SES signed an agreement with Level 3 to deliver advanced corporate communications services to businesses across Brazil. Level 3 uses 25 MHz of Ku band capacity in Latin America aboard the SES-4 satellite to deliver high-speed broadband, SES said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bn33ww). It will use SES-4 to deliver “unified and highly reliable IP communications to small and large enterprises in Brazil,” SES said. The agreement reflects the escalating demand for high-speed broadband and corporate network services throughout Latin America, it said.
Game Show Network said it wants Cablevision to be required to allow GSN discovery of two of the cable operator’s executives involved in “key decisions” to move the independent programmer to a less-popular tier. Cablevision won’t produce documents for the channel’s FCC program carriage complaint case from former Cablevision President of Cable & Communications John Bickham and won’t make available for deposition CEO James Dolan, GSN said in a filing posted Thursday to docket 12-122 (http://xrl.us/bn33u4). It asked Chief FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel to order Cablevision to “produce responsive documents” for Bickham within 10 days and require the operator to provide dates for Dolan’s deposition. An administrative law hearing is to start next year at the commission on GSN v. Cablevision, where the plaintiff contends the defendant favored its own channels over the indie (CD May 10 p5). GSN’s comparison of its shows versus those on the Cablevision-affiliated WE tv conflates “old game shows” with “programming for all women” and that makes “a mockery of the FCC’s program carriage rules,” a Cablevision spokesman said: The defendant thinks Sippel “will see through this self-serving ploy and reject GSN’s claim."
News Corp. wants the FCC to “eliminate the cross-ownership rule as a relic from a bygone era,” it said. “At the very least, the Commission should discard the rule in the nation’s largest media markets,” executives said in meetings with aides to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and to commissioners Robert McDowell and Ajit Pai. A draft order would allow waivers of cross-ownership rules in the top-20 markets, so one company could own a daily and a non-top four rated station (CD Nov 29 p5). Such a rule “would prove to be no more than phantom relief,” News Corp. said in a filing posted Thursday to docket 09-182 (http://xrl.us/bn33tc). It said top-four stations “are far more likely to produce local news, which makes them the most likely and plausible investors in newspapers, given that medium’s enormous economic pressures.” The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, backing cross-ownership rule deregulation as long as it doesn’t hurt broadcast diversity, doesn’t want “further relaxation” of TV duopoly of radio/TV cross-ownership rules, MMTC officials said during meetings with McDowell and Pai. That’s “because of the harmful impact we believe these combinations have on minority ownership,” the group said in a filing in the docket (http://xrl.us/bn33t3). The draft would allow radio/TV cross-ownership (CD Nov 15 p1).
Belo Corp. started a digital ad company it named ScreenShot Digital, which it said will provide digital media consulting and ad services. Industry researcher BIA/Kelsey has predicted online ad revenue from U.S. local media markets will grow 12 percent annually to $38.1 billion in 2016, Belo said in a Thursday news release (http://xrl.us/bn33px).
CTIA will hold its fall conference, MobileCON, in San Jose, Calif., next year, the group said Thursday. The dates are Oct. 16-18 at the San Jose Convention Center. “A region that prides itself as an incubator for generating the next big ideas in technology, Silicon Valley provides a natural backdrop for a show focused on cutting through the clutter and driving innovation across the enterprise,” CTIA said.
U.S. Cellular executives discussed a 700 MHz interoperability mandate and other issues with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski during a Monday meeting. “Restoring Interoperability is the key to development of a robust 4G LTE ecosystem which will unleash additional Lower 700 MHz deployment and deliver consumer benefits,” they said, according to an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bn33dm). Among those at the meeting were CEO Mary Dillon and Chairman LeRoy Carlson.
House GOP members elected Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., this week as chair of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in the next Congress. Outgoing Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., conceded to Republican Ted Yoho in August after a tightly fought primary race.
FairPoint is selling the capital stock of its Idaho operations to Montana-based Blackfoot Telecom Group for $30 million cash, FairPoint said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn33en). It said the deal is expected to close early next year, pending government approval. FairPoint has upwards of 5,000 residential and business customers in eastern Idaho and annually produces more than $8 million in revenue, it said. “We believe that the resulting reduction of debt arising from this transaction enhances shareholder value,” Chief Financial Officer Ajay Sabherwal said in a statement. Blackfoot, in a separate Wednesday release, said it’s acquiring FairPoint’s Fremont Telcom Co. and Fretel Communications (http://xrl.us/bn33ex). Eastern Idaho will get “innovative technology products and services from Blackfoot’s successful IP network” and “advanced wireless and fiber connectivity,” it said. Blackfoot said this is its third “smart growth initiative” of 2012, citing acquisitions of Modwest and Cutthroat Communications earlier in the year, and it wants to expand to Pocatello, the state’s fifth largest city. The telco said its high-capacity fiber backbone will now cover 8,500 miles throughout Idaho and Montana.
GOP House members elected as next chairmen Reps. Lee Terry, R-Neb., of the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., of the House Judiciary Committee, as expected (CD Nov 2 p5). Terry will work hard to “promote safety, and support job-creating trade agreements,” he said in a news release Wednesday. Outgoing Subcommittee Chairman Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., lost her bid for reelection this month to Democratic challenger Paul Ruiz, and Terry is a strong opponent of FCC net neutrality rules, an advocate for FCC reform and supporter of freeing up more spectrum for wireless use. Under House Judiciary which he'll now head, Goodlatte last was Intellectual Property Subcommittee chairman, and said the full committee “will play an active role in advancing a pro-growth agenda that will help to create jobs and restore economic prosperity to America.” As the next Congress considers telecom reform, Senate and House Judiciary share jurisdiction with the Commerce committees over the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, which could become a vehicle to update other cable laws, industry officials have said. Goodlatte’s telecom advisers include Nick Chadkewicz, senior legislative assistant, and Legislative Director Branden Ritchie.
"Lobbying is fierce” against a European Commission proposal for new privacy rules, said Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Commissioner Viviane Reding at a Thursday press briefing. Her proposed regulation, which calls for a single data protection law covering the whole EU, would help boost the confidence of users who want to shop online and use new technologies, she said. The measure would stimulate Europe’s digital economy to the tune of a 4 percent rise in the EU gross domestic product by 2020, she said. The plan also calls for a digital “right to be forgotten.” One reason the EC wants one rule for one continent is the discrimination that European companies, mainly German, feel on the European digital market, she said. Such companies consider it unfair when other big Internet players don’t have to abide by the same rules, she said. The basis of the proposed data protection regulation is to put European companies on the same footing as those elsewhere and to increase user protection, she said. But while European companies generally accept the proposal, acceptance by non-European organizations is “limited,” and opponents are lobbying wildly, she said. European Parliament members writing reports that respond to the proposal are suffering, because instead of being able to focus on drafting text, they have to respond to lobbyists, she said. Reding said she doesn’t oppose lobbying but it “can be overdone.” She suggested opponents would be better off investing in new business models to give consumers more confidence online than in spending money on lobbying. Reding was asked whether European’s stricter approach to data privacy might conflict with the U.S.’s more industry-led stance. Europe is the world’s largest economy, a continent of 500 million people, she said. It abides by the rules of treaties and the charter of fundamental human rights, she said. Anyone who wants to take advantage of the EU’s huge internal market “has to abide by our laws.” Europe already has data protection laws, and is just adapting them to the modern world, she said. That will set a gold standard for others to follow, she said. Asked if the proposal is in the right hands given that Ireland, which takes over the EU Presidency in January, may have a more relaxed approach to privacy, Reding said she has experienced several Irish Presidencies. The country’s prime minister says data protection will be a priority during this term, and “I take it seriously,” she said. The EC meets next week with the Council of Ministers, and Ireland hopes to finalize the process before next summer, she said.