Time Warner Cable and Crown Media said they reached a new long-term carriage deal covering the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel.
The FCC decision last week streamlining rules to allow earth stations to operate on aircraft follows a precedent set with earth stations on ships and vehicles in denying interference protections to the 10.95-11.2 GHz and 11.45-11.7 GHz downlink bands, said Mitchell Lazarus, a broadband and technology attorney at Fletcher Heald. “This helps the new aircraft-based service conform to the existing U.S. allocations,” he said in a blog post (http://xrl.us/bn8paq). The FCC’s action established earth stations aboard aircraft as a licensed application for communication with fixed satellite service stations (CD Dec 31 p8). The order doesn’t address “whether passengers will be allowed to use their onboard connections for voice service via VoIP: cell phones in the sky,” he said. This matter is likely outside the commission’s jurisdiction, he added.
Disney and Charter reached a new carriage agreement covering about 70 programming services, from the LongHorn Network to Disney XD. It also includes retransmission consent for seven Disney-owned TV stations. The deal gives Charter subscribers access to Disney’s online video “authenticated” apps such as Watch Disney Channel, and WatchESPN. “Our agreement with Charter represents the sixth top ten distributor renewal encompassing Disney’s full suite of products and services,” said David Preschlack, executive vice president-affiliate sales and marketing for Disney and ESPN Networks.
Alki David’s FilmOn and Aereokiller must stop streaming broadcast TV programming online within the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ territory pending the resolution of a lawsuit against the companies by NBCUniversal, Disney, CBS and others, said a preliminary injunction entered in U.S. District Court, Los Angeles, Thursday. The injunction is set to take effect two days after the media companies post a $250,000 bond with the court. Three days later Aereokiller must report to the court “in writing and under oath setting forth in detail the manner and form in which Defendants have complied with the Preliminary Injunction,” it said. An attorney for the defendant didn’t immediately comment. The 9th Circuit covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Guam.
Adam Rennhoff and Kenneth Wilbur revised some of the methodology in their FCC media ownership study, Local Media Ownership and Viewpoint Diversity in Local TV News, a filing at the FCC said. “We find a statistically significant result for only one media ownership variable: co-ownership of local television stations,” the revision said (http://xrl.us/bn8o8f). “Specifically, we find that viewpoint diversity is positively associated with increases in the number of co-owned television stations within a market.” An earlier version of the study had found all associations between viewpoint diversity and ownership variables “statistically indistinguishable from zero” (http://xrl.us/bn8o8o). Rennhoff is an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University and Wilbur is an assistant professor at Duke University.
President Barack Obama signed into law Sunday the FISA Amendments and Reauthorization Act (HR-5949) to extend for five years intelligence agencies’ ability to monitor and collect international communications related to foreign terrorist suspects.
State regulators hammered home their support for prison call rate reform, in a Friday written ex parte comment (http://xrl.us/bn8o79) to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The FCC said last week it will seek comments on high prison call rates, earning praise from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (CD Dec 31 p6). NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay repeated that in the letter and alluded to the association’s November resolution calling on the FCC to address such high interstate rates (CD Nov 14 p19). Ramsay bolded the word “interstate” in five of the letter’s six uses of the word -- referring to the FCC’s role in the reform -- and included a copy of the resolution with the letter.
Tribune’s bankruptcy is over. The company, which entered Chapter 11 protection in December 2008, emerged Monday with a $1.1 billion senior loan and a $300 million revolving credit facility, it said. It also issued about 100 million shares and warrants based on a $4.5 billion valuation of the company’s assets provided by the bank Lazard in February 2012. “Tribune emerges from the bankruptcy process as a multi-media company with a great mix of profitable assets, strong brands in major markets and a much improved capital structure,” said CEO Eddy Hartenstein.
The E-ZPass Group toll collection interoperation company is “deeply concerned” that an October report by Progeny did not accurately reflect the group’s equipment’s characteristics (http://xrl.us/bn8o6q). Progeny had sought a waiver of certain multilateration and monitoring service rules, to let it operate mobile radio transmitters and high-power base stations (CD Dec 27 p9). The E-ZPass Group, which has 24 members that have issued more than 23 million RFID devices to customers throughout the U.S., said Progeny’s interference testing was limited to analyzing the operations of three companies that “are not reflective of our equipment’s characteristics.” E-ZPass asked that the FCC require more interference testing, and to require a written report to the FCC “confirming that Progeny’s systems will not interfere” with its existing operations.
BloostonLaw asked the FCC Wireless Bureau for at least a two-week extension on the deadline to file comments on hearing aid compatibility (HAC) rules (http://xrl.us/bn8o6h). The comment deadline of Jan. 7 -- just one week before CMRS service providers must submit their annual HAC reports -- “means that specific attorneys that are knowledgeable about the intricacies of the Commission’s HAC reporting and regulatory compliance procedures (and therefore best positioned to draft informative comments) will be immersed in making sure that the HAC reports for the firm’s clients are timely prepared and filed,” BloostonLaw said. “Because of the complexity of the HAC reporting rules and the significant consequences of filing a late or incomplete HAC certification, it is not in the public interest to create these conflicting time demands."