Three media trade associations again backed a Digital Media Association petition for the FCC to change the implementation schedule for video programming distributors offering applications and plug-ins to comply with Internet Protocol captioning rules. DiMA wants the agency to extend VPDs’ deadline from this September to Jan. 1, 2014. It’s a “simple request” to “align the compliance date” for “both apparatus manufacturers” and VPDs, the MPAA, NAB and NCTA said in a joint reply on DiMA’s request. “The Associations do not seek any modification to the schedule for the provision of basic captioning, which will be required this September for prerecorded content,” the three commenters said (http://xrl.us/bnfqup). “There is no basis for having different schedules that address effectively the same set of technical challenges in providing Enhanced Captioning Features. Indeed, the same development and deployment concerns that led the Commission to establish the January 2014 deadline for apparatus manufacturers (including hardware with integrated software components) apply to VPD software.” The record in docket 11-154 “overwhelmingly supports the two petitions filed by” DiMA, including for plug-in and app rendering of IP captions, that group said in the docket (http://xrl.us/bnfqvd). Groups advocating for the hearing impaired that oppose DiMA’s petitions incorrectly say the requests are a “ploy” to set back captioning, the association said. DirecTV lobbied the commission last week for more time (CD July 6 p16).
RCN’s chairman asked his FCC counterpart to immediately grant the cable operator’s waiver request to encrypt the basic-programming tier, so such scrambling can begin “immediately.” The petition “followed directly the waiver the Commission had granted to Cablevision,” an ex parte filing said of Steven Simmons’ conversation with Julius Genachowski. RCN’s request, if granted, would be “a win/win for providers and consumers, allowing consumers to be freed from waiting for cable technicians when activating service and allowing providers remotely to activate and deactivate services,” the operator said. “Eliminating truck rolls also has environmental benefits, as well as reducing costs.” As a rival “to the larger cable and telephone companies, RCN has been pushing standalone broadband services strongly, but these services increase RCN’s exposure to signal theft,” the filing posted Thursday in docket 11-169 said. The company has “been waiting for nearly a year for a response to its petition,” the filing said (http://xrl.us/bnfqtu). The operator’s expected to have to wait until the agency approves an industrywide order for all digital cable systems, which could circulate for a commissioner vote now that Comcast and Boxee have reached a deal on the Boxee Box getting encrypted basic-cable and broadcast channels (CD June 29 p8).
Louisiana asked the FCC to extend by eight years the state’s time limit for use of its current transmitters in operating its first responder safety network. A 2010 FCC order said it applies to transmitters designed for the 769-775 MHz and 799-805 MHz frequency bands, and allows states to operate transmitters “at a voice efficiency of at least one voice path per 12.5 kHz of spectrum bandwidth.” The order said the rules run until Dec. 31, 2016, and then rules for an upgrade to “at least one voice path per 6.25 kHz of spectrum bandwidth” must be in place by Jan. 31, 2017 (http://xrl.us/bnfqdn). “It is imperative that the Commission grant the State of Louisiana a waiver that allows LWIN [Louisiana Wireless Information Network] to operate in the 12.5 kHz channel efficiency through December 31, 2024,” Louisiana wrote in a Tuesday request to the FCC (http://xrl.us/bnfbxw). “Such an extension would allow the first responder community the opportunity to realize the full potential of limited resources, optimize the life of existing equipment and would foster a greater willingness of organizations within Louisiana that have been reluctant to join LWIN due to the uncertainty of its future to commit to the investments required in order to become a part of LWIN.” Pat Santos, chairman of Louisiana’s Statewide Interoperable Executive Committee, wrote the request and included letters of support from parish representatives and the New Orleans deputy mayor for public safety. Louisiana says it has spent upwards of $165 million of state and federal funding since 2005 on LWIN, which “is currently providing 95 percent on street portable radio coverage to over 67,000 users.” Louisiana called the network a “great success in interoperability” that’s “being threatened” by the 2016 deadline. The cost of updating the system within four years, estimated at more than $417 million if Louisiana sticks to the FCC’s schedule, is “not feasible or manageable,” and it “would be no better off than it is with its current radio system,” the filing said. “Without a waiver, these [New Orleans] parishes will have no choice but to begin to go down a road that would ultimately balkanize the largest statewide interoperable radio system in the country,” Santos added in the state’s request for an expedited decision on the waiver.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) passed a resolution on “the promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet,” in its 20th session in Geneva Thursday. Following an initiative by Sweden supported by a broad coalition, the new resolution affirms “that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online.” Freedom of expression is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s choice, the HRC resolution said (http://xrl.us/bnfqmn). Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are as valid online as offline, according to the resolution. The HRC also underlines the potential of the Internet for development and urges U.N. member nations to “to promote and facilitate access to the Internet and international cooperation aimed at the development of media and information and communications facilities in all countries.” The resolution was welcomed as a “landmark resolution” by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who was the main sponsor. One of the experts who had participated in the first HRC meeting on Internet freedom in February said a tougher statement against the growing trend of censorship in many countries including those in the West would have been very helpful. Austrian international law expert Matthias Kettemann wrote that the HRC should have stated that “states need to rethink their censorship policies and provide legitimate reasons (and ensuing proportional normative reactions) for content limitations.” Yet Kettemann said that to be able to include a broad group of countries from Brazil to Tunisia, compromises were necessary. Depending on further initiatives in the HRC, work could continue on the issue.
Comcast’s reported sale of its stake in A&E fits with the cable operator’s plan to sell assets it doesn’t control, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors Friday. She said Comcast is reportedly selling the A&E stake to Disney and Hearst, the two other holders of that asset, for $2.8 billion. A Comcast spokeswoman declined to comment.
Regulations implementing the CALM Act will take effect Dec. 13, the FCC said in a notice to appear in Monday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bnfqhg). The act required the commission to develop rules preventing TV broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors from transmitting commercials at higher volumes than the programming.
It took longer to launch the Music Unlimited cloud-based music subscription service in Japanthan several other major markets because “no such service has ever launched” there before, said Tim Schaaff, president of Sony Network Entertainment International. There are streaming services in Japan, but “they just involve mobile carriers and only are active for phones,” he said. Music Unlimited is the “first full-fledged, multi-device service” to launch in Japan, he said. Sony and the music labels “took the time to make certain that the model we launched” in Japan “would work for the market,” he said. The service previously launched in 16 other countries, starting with the U.K. and Ireland in December 2010 and later in the U.S., where it costs $9.99 a month. It costs 1,480 yen a month in Japan ($18.53 at $1=79.9 yen). At launch, the Music Unlimited catalog in Japan offered more than 10 million songs from major labels including EMI Music Japan, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), Universal Music and Warner Music Japan, as well as leading independent labels, Sony said.
Telecom companies have been far ahead of power and other utilities in “looking into cybersecurity issues” in her state, said Commissioner Elizabeth Fleming of the South Carolina Public Service Commission. “They have been ahead of the game because of the type of service that they provide and their infrastructure,” she told us. State commissions have the authority to require utilities to address cybersecurity issues, she said, “because we have to be concerned with not only affordable but reliable” electricity, telecom and other services, Fleming said. The commission hasn’t “felt the need to promulgate any specific regulations on cybersecurity,” she said. “But we can scrutinize and question [companies] concerning those issues when it comes time for rate cases.” If the commission finds “problems with reliability or resiliency” it can step in and ask utilities to act, she said. But the state hasn’t encountered such problems, Fleming said. She said she believes South Carolina is prepared to deal with a cyberattack. “Our state is like the rest of the country,” Fleming said. “Some utilities are more aggressive about this than the others.” Asked whether it was better to have federal cybersecurity standards than have states set their own, Fleming said cybersecurity was an area where federal agencies and state commission should collaborate. “It is important for states to be actively involved,” because in terms of best practices and oversight of utilities “we are the ones best able to deal with that,” she said. “We see the companies on a more intimate or detailed level.”
Verizon is still seeing more requests for repairs than normal -- two to three times the average for wireline repairs, almost a week after last Friday’s Mid-Atlantic derecho, the company said Thursday. “Incoming repair reports are trending downward, and the number of repairs we're now completing each day is more than the number of new repair reports we're receiving,” said Chris Childs, Verizon’s Potomac region president-consumer and mass-business markets. “There’s certainly more work to be done, but our technicians made great headway on the Fourth of July, and we will continue to devote the necessary resources until service is restored to all our customers."
The FCC Enforcement Bureau adopted a consent decree with Sirius XM, in which the satellite radio provider agreed to pay $240,000 to resolve an agency investigation into the company’s compliance with conditions placed on Sirius when it bought XM, the bureau said in an order released late Tuesday. In the 2008 order approving the deal, the commission approved Sirius’s voluntary commitment to implement price caps on certain subscription packages for three years after consummation of the merger, the Media Bureau said last year in a memorandum opinion and order (http://xrl.us/bnfcpx). Subscription rates were capped at $12.95 (CD Jan 24/11 p 15). The Enforcement Bureau decided to terminate the investigation “after reviewing the terms of the consent decree and evaluating the facts before us,” it said. It’s good that the commission is enforcing the condition, said Parul Desai, Consumers Union policy counsel. “But the unfortunate part is that consumers still ended up paying higher prices when they weren’t supposed to.” Sirius XM didn’t comment.