The FCC should deny attempts to rescind the Tribal Government Engagement Obligation Provisions developed during the agency’s work on USF reform, the National Broadband Plan and the Connect America Fund, the National Congress of American Indians of the U.S. (NCAI) said Tuesday in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnznyn). The filing occurred after the NCAI adopted a resolution Oct. 26 encouraging the FCC to uphold the Tribal Engagement Provisions, which the FCC’s Office of Native Affairs developed in connection with the Wireline and Wireless bureaus (http://xrl.us/bnznyt). The FCC developed the provisions “with the intent of improving the deployment of telecommunications services on tribal lands,” NCAI President Jefferson Keel said in the filing. The NCAI grew concerned after USTelecom filed a petition that requested reconsideration and clarification of the provisions. NCAI, Native Public Media, the Gila River Indian Community and Gila River Telecommunications filed replies in opposition to the USTelecom petition (CD Sept 28 p6). “Any rescission of the Tribal Engagement Provisions would be an unfortunate set-back in the progress needed to bring digital communications to this country’s least connected peoples and lands,” Keel said Tuesday in the NCAI filing.
The FCC would be acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act if it doesn’t seek an “economically feasible rate plan that supports [a] functionally equivalent” Video Relay Service (VRS), Sorenson Communications told aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski. That’s according to an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnznru). The VRS rate proposals by the telecom relay service (TRS) fund administrator were based on “an out-of-date, rate-of-return regulation-based economic model that yields rates that are not viable for the provision of VRS,” Sorenson said. For example, the proposed ultimate rate of $3.40 per minute, and the transitional Tier 3 rates, are “substantially below the costs of any VRS provider,” the company said. “Pushing Sorenson or any other VRS provider into insolvency endangers VRS service itself.” Sorenson criticized proposals to mandate the use of a single software-based VRS application, and to transform the TRS database into a single communications provider that verifies all VRS users. These proposals would “deprive VRS consumers of competition, choice, and innovation,” the company said.
Macon, Ga., gave Harris Corp. a $7.68 million contract to revamp its public safety communications, the company said Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnznmn). The city’s new open-IP communications will feature an 800 MHz Project-25 simulcast system in three locations and be able to integrate LTE. Harris will also provide Macon with close to 700 Harris Unity XG-100 full-spectrum mobile multiband radios, it said, noting they operate on VHF, UHF, 700 MHz and 800 MHz frequencies. The new system is expected to connect Macon police and fire departments as well as the Bibb County sheriff’s office, Harris said.
Live and time-shifted TV remains Americans’ most dominant and sought-out entertainment medium, TV Ad Bureau President Steve Lanzano said, pointing to recent Nielsen figures. “DVRs are providing viewers with the ability to adjust their viewing to their lifestyles without compromising access” to TV, he said. “As measurement evolves and we can get tablet data, we will be able to see the totality of all TV viewership,” he said.
Beam Communications started RapidSat700, a portable satellite communications system that operates with the Inmarsat Broadband Global Area Network. The portable system supports data rates up to 492 kbps, provides Wi-Fi connections up to 45 meters outdoors, voice/data connectivity and offers other features, Beam said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnzhze). The product is suitable for satellite communication deployment in emergency situations, first responder and disaster recovery work, it said.
Preston Padden is leading advocacy for a group of broadcasters who want to be sure the FCC incentive spectrum auction is a success. The new group, called the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, will focus its efforts on working with the FCC to make sure its auction rules “maximize the auction’s chance to succeed,” Padden said. But the group won’t disclose its members. “The auction statute makes it a crime to disclose the identity of stations participating in the auction,” Padden said. “The FCC has carried that same non-disclosure forward in its notice of proposed rulemaking.” But the group’s members include broadcasters who are “open to the idea of participating if the auction is structured the right way,” Padden said. The group is not meant to conflict with the NAB’s advocacy on the auction, Padden said. “This effort is complementary to the NAB,” he said. An NAB spokesman said the association will continue to engage with its members, the FCC and others to develop an auction “that allows volunteer broadcasters to be adequately compensated for leaving the business while holding harmless TV stations that remain on the air.” Padden is a former president-network distribution for Fox Broadcasting, president of ABC Television Network, executive vice president-government relations for Disney, and president of the Association of Independent Television Stations.
Lobbying for and against media ownership deregulation continued, docket 09-182 shows (http://xrl.us/bnzhva). FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate an order this week allowing waivers for common ownership of radio or TV stations and a daily newspaper in the same major market, and ending limits on common ownership of a radio and TV station in a market (CD Nov 13 p1). Genachowski hadn’t circulated an order as of Tuesday, agency officials told us. A coalition of 200 groups including AARP, Common Cause, National Council of La Raza and unions (http://xrl.us/bnzhvr) asked the agency to not allow more broadcaster consolidation without the data its letter said the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last summer required “analyzing the impact of media consolidation on communities of color and women.” Any change in ownership rules “should take place only after the Commission collects, releases, and subjects to public comment complete data and analysis of broadcast ownership data,” the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights wrote. The Media Bureau hadn’t planned to release for public comment broadcast ownership Form 323s, though the bureau prepared a report and agency and industry officials said it’s still expected to release it (CD Oct 18 p1). It’s “a grave disservice to the constituencies represented by The Leadership Conference to attempt to push through a change in media ownership rules at the last minute without an opportunity for our members to sift through the data and engage in substantive debate about its import,” the group wrote (http://xrl.us/bnzhu6). A bureau spokeswoman had no comment. Bonneville International, Morris Communications and Scranton Times LP were among those asking the FCC to end limits on common ownership of radio stations and dailies in the same market. Former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley of Wiley Rein and Morris CEO William Morris met with commissioners Robert McDowell, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, with aides to Genachowski and with Chief Bill Lake and others in the bureau. “Absent relief from the newspaper/radio cross-ownership rule, the high level of local news and informational programming offered by existing newspaper/radio combinations” such as Morris owns in Amarillo, Texas, and Topeka, Kan., “would likely be lost,” the company said (http://xrl.us/bnzhwf). Newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules are a “regulatory relic,” the Newspaper Association of America wrote (http://xrl.us/bnzhww). The cross-ownership ban “suppresses crucial investment in local journalism,” NAA said. The commission has been given “no factual foundation, or even serious legal argument, for keeping the newspaper/radio restriction,” lawyers for Bonneville and Scranton Times told an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (http://xrl.us/bnzhw8). Multichannel video programming distributors seeking changes to retransmission consent regulations again asked the agency to make it a retrans rule violation when separately owned TV stations coordinate carriage talks. “The Commission should clarify that any agreement, formal or informal and however styled, that directly or indirectly gives a third party the right to negotiate retransmission consent for that station constitutes a ’transfer of control'” needing FCC approval and/or being considered an attributable ownership interest, MVPDs reported telling Pai. American Cable Association, Cablevision, DirecTV, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable and USTelecom executives attended (http://xrl.us/bnzhxt).
An industry coalition issued recommendations to address “gender imbalances” in media. Companies should “CHOOSE to increase gender parity and combat stereotypes,” said a report issued Tuesday by the Healthy MEdia Commission, which has had a previous event backed by NAB, NCTA and Girl Scouts of the USA. NAB and NCTA back the group’s recommendations, spokesmen for the associations told us. “Industry should provide staff, writers and actors with training on gender equity in media and address social issues such as girls’ self-esteem, body images and relationships; increase the amount of balanced and healthy media; provide opportunities for boys and girls to create and share media.” The report called for public service announcements. Former FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate helps run the group, which this spring introduced goals for media companies to present images of girls, women and relationships in programming (CD April 18 p15). NCTA, a commission sponsor with many members on that body, backs “the intent of the report,” a spokesman said. The association “will continue to encourage cable companies to think constructively about how they can support healthy media images,” he added.
U.S. and Mexican communications agencies signed a new bilateral agreement to combat cross-border trafficking of stolen mobile devices, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday. The agreement, signed by Genachowski and Mexican Communications Under-Secretary Hector Olavarria Tapia, builds on the FCC’s PROTECTS Initiative and U.S.-Mexico participation in an international stolen device database. That database is meant to prevent mobile devices stolen in the U.S. and Mexico from being reactivated across the border, the FCC said. The agreement also commits the FCC and Mexico’s Secretariat of Communications and Transport to extend interagency cooperation on the trafficking crackdown through new technology and transparency-based actions. Both agencies will also compile a semi-annual report that will provide data and information on their progress, including compliance with carrier commitments, which will be released to the public. “Today’s announcement cracks down on the growing trend of stolen mobile devices,” Genachowski said in a news release.
Specifics were scarce in CEA’s announcement Monday that it will “partner” with the Digital Entertainment Group to promote UltraViolet at CES. Under questioning from reporters at CEA’s CES Press Preview news conference in New York, CEA executives said the DEG would mount an UltraViolet promotional stand in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center. But DEG representatives told reporters to stay tuned for further announcements on what if anything DEG would announce on UltraViolet news at the show. UltraViolet is “the breakthrough way to collect, access and enjoy your movies and TV shows in the cloud,” Universal Studios Home Entertainment President Craig Kornblau told the news conference. UltraViolet is “ideally poised to meet consumer demands for simplicity and convenience and ownership,” said Kornblau, a DEG vice president. UltraViolet “arguably is the studios’ single most important growth initiative,” he said. In the year since its launch, UltraViolet has amassed more than 6 million consumer accounts, and more than 7,000 titles are UltraViolet-enabled, he said. The content industry likes UltraViolet because it’s “an open platform that offers a revenue stream for all who support it,” he said. A big question is whether UltraViolet will be able to land the support of Disney, which has been a huge UltraViolet studio holdout. Disney has been playing “wait-and-see” on UltraViolet because it hasn’t been “as robust as we had expected or as consumer-friendly as we had hoped,” CEO Robert Iger said on a February earnings call (CD Feb 9 p24).