Dish will likely be granted approval to build a terrestrial service in the S band, Guggenheim analyst Paul Gallant said. “We believe the FCC is moving closer to a ruling for Dish’s S band spectrum,” he said in a research note. The commission will likely require “a reasonable buildout schedule for Dish’s spectrum” and “a shift up of 5 MHz for Dish’s uplink,” which could benefit Sprint, he said. The final schedule most likely will fit the FCC’s proposed buildout schedule of 30 percent of covered population nationwide after three years and 70 percent coverage within each local licensing area after seven years, he said. Based on recent FCC filings from Dish and Sprint, “we think the FCC is likely to require Dish to shift its lower block (2000-2020 MHz) up by 5 MHz.” The FCC will likely adopt a final decision before the November elections, he added: A key reason is that if presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney wins, “the changed political landscape might create uncertainty about the agency’s ability to move forward even on items like Dish/AWS-4 that are likely to have bipartisan support."
Clarification: As an open video system operator and CLEC, Media 3 will not need approval from New York City’s local franchise authority before offering video services in Manhattan, its CEO Paul Butler said (CD Aug 22 p9). It needs the LFA’s approval before digging up streets to build new conduits, for fiber and copper lines, he said. It expects to file and have its franchise application approved in Q4 2012, he said.
The Republican National Convention will receive enhanced telecom service, Sprint Nextel said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnmsyr). The convention is scheduled for Aug. 27-30 in Tampa. “For the estimated 40,000 to 45,000 delegates, volunteers, journalists, staff and visitors expected to convene in Tampa ... for the 2012 Republican National Convention, Sprint is enhancing capacity and coverage for voice, text messaging and data to serve their round-the-clock needs,” the carrier said. It touted the $9.7 million invested in in-building wireless and point-to-point coverage, the data-boosting addition of five macro cell sites in downtown Tampa, the addition of voice and data carriers to 41 Tampa locations and the establishment of a Cell Site on Wheels near Tampa’s convention center as well as an outdoor cell site between the center and the Tampa Bay Times Forum, where the convention will be. Sprint is also providing distributed antenna systems to the field where the convention’s kickoff event will be held and to all official convention venues, it said. “During the next 90 days, the Tampa area is expected to receive 121 additional enhancements to its 3G network, part of Sprint’s continued effort to improve customers’ wireless experience,” the carrier said.
The FCC is considering more than 100 TV applications for low-power and translator station construction permits that don’t overlap with each other, and which it has accepted for filing, said a public notice Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnmszs). Petitions to deny requests are due in 30 days, and many of the applications are from DTV America, Landover 2 LLC and Regal Media.
Two Fisher Communications TV stations will carry News Corp.’s new MundoFox Spanish-language network by the end of next month, Fisher said in a news release Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnmsyx). The affiliation agreements mean the network that started Aug. 13 will air as multicast channels on KUNS-TV Bellevue, Wash., and KUNP, a low-power station in Portland, Ore. Those stations’ primary affiliations are with the Univision network, their websites show.
NPR and a group of public broadcasting licensees urged against changing the FCC waiver process to allow noncommercial educational (NCE) stations to raise funds on-air for other nonprofit organizations. In reply comments in docket 12-106, NPR again said the waiver process should remain intact to ensure that the noncommercial nature of NCE broadcasting is appropriately preserved by maintaining the status quo (http://xrl.us/bnmst6). Replies were due Wednesday. The public-radio programmer cautioned against recommendations in initial comments calling for nonprofits outside the Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) tax exemption to be able to have on-air fundraising by NCEs. This presents the very real possibility of noncommercial stations using airtime to raise funds for so-called “Super PACs” and political and advocacy-focused trade associations, NPR said: This would significantly diminish, “if not erase completely, the distinction between noncommercial and commercial broadcasting.” NPR also opposed suggestions by groups like Good Life Broadcasting that stations should be able to use up to 10 percent or more of their annual broadcast airtime for third-party fundraising (http://xrl.us/bndsed) (CD July 5 p15). This would represent a significant portion of a station’s annual program schedule, up to 880 hours per year, “and would further erode the distinction between NCE stations and their commercial counterparts,” NPR said. Initial comments from NPR, PBS and the Association of Public Television Stations against changing the process were supported by some colleges, universities and other education systems that filed joint comments as “public broadcasting licensees” (http://xrl.us/bnmst8). The entities said NCE stations should be spared the possibility of being inundated with fundraising requests. Having to turn down many charitable enterprises “would cause damage to relationships between and among NCE stations and these charities,” they said. The public licensees already are tasked with being fair to various local nonprofits in broadcasting public service announcements and event listings, they said: “If they are permitted to also air long-form fundraising programs for third parties, this pressure will increase.” The National Religious Broadcasters group was among those supporting the rule change in earlier replies (CD Aug 22 p18).
The National Hispanic Leadership Coalition recommends expanding digital access and protecting consumers in its new annual policy report. The FCC should expand its E-rate program “to subsidize teacher training to help students gain digital literacy skills and keep computer labs open in poor neighborhoods after school hours and on weekends” and there should be more “competition in the broadband and mobile phone markets to promote lower prices and protect consumers from predatory billing and privacy practices,” according to the 2012 Hispanic Policy Agenda released Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnmstj). The coalition also said the Lifeline program should be modified to include broadband and pushed for more funding of English- and Spanish-language digital literacy training. The group also said it supports expanded telecom infrastructure “to improve connectivity in rural and underserved areas, schools, libraries and community centers” and passage of the Wireless Tax Fairness Act.
Broadcasting groups and Pandora panned a recent performance rights draft bill authored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., in separate statements this week. The draft Fairness in Radio Starts Today (FIRST) Act aims to increase parity in the royalty standards paid by cable, satellite and Internet radio providers. The legislation would also direct 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. Nadler said the lack of a performance royalty for terrestrial radio airplay is a “significant inequity and grossly unfair,” in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnmsfz). “Artists deserve to be paid a market-based rate for their work, just like everyone else,” he said. But the National Religious Broadcasters said the current text of the bill would deal a “crushing blow” to many Christian radio stations, according to CEO Frank Wright. If passed, the legislation would create a “fundamentally flawed” over-the-air “performance tax” on Christian broadcasters, he said. The opposition from Christian broadcasters to the bill is no different from any broadcasters’ concerns, Nadler’s spokesman told us. “They're in the same boat.” What differentiates the religious broadcasters’ concern is paying singers of Christian music, he said. “Right now Creed is not paid for their performance, but the person who wrote Creed’s songs is, and it just makes sense that the singers should also be paid for their performance,” the spokesman said. “That’s what is driving people, I assume, to the radio, is to listen to Creed sing their songs. Well, they should be paid for it.” The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) said they strongly opposed the bill, in a statement posted on their website (http://xrl.us/bnmsmz). The legislation fails to recognize the “unparalleled promotional value of local radio airplay” and would “kill jobs at America’s hometown radio stations,” said Dennis Wharton, NAB executive vice president-communications. NAB supports company-by-company free market negotiations rather than “job killing performance tax legislation that would divert millions of dollars to offshore record labels,” Wharton said. Pandora founder Tim Westergren also opposed the Nadler bill, which he said would only “worsen an already flawed legislative mistake that is discriminating against new technology and hampering innovation.” Instead of adopting the “willing buyer, willing seller” standard, Congress should embrace an alternative proposal offered by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, called the Internet Radio Fairness Act, Westergren said. The draft legislation would align the differing broadcast platform royalty payments under the 801(b) copyright law standard. “Fairness demands that all music related rate settings utilize the same 801(b) standard,” Westergren said in a statement. The musicFIRST Coalition said it supported the Nadler approach as an important interim step towards bringing “fundamental economic justice” to the issue of performance rights, said Ted Kalo, the group’s executive director.
The Texas Public Utility Commission is investigating whether small communities should continue to have telecom regulation, as the commission outlined in a fall schedule of proceedings released Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnmsop). AT&T Texas filed a petition in early August “seeking to determine whether certain markets of the company with populations of less than 100,000 in Texas should remain regulated,” the PUC said. The commission developed September and October deadlines for when parties should request hearings and move forward with proceedings its staff deemed “sufficient” for discussion.
Three Tennessee telephone companies petitioned the Tennessee Regulatory Authority to approve their agreements for the transport and termination of extended area service with Level 3 Communications, in separate filings Tuesday. The telephone companies are Crockett (http://xrl.us/bnmsny), Peoples (http://xrl.us/bnmsn6) and West Tennessee (http://xrl.us/bnmsoc).