House lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill Wednesday to require the government to employ energy-efficient and energy reduction technologies in federal data centers. The Energy Efficient Government Technology Act would require the Office of Management and Budget to create a strategy to use better energy saving information and communication technologies and practices. The bill would also set out requirements for federal agencies to evaluate and improve the energy efficiency of existing federal data centers, according to a summary of the bill. The legislation was introduced by House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Communications and technology industry members generally applauded the legislation, in separate news releases Wednesday. Dean Garfield, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, said the bill would put in place “greater incentives for smart technologies to reduce federal energy consumption and emissions, while achieving substantial cost savings, improved productivity, and better value for the American people.” TIA President Grant Seiffert said the government will “realize significant energy efficiency and cost savings” if the legislation passes. Executives from Qualcomm, Intel and EMC also lauded the cost savings the bill could bring.
Clarification: FCC technical staff still are reviewing results of the Progeny and Part 15 users joint testing (CD Feb 5 p5).
TiVo asked for more waivers of FCC rules requiring that analog tuners be included in digital cable ready retail products. The company sought a similar waiver in 2011 (CD June 9/2011 p12) for its TiVo Premiere XL4 DVR. “More than a year later, consumer use of analog video signals continues to decline rapidly,” it said. “Meanwhile, the price and power consumption of analog tuners in TiVo continues to raise costs to consumers without providing any discernible benefit.”. The waivers TiVo is asking for would let it introduce new products in the company’s “Premiere” product line, it said.
NTIA’s FirstNet State and Local Implementation Grant Program set its application deadline for those interested in the $121.5 million in awards as March 19. The agency hopes to grant the implementation awards by July 15, NTIA said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/boe9ha). The matching grant calls for a federal share of 80 percent of total project costs, with recipients giving a minimum of 20 percent, it said. The grants will last three years, and grantees may request an extension at no cost in their final year, NTIA said. Each governor must mandate a point of contact for marshalling these grant funds, it added, describing how scoring works and what activities would and wouldn’t be allowed under the terms of these grants in preparing for the $7-billion public safety broadband network.
The NARUC board adopted all three telecom resolutions Wednesday, a day after the telecom committee voted to approve them (http://xrl.us/boe9fr). They will now become official association policy. The board passed unmodified the resolution addressing possible interference Progeny may be causing to Part 15 users (CD Feb 6 p11), calling for “the FCC to not authorize Progeny to operate its licensed M-LMS system in the 902-928 MHz band” until it’s sure it’s safe. “Given the critical need within the E911 public safety community for Progeny’s position location service, we are obviously disappointed,” Progeny CEO Gary Parsons told us in a statement. “We recognize the importance of protecting the integrity of smart grid and SCADA monitoring systems for energy distribution and we understand that the NARUC commissioners did not have the technical resources to review the voluminous results from 18 months of testing with numerous Part 15 systems. Progeny remains confident, however, that the FCC’s expert technical staff will conclude from its review of the independent and joint test reports that Progeny’s position location network will not cause unacceptable levels of interference to Part 15 devices in the 902-928 MHz band.” A resolution calling for more collaboration after disasters also passed without changes. The board adopted a third resolution (CD Feb 6 p14) slamming the way the FCC makes use of ex parte contacts and calling for more referral to the Federal-State Joint Boards on Separations and Universal Service. The adopted resolutions also included a seven-page white paper detailing its criticisms of FCC rulemaking processes. “The FCC’s failure to fully disclose the sum and substance of oral ex parte communications creates a situation at odds with the widespread demand for open government, specifically the public’s desire for a complete picture of agency lobbying (especially by regulated entities), thereby providing a perspective on the legitimacy of the agency’s action,” the paper said.
It’s hard to predict whether the FCC will require TV stations that provide services to other stations in the same market to report an attributable interest for ownership limit purposes, Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO David Smith told analysts during the company’s Q4 earnings call Wednesday. “We don’t think it is even remotely fair to contemplate” making joint services or shared services agreements attributable, he said. Asked whether consolidation among TV station owners gives station groups more leverage with distributors or networks in retransmission consent and affiliation agreements, Smith said no. “The reality is a real television station stands on its own in every market that it’s in,” he said. “If you have a really great television station and run a great business … that’s all the negotiating leverage you need.” Sinclair Q4 sales increased 58 percent from a year earlier to $278.1 million on higher political ad sales and due to several stations the company acquired in the last year. Net income increased 69 percent to $144.7 million. Sinclair shares closed up 2 percent Wednesday at $14.49.
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at encouraging engagement among FCC commissioners. The FCC Collaboration Act (http://xrl.us/boe9ef) would modify rules that currently forbid more than two FCC members from talking to each other outside of an official public meeting. Under the bill, non-public meetings of three or more commissioners can take place as long as no vote or agency action is taken at the meeting and an attorney from the FCC’s Office of General Counsel is present. The bill was introduced by House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Reps. John Shimkus, R-Ill., and Mike Doyle, D-Pa. A Senate companion bill will be introduced Thursday by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Dean Heller, R-Nev. Commissioner Ajit Pai applauded the legislation as one of many steps needed to encourage better and quicker responses from the commission on regulatory matters. The act would “help us meet deadlines set by Congress and the shot clocks we set for ourselves” as well as “facilitate a more fruitful dialogue about the potential costs and benefits of Commission action,” he said in a news release. Public Knowledge Vice President of Government Affairs Christopher Lewis also applauded the bill as a “significant step in streamlining decisions that are made at the FCC,” in a separate news release. But Lewis said he hopes the FCC provides transcripts of the meetings, “so the public can still be informed as to what is going on.”
Q4 sales of $8.2 billion at Time Warner were about the same as the year-earlier quarter as declines in its publishing and studio businesses offset growth of 5 percent at its media networks. Net income increased 33 percent from a year earlier to $1.2 billion on lower costs. Revenue missed expectations, but profit “soundly exceeded” them, Bernstein Research analyst Todd Juenger wrote investors. The company’s digital sales are starting to make up for the decline in its DVD business, Wells Fargo’s Marci Ryvicker wrote. “Digital home video revenue generated roughly $1 billion in 2012, and it is expected to grow 20 percent in 2013.” Time Warner shares closed up 4.1 percent to $52.03 on Wednesday.
The Media Rating Council accredited Arbitron radio ratings for the Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego and Charlotte/Gastonia-Rock Hill markets, and voted to continue accrediting the Portable People Meter average-quarter-hour monthly data in 14 other markets, the company said in a Wednesday news release (http://xrl.us/bm4hei). “The MRC voted to not grant accreditation at this time in the remaining 30 PPM markets, and therefore PPM data in those markets continue to be unaccredited.” The company had made changes to PPM methods after critics said they undercounted minorities (CD April 23/10 p7). Arbitron separately said it and Nielsen voluntarily gave the FTC more time to review the first company’s deal to be acquired by the second. Nielsen is withdrawing and will refile its pre-merger notification, restarting the 30-day antitrust waiting period which now will end at 11:59 p.m. on March 8, Arbitron said in a news release earlier this week. Nielsen agreed in December to pay about $1.25 billion for Arbitron (CD Dec 19 p10).
The FCC released a paper offering more details on the forward auction of broadcast spectrum, written by two of the consulting firms working with the agency on the proposed incentive auction. The paper “provides additional details about several of the more novel aspects discussed in connection with the Forward Auction, including the use of intra-round bidding, managing the shifting of demand between categories of licenses and the forward auction closing rule,” said the paper by Auctionomics and Power Auctions (http://xrl.us/bodxr7). The forward auction is the sale of the spectrum to wireless carriers.