All five FCC commissioners are scheduled to testify at a House Commerce Committee hearing Dec. 12 on the commission’s spectrum incentive auctions, a committee spokeswoman said Thursday. The spokeswoman would not confirm the timing or location of the hearing.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has circulated a rulemaking notice on the Wright petition (CD Nov 15 p15) that sought lower prison payphone rates, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn confirmed during a speech at a Center for Media Justice (CMJ) rally Thursday in front of the agency’s headquarters. Advocates rallied to deliver 40,000 signatures to the FCC in favor of the Wright petition, CMJ said (http://xrl.us/bnzuzg). “It is the Commission’s responsibility to ensure that interstate long distance rates are just and reasonable,” the prepared version of Clyburn’s speech said. “I am optimistic that this Notice will move forward on a bi-partisan basis, and that we will be well on our way to resolving this issue soon. But a Commission vote alone will not solve this problem. So I join with those who are urging the remaining states to act and lower local and intrastate prison phone rates.” Eight states have reformed their prison phone frameworks to restrict facility commissions and lower prison phone rates, Clyburn said. In states where such reforms haven’t been enacted, a 15-minute phone call from prison can cost up to $17, she said. The issue has received increased attention recently, with the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee recommending the commission act on the petition, she said. NARUC voted Tuesday to ask the FCC to address the issue (CD Nov 14 p19).
LIN Media said it started a new mobile marketing company called LIN Mobile. LIN Mobile’s operations will be based in LIN’s digital sales headquarters in New York City and it will be led by Kevin Wassong, most recently president of Minyanville Media. The unit, which will report to LIN Media Senior Vice President Robb Richter, will “provide mobile marketing solutions for clients nationwide,” LIN said. “Our investment in mobile demonstrates our commitment to responding to advertisers’ needs and providing them with the most effective marketing channels,” said LIN CEO Vincent Sadusky.
Rural call termination remains a huge problem, several organizations said, citing October survey data. More than 200 rural carriers from 39 states participated in this three-week survey, a joint venture of the National Exchange Carrier Association, the NTCA, OPASTCO and the Western Telecommunications Alliance, according to an NTCA release Thursday. Respondents reported termination complaints in 38 of the 39 states, with 4,691 complaints reported in March through August, a Thursday NECA ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnzumy). Rural representatives see the problem as a “mounting epidemic,” the ex parte letter said, which described Wednesday meetings with the Wireline as well as Public Safety and Homeland Security bureaus. The survey showed 41 percent of respondents experienced an increase in complaints, 21 percent saw the rate remain steady, 26 percent saw a drop and 12 percent encountered no recent complaints. “It’s clear that regulators need to step in and step up to end such bad practices once and for all,” NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said in a statement. WTA Executive Vice President Kelly Worthington urged FCC action, citing harm to consumers and businesses in rural areas. There’s “a collaborative test call project among rural carriers and members of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions” under way, the ex parte notice revealed, noting that, while still not finalized, this “test call project is designed to identify and trouble-shoot call completion problems in real time.”
Adobe said it introduced new features including dynamic ad insertion to its Project Primetime software. The new system, called Adobe MediaWeaver, will let TV content owners update the ads that run in linear and VOD programming online, the company said. “We are working closely with leading TV content owners and distributors to better deliver and monetize broadcast content across all platforms,” said Jeremy Helfand, vice president of monetization.
Ten Senate Republicans urged the FTC in a letter made public on Thursday to limit the scope of its regulatory activities. They asked the commission to “act with humility and restrain itself to activities for which it has clear legal authority,” under the FTC Act. The letter was signed by Republican Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Orrin Hatch of Utah, John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Roy Blunt of Missouri, John Boozman of Arkansas, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Marco Rubio of Florida. The senators also sought clarity on how much the commission uses its Section 5 authority to regulate businesses. “We are concerned about the apparent eagerness of the Commission under your leadership to expand Section 5 actions without a clear indication of authority or a limiting principle,” the letter said. “When a federal regulatory agency uses creative theories to expand its activities, entrepreneurs may be deterred from innovating and growing lest they be targeted by government action.” The FTC had no comment.
Viacom isn’t planning any large acquisitions, CEO Philippe Dauman told analysts Thursday. There are not many attractive large acquisition targets, he said. “I continue to not see any large-scale acquisitions that make sense for Viacom,” he said. “We may have some discrete, small-priced M&A opportunities that are almost operational investments, particularly in the international arena, where it makes sense.” But Viacom thinks it can grow best by investing in itself, he said. “The media business is transitioning, and we are extremely well-positioned to grow in that transition because we have a deeper understanding of the young audiences driving that transition than any other media group,” he said. Fiscal Q4 sales at Viacom fell 17 percent from a year earlier to $3.3 billion, a drop it attributed to lower sales at its movie studio. Sales at its network were $2.3 billion, the same as a year earlier. Profit increased 12 percent to $643 million on lower operating expenses.
Lacking the “benefit of public comment” on broadcast ownership data before moving to adopt FCC media ownership rules was opposed by public-interest lawyer Andrew Schwartzman. His filing posted Thursday to docket 09-182 reported on a lobbying meeting last week with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, before the quadrennial media ownership order circulated and the Media Bureau released such data, both occurring Wednesday (CD Nov 15 p1). “The failure to seek comment under similar circumstances resulted in a reversal of the Commission’s earlier ownership decision,” Schwartzman wrote (http://xrl.us/bnzum4) of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ remand last year of the last quadrennial ownership order. The conversation was made only on Schwartzman’s behalf, though Free Press, which he represents on media ownership, shares his view, he told us.
The FCC shouldn’t impose 911 requirements on Internet Protocol services before the 911 infrastructure’s transition to next-generation capability, the Voice on the Net Coalition said Wednesday in a filing. VON has previously articulated this position, but wanted to remind the FCC that it remains important that the commission “not impose or even suggest solutions that are technically infeasible and that could lead to consumer confusion,” Executive Director Glenn Richards wrote. As the industry moves toward next-generation 911, “the FCC should focus on the capabilities that exist and are reliable today rather than create consumer expectations that cannot be fulfilled,” he said. If the FCC decides that over-the-top (OTT) SMS providers must enable SMS capability despite what VON claims is a “known lack of any current solution” to the feasibility of determining a real-time location for IP-based users, VON recommended the agency limit such requirements to two-way OTT SMS. “This is important not only so the PSAP can have a text communication with the sender of the 911 text, but also because not all PSAPs will be capable of receiving an SMS to 911,” Richards said. There’s no public policy-related reason the FCC needs to extend 911 requirements to OTT or SMS services prior to the next-generation 911 transition, he said. There’s no evidence customers using those services expect they can use them to contact emergency services, the filing said (http://xrl.us/bnzuk3).
Newly released FCC statistics on minority ownership of radio and TV stations show the agency needs to do more, said the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council and Free Press. Data from ownership forms broadcasters file every other year “underscores the urgency of the commission taking action on the dozens of pending proposals,” that would help disadvantaged businesses regardless of who owns them, suggested by the agency’s Diversity Committee and others over the years, MMTC Executive Director David Honig told us Thursday. He cited a radio “incubator” proposal first made by the agency’s Minority Ownership Committee in 1990 (http://xrl.us/bnzuki) that would allow common ownership of an additional station in each market if that outlet helps a socially and economically disadvantaged business such as by training entrepreneurs. The proposal was “almost unopposed,” Honig said. The committee in 2010 backed both a radio and TV incubator proposal (http://xrl.us/bnzuj8). The Form 323 data (http://xrl.us/bnzuhs) show a low portion of minorities own stations relative to their population size, compared to whites. That “long-overdue” report, “the first full census the FCC has completed,” found an “abysmal” level of broadcast ownership by women and people of color, Free Press said. “The FCC has been gathering this data since 1999, and this is the first time they've attempted to issue a comprehensive summary,” Craig Aaron, CEO of the group opposing media mergers and acquisitions, said by email Wednesday. “Media diversity is such a low priority for the FCC that it took 13 years for the agency to issue a potentially accurate ownership count."