House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said at an event hosted Wednesday by the Villanova School of Business that lawmakers need to modernize the outdated regulations that govern the communications marketplace. “While the [communications] industry continues to grow, it cannot sustain this kind of investment if we continue to regulate voice, video, audio, and data services under a regime that pretends we still live in an analog world run by three networks and one phone company,” he said. “We need to eliminate outdated regulations to meet the promises and challenges of the Internet era. We need to harness the free market to promote investment, encourage innovation, and create jobs. And we certainly don’t need to shackle new services with old rules.” Walden said the subcommittee will continue its efforts to free up more spectrum for private sector use. “The mission of this subcommittee is to squeeze as much as possible out of existing spectrum so that our nation continues to lead the world in wireless broadband innovation and opportunities so that the communications sector can continue to be a job-creation engine for the American people,” he said. “We will also conduct oversight to ensure FCC implementation does not pick winners and losers by allocating large swaths of spectrum to favored constituencies for free, thus shorting the supply of spectrum that is badly needed to meet the rising consumer demand for mobile broadband and leave public safety hanging by depriving it of the funding it needs to build out a public safety network.” It’s likely that the subcommittee will revisit the 1992 Cable Act and the 1996 Telecommunications Act, said Walden, as lawmakers prepare to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, which expires Dec. 31, 2014.
The Game Show Network (GSN) should not be allowed to depose Cablevision CEO James Dolan in the two companies’ program carriage dispute, Cablevision said (http://xrl.us/bn4y28). Additionally, GSN should not be allowed to seek documents in the files of John Bickham, a one-time Cablevision executive, Cablevision said. The opposition to GSN’s motion to compel both Dolan’s deposition and the discovery of certain Bickham documents is the latest skirmish in a battle over the scope of discovery as the complaint heads to an administrative law hearing (CD Nov 30 p22). “In circumstances where, as here, there is little evidence that a company CEO has unique knowledge of the matters at issue, courts have broad authority to limit discovery,” it said. Moreover, it’s too soon to know whether Bickham’s files contain any pertinent documents, Cablevision said. “Should depositions ... indicate that Mr. Bickham would have unique responsive documents, Cablevision will work with GSN at that time to search for and produce any discrete materials,” it said. “A broad, time-consuming and costly sweep of Mr. Bickham’s files at this stage is not justified."
Nonprofits lobbied the FCC more against media ownership deregulation, while NAB asked that the forthcoming quadrennial review order address last year’s remand of 2007 rules, say ex parte filings in docket 09-182 (http://xrl.us/bn4y3c). The 30-day comment period that ends Jan. 4 on Media Bureau figures (CD Dec 5 p1) showing who owns what radio and TV stations by race and gender isn’t enough time, a coalition of civil-rights groups said. “This extremely brief period leaves the Commission open to challenge before the courts because it is self-evidently insufficient,” the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights wrote FCC members. The bureau’s public notice this week “seeks comment on raw data that provides no analysis explaining why the proposed rule changes in the 2010 Quadrennial Review docket will improve ownership rates by women and people of color,” the group continued. NAB wants the agency to “address the specific issues” in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ remand “in a direct and clear manner,” NAB General Counsel Jane Mago reported telling FCC General Counsel Sean Lev (http://xrl.us/bn4y3r). There’s “no justification for voting out an order that fails to comply with the Third Circuit’s mandate” by not considering rule changes’ effect on the ability for women and people of color to buy broadcast assets, Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood reported telling an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “Increased media consolidation is exactly the wrong remedy for this longstanding problem” of low ownership rates among people in those demographic groups, Wood said (http://xrl.us/bn4y4d). It’s “entirely possible that large media conglomerates with broadcast licenses in markets such as Los Angeles and Chicago could -- and likely would -- pursue daily newspaper properties in the same” area if the commission allows common ownership of a TV station not rated top four and a daily in the region, he said. A blog post Wednesday on Free Press’s website (http://xrl.us/bn4y4j) titled “FCC Spin vs. Fact” was on what deregulation could allow, as the group opposed to consolidation and FCC officials working for Chairman Julius Genachowski debate whether the draft order that’s circulating would allow further concentration. The final order “should impose reporting requirements and collect data about” shared services agreements between separately owned TV stations within a market, public-interest communications lawyer Andrew Schwartzman reported telling an aide to Rosenworcel. Only seeking information “would be insufficient,” Schwartzman wrote, representing only himself (http://xrl.us/bn4zm7). To NAB, “sharing arrangements facilitate the production of local news” and “economic efficiencies” by TV stations, Mago and other association lawyers told bureau officials. NAB said (http://xrl.us/bn4y46) it backs several proposals from the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council that are “technical in nature and are not specific to ownership,” including technical rule deregulation, that would “reduce entry barriers and promote efficiencies for existing broadcast stations owned by minorities, women and small entities."
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said his proposed music royalty bill is more likely to advance in the next session of Congress than an alternative bill proposed by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. “Judging from what happened in the committee the other day, Chaffetz’s legislation has very little support,” Nadler told us. Several Democrats on the House Judiciary IP Subcommittee said during a recent hearing they opposed Chaffetz’s Internet Radio Fairness Act (IRFA) (HR-6480) because they said the bill failed to force broadcasters to compensate performance artists whose work is played over terrestrial radio (CD Nov 29 p3) or (WID Nov 29 p1) or (CED Nov 29 p1). Nadler told us that incoming House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is more “sympathetic” to Nadler’s draft legislation, the interim Fairness in Radio Starts Today (FIRST) Act. The bill differs from IRFA by directing the Copyright Royalty Board to incorporate the price of artists’ intellectual property into broadcasters’ royalty payments related to music feeds they stream over the Internet. A Goodlatte spokesman did not comment. Nadler said he eventually wants to craft a bill that forces broadcasters to pay royalties to performance artists’ whose work they play on terrestrial radio. “We've got to bring them into it. There is no other place in a capitalist society, in a free enterprise society where people’s work is not paid for. It is just anomalous. We are the only major country that does it.” Separately Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said she too was optimistic that music royalty legislation would advance in the 113th Congress. “I think we probably have a better chance next year than we did this year,” she said during an interview at the Capitol. “There is less hostility on the committee overall and that [decrease in] hostility has not yet translated into support but it’s a step forward.” Lofgren is a co-sponsor of the IRFA.
FiberTower asked the FCC for an emergency stay of a Nov. 7 Wireless Bureau order saying the company had not met the substantial service requirements for 94 of its 24 GHz Digital Electronic Message Service licenses and 595 of its 39 GHz licenses and that these licenses automatically terminated June 1. FiberTower, which has filed for bankruptcy, has already announced plans to discontinue service by April 30. “The Bureau’s Order has caused a number of unique and unprecedented harms to the public interest that should be remedied by issuing a stay,” FiberTower said. “Because of the Bureau’s actions, FiberTower, which built one of the nation’s largest fixed wireless networks to help serve the burgeoning demand for mobile broadband service and offered competitive special access services nationwide, may no longer be able to conduct that business, to the detriment of its customers and the public.” Among the effects of the order if it is not stayed would be “removing the nation’s most active developer of viable fixed wireless equipment and services from the market,” reducing competition in the nation’s special access market and “materially disrupting service to the nation’s leading wireless operators and public safety entities,” FiberTower said.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said he was disappointed that lawmakers “diluted” his spectrum amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which passed on Tuesday evening. “It was diluted and weakened but at least we got something out there,” he said in an interview at the Capitol. The amendment, which was adopted by unanimous consent, urges the federal government and its agencies to consider spectrum reallocation and sharing agreements for use by licensed networks and unlicensed devices. The amendment recommended that the federal government explore spectrum sharing solutions as a means to alleviate the lack of bandwidth available to the private sector. It specifically urges the Defense Department to consider reallocating its use of spectrum in the 1755-1780 MHz band for commercial use and to create a long term plan to balance national security needs with the private sector’s demand for spectrum. The amendment said the FCC and NTIA should provide replacement spectrum to federal users prior to any reallocation of federal spectrum. “The agencies have to work together -- the private economy needs it if it is going to grow,” said Thune. “We need the FCC working with the various agencies and the DOD, and the federal government has to figure out a way to approach this in a way that helps us free up spectrum to address what is very big and important part of our growing economy.” Thune would not say if he thought federal sharing scenarios are the best solution to address the private sector’s demand for more spectrum. “I think there is a way that you can do this … in a way that everybody can benefit and get their needs addressed for spectrum,” he said.
NTIA requested modifications to FCC rules to protect additional critical government earth stations operating in the 17.7-20.2 GHz band. The agency urged the FCC to require applicants for non-federal terrestrial assignments within coordination areas on Guam and around San Miguel, Calif., to coordinate with the federal systems operating in that band, NTIA said in a letter to the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (http://xrl.us/bn4y24) in docket 12-338. The proceeding aims to amend FCC rules to implement decisions from the World Radiocommunication Conference concerning portions of radio frequency spectrum (http://xrl.us/bn4y37). NTIA also requested that the commission amend other parts of its rules “to include this additional quiet zone and the associated coordination procedures,” it said. The agency said it intends to monitor the FCC applications in Guam and San Miguel in the band until this proceeding has been completed.
TechNet ranked U.S. states based on how well they're integrating broadband into their state economies. The tech association looked at “indicators of broadband adoption, network quality, and economic structure as a way of taking stock of where states stand” to create the ranking, according to the December 2012 State Broadband Index report (http://xrl.us/bn4ytp). The top five states are Washington, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland and California and the worst five are New Mexico, Louisiana, Hawaii, Alaska and Arkansas. Washington’s top spot comes from “an economy that has a strong orientation toward ICTs [information and communications technologies] and apps development” and an economic structure that includes Microsoft, Amazon and T-Mobile, the report said. Utah has the highest home broadband adoption rate at 80 percent and ranks ninth on the index list. The report encourages executive and legislative leadership, state funding, cooperation and planning as key ways to successfully expand good broadband networks. In 2003, 15 percent of homes subscribed to broadband compared to 68 percent in 2012, TechNet said. It includes case studies of states like California, where it highlights what it counts as positive laws, and Missouri, where it nods to Google Fiber, to spotlight what drives broadband adoption and buildout and what doesn’t. “The diversity of state approaches is undoubtedly a virtue, as states search for models on how to encourage broadband in a fairly new arena for them,” TechNet said. “At the same time, building the capacity to learn lessons across states is crucially important.” TechNet’s members include AT&T, Apple, T-Mobile, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other major companies.
Retransmission agreements reached last week in Washington; Buffalo, N.Y.; Denver and other markets are a reflection of the free-market negotiation process, NAB said in an email Wednesday. The agreements also illustrate “that viewers, local TV stations and their cable and satellite partners all benefit from the process,” a spokesman said. Retrans deals were reached between DirecTV and Gannett TV stations, and between Charter Communications and LIN Media stations, NAB said. Most agreements are successfully negotiated out of public view, “because there is tremendous incentive for both the local station and the pay-TV provider to reach an amicable arrangement,” NAB added. The association contends retrans works, while many pay-TV companies want the FCC rules changed.
The FCC International Bureau is seeking comment on a request from the Canadian government for coordination with U.S. terrestrial fixed earth stations. Canada requested frequency coordination for an earth station in Montreal, operating in the 3700-4200 MHz and 5925-6425 MHz frequency bands, the bureau’s Satellite Division said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bn4ys2). Comments are due Jan. 5. If no adverse comments are received by that date “these earth stations will be considered satisfactorily coordinated with the USA and Canada will be so advised,” the division said.