite.”
CTIA recommended Wednesday that the FCC investigate the upper 15 MHz of the Broadcast Auxiliary Service band at 2095-2110 MHz as the 15 MHz the FCC is required to identify for reallocation for commercial use under last year’s spectrum law. The act requires the 15 MHz to be identified, allocated and licensed by February 2015. CTIA said that spectrum could readily be paired with the 15 MHz of spectrum already identified by NTIA as required by the act, at 1695-1710 MHz. “CTIA believes that the 15 MHz of spectrum that is to be identified by the Commission could most effectively be utilized by the commercial mobile broadband industry if it is suitable for mobile services, adjacent to existing bands and readily available for pairing with other spectrum,” said a letter to the FCC commissioners from CTIA President Steve Largent (http://bit.ly/ZnkYXB). “This spectrum band is below 3 GHz, is contiguous and adjacent to current allocations, and would allow pairing in a readily achievable fashion. CTIA is not aware of any other spectrum bands as well-positioned as this band to meet all the key principles for mobile broadband spectrum that could be paired with the specific 15 MHz identified by NTIA, and that could be put to timely use and generate significant revenues through a competitive bidding process.” NAB opposes the proposal. “If CTIA’s request were not such a serious threat to public safety, it would be amusing,” said Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton. “Every day, local TV stations use broadcast auxiliary spectrum to provide breaking coverage of devastating storms, tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires. If Superstorm Sandy demonstrated anything, it is that broadcast television serves as a lifeline in times of emergency, where cellphone/wireless architecture has failed.” Broadcasters have already given up “108 MHz and one-third of our BAS spectrum for wireless purposes,” he said. “CTIA is demanding even more spectrum from broadcasters. NAB will work with the FCC to identify appropriate spectrum that meets the requirements of the statute without jeopardizing the safety of the American public.”
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said FCC commissioners should consider Progeny’s request to begin using unlicensed spectrum in the 902-928 MHz band for first responder location services as a part of the “broader debate” on unlicensed spectrum use. During Tuesday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing Cantwell emphasized the importance of reserving unlicensed spectrum at different frequencies for innovators and asked commissioners what they thought about the matter. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he agreed with Cantwell that there is a need to pursue dedicated spectrum bands for unlicensed use. “We need to free up more spectrum for Wi-Fi … and we need to pursue a new generation of unlicensed [spectrum] which we can do as part of the incentive auction process,” he said. But Commissioner Robert McDowell said he wants to make sure policymakers do not reserve a large block of nationwide spectrum for unlicensed use. “I think that would undermine funds for the [FirstNet] initiative … we can still have robust unlicensed use below 1 GHz just as we are looking at above 5 GHz,” he said. “But we need to be very careful to not artificially create something that lends itself better to auctioning for licensed purposes than unlicensed purposes.” Cantwell said she hoped the FCC would have a “broader discussion” about it instead of “having some of these waivers given and then having preclusions, basically, or conflicts like on E-911 when we need to have a broad discussion on how we are going to have this unlicensed spectrum really be a robust space for all these applications,” she said. The commission is reviewing the results of field tests completed in 2011 and 2012 to ensure that Progeny’s services don’t cause unacceptable levels of interference to other users in the band.
The Electronic Communications Committee, part of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), identified technical and operational requirements that will enable better satellite broadband service on trains, planes and ships, it said. The requirements will lead to harmonized use of earth stations on mobile platforms (ESOMPs) operating in geostationary satellite networks in certain parts of the Ka band “to ensure existing services, particularly fixed satellite service and fixed service networks, are protected from harmful interference,” ECC said in a press release (http://bit.ly/10O2yUV). The ESOMPs will use frequencies in selected ranges between 17 and 30 GHz, it said. CEPT helps develop policies and regulations in electronic communications for Europe.
The FCC told lawmakers that it’s dedicated to a data-driven process to shape policies in its media ownership proceeding. The commission expects the process to shape policies that also promote ownership diversity and enable robust local news broadcasts for all communities, its Office of Legislative Affairs said in letters this week. Last year, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., Michael Doyle, D-Pa., and other lawmakers expressed their concern, in separate letters, about the impact that proposed cross-ownership rules could have on local and diverse programming. Those letters were posted in the docket this week. Given New Jersey’s unfortunate experience with media consolidation, “I am particularly disappointed to learn that the FCC is considering modifying its media ownership rules to the benefit of major media companies and to the detriment of local news coverage,” said Lautenberg (http://bit.ly/XuwAft). Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., urged the FCC to have a public vote on the media ownership report and order at its next open meeting: “You will have the opportunity to publicly explain your rationale for the weakening of the existing media cross-ownership rule and other elements of the report and order” (http://bit.ly/Y9X1om).
Outdoor Channel Holdings said it agreed to sell itself to Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE) in an all-cash deal for $8.75 a share. The company had been set to have shareholders vote Wednesday on its proposed sale to InterMedia Outdoor Holdings, but it received an unsolicited bid from KSE that it deemed “superior.” It paid InterMedia a $6.5 million termination fee, it said.
Cablevision spelled out its argument for why an FCC administrative law judge should side with it in a program carriage dispute against Game Show Network (GSN). The cable operator argued in a trial brief that GSN can’t prove Cablevision’s decision to move GSN from a broadly distributed tier of service to a less-highly penetrated one had “anything to do at all with GSN’s lack of affiliation” with the cable operator (http://bit.ly/YohTaJ). “There is a complete absence of evidence of discrimination on the basis of affiliation or non-affiliation,” Cablevision said. Rather, the evidence shows that Cablevision’s decision to move the network “resulted from an analysis of the cost of the network compared to its limited value to Cablevision subscribers.” Moreover, even if GSN could show it had been discriminated against by Cablevision, it could not prove that such discrimination “has resulted in an unreasonable restraint on its ability to compete fairly,” it said. The network is broadly carried within Cablevision’s footprint by Dish, DirecTV and Verizon’s FiOS service, it said.
Small- and medium-sized cable operators are telling members of Congress and FCC officials that retransmission consent doesn’t work, because of a record number of programming blackouts last year, American Cable Association CEO Matt Polka told ACA’s conference Wednesday. ACA members sought, in visits to Washington at this time last year, hearings in Congress on retrans and other programming issues, and “at the end of the year, I think there were six or seven or eight of them,” he later told reporters. Now “we're going to say ‘keep going, you're asking the right questions,'” Polka said. He cited a question by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., at Tuesday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing on sports programming costs. That query “doesn’t suggest necessarily that he is going to be the one leading the charge for reform, or if there will be [reform], but we're going to be reinforcing the message, that the retransmission consent model is broken,” Polka said. Broadcasters say retrans works and blackouts are relatively few when compared to the many deals that get renewed without an impasse. Polka criticized what he called “the out-of-control sports market” with demands for excessive rights’ fees and programmers that will “trip over themselves and fall over themselves” to bid to pay. Access for ACA members to “vertically integrated cable programming is still an issue, let’s make no mistake about it,” Polka said. The association will also reiterate its request, on which the FCC has sought comment, that program access rules acknowledge the National Cable Television Cooperative, he said. On preventing gun violence after December’s massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., ACA is “very committed to doing what we can with the things that are in our control” to educate parents on subjects related to kids’ viewing habits, Polka said. “We want to be part of that discussion, wherever it takes place."
Six majority members of the House Commerce Committee sent a letter Wednesday to Rural Utilities Service Acting Administrator (RUS) John Padalino about their concerns with a Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) loan and grant given to Lake County, Minn. The letters asked pointed questions about whether the loan and grant combination may have “skirted BIP eligibility requirements and placed taxpayer dollars at risk,” according to a committee news release. “We are concerned with suggestions that the BIP program may have been used to overbuild existing systems rather than extend service to areas that legitimately meet the underserved/unserved eligibility requirements,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.; House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore.; Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Tim Murphy, R-Pa.; and Michael Burgess, R-Texas. “Materials reviewed by committee staff also raise questions as to whether RUS adequately considered the financial viability of the Lake County project before committing $66.4 million in government funding,” they said. The lawmakers asked Padalino to answer detailed questions about the agency’s application review process for the project and submit a copy of all communications and agreements related to Lake County’s application. At least one Minnesota company had complained that Lake County’s BIP loan application appeared to be fraudulent, was designed to set the county up for financial failure and allowed outside consultants hand-picked by local officials to buy the fiber-to-the-home systems at a discount (CD March 17/11 p6). Walden, Upton and Murphy also urged in a separate letter that Government Accountability Office Comptroller General Gene Dodaro conduct an analysis of all the work that had been completed under the BIP program to identify any other incidents of fraud, waste and abuse.