Josh Gottheimer is the latest top aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski to announce he is leaving the agency. Gottlieb was in the second generation of Genachowski staffers, replacing Colin Crowell, who left in June 2010. Gottheimer was heavily involved in media relations for Genachowski, having come to the agency from public relations firm Burson-Marsteller. He has spent much of his time as director of public-private initiatives, a top theme of the Obama administration. He will be replaced in that job by Jordan Usdan, who was deputy director.
Diversified Communications-owned TV stations in Maine and Florida said they're open to reaching agreements with DirecTV to restore their signals back to the DBS company’s subscribers. WCJB-TV (ABC) Gainesville, Fla., and WABI-TV (CBS) Bangor, Maine, stopped broadcasting for DirecTV customers June 4 when a retransmission consent agreement couldn’t be reached (CD June 7 p18). On its website, (http://xrl.us/bncdcx), WCJB said it’s continuing to work toward a mutually beneficial agreement with DirecTV. WABI “will consent to an agreement that fairly benefits all parties involved,” it said in an automated phone message to viewers. Diversified and WABI “chose to ... make this discussion public by removing their stations without any need or provocation,” DirecTV said in a written statement. The DBS company said it’s willing to compensate Diversified fairly, “but brinksmanship and misspent threats are not the foundation for a productive relationship."
Suddenlink Communications and Uno Radio Group separately sought FCC waivers of emergency alert system rules for the newer common alerting protocol (CAP), which all EAS participants must use to receive and pass along messages by month’s end (CD June 18 p10). Suddenlink said it’s already bought CAP-compliant equipment for 57 of its 62 smallest cable systems (http://xrl.us/bncdce), but needs 90 more days to “complete the installation and testing process.” The other five systems are among its “smallest, most remote cable headends,” and it requests six-month waivers because the sites lack the broadband “necessary to reliably receive CAP-formatted alerts,” Suddenlink said. The cable operator said it’s spent more than a half-million dollars since 2011 updating its “legacy” EAS equipment to CAP-compliant hardware and software upgrades, as a result of which 98 percent of its subscribers will be able to receive CAP-formatted messages by month’s end. Puerto Rico-based Uno asked (http://xrl.us/bncdc5) for waivers for its 14 stations because of “an unexpected delay in delivery of equipment necessary for compliance,” resulting in the original delivery date of June 15 being pushed back to late July or early August because of the vendor’s “shipping issues and overwhelming demand.” Uno will install, test and make the equipment operational “promptly” after it receives it, and then notify the FCC, it said.
The District of Columbia will get an extension until Aug. 1 to comply with new FCC rules requiring a state to provide prospective Lifeline subscribers with a certification form that complies with the requirements of the Lifeline Order, said a waiver order released by the Wireline Bureau Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bncc6a). The D.C. Public Service Commission had argued that the District Department of the Environment -- the state-like entity responsible for certifying Lifeline subscribers -- needs additional time to update the form to comply with Section 54.410(d) of the commission’s rules. The Wireline Bureau found “good cause” exists to grant the limited two-month waiver, but cautioned that the D.C. PSC must still provide notice to the wireline eligible telecom carrier, Verizon, that new subscribers meet eligibility requirements and have executed a certification form.
Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, asked the World Wide Web Consortium to adopt “consumer friendly Do-Not-Track” (DNT) standards. The DNT definition agreed to by the W3C should enable consumers to “block out not just targeted advertising but also the collection, use, sharing or sale of personal information,” the Congressional Privacy Caucus co-chairs wrote the consortium (http://xrl.us/bncc43). They said they endorse DNT as the default setting for Internet browsers, citing Twitter and Microsoft, which have “led the way in the online industry by embracing users’ browser preferences” for DNT capabilities.
Makers of consumer electronics lobbied the FCC to delay the deadline for video programming distributors (VPDs) to include closed captioning functions on upgrades and new releases of video player software issued after Sept. 30, as the Digital Media Association (DiMA) seeks for VPDs. A Jan. 1, 2014, deadline instead would mean “harmonizing the deadline for VPDs that rely on software” with the date when apparatus manufacturers must be compliant, representatives of Amazon.com, Apple, DiMA, Microsoft and Sony said during meetings with aides to all FCC commissioners and with front-office Media Bureau staff. That change “will better ensure a smooth transition since the entire online video ecosystem will be solving the same problem at the same time,” said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday to docket 11-154. There’s a “tremendous amount of technical work required to implement the user configuration and formatting requirements set forth in Section 79.103(c) for VPDs’ own applications, plug-ins, and devices,” the filing said (http://xrl.us/bnccvq). TV broadcasters and cable companies have also backed DiMA’s requests to change Internet Protocol captioning rules (CD June 14 p12).
Six groups opposed another request to waive FCC TV captioning rules. Van Buren First Assembly of God’s petition for Reach Out should be denied because it lacks “sufficient information to demonstrate that Van Buren cannot afford to caption its programming,” said the groups (http://xrl.us/bncct8). The opposition posted Wednesday in docket 06-181 is from the Association of Late-Deafened Adults, Cerebral Palsy and Deaf Organization, Communication Service for the Deaf, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network, National Association of the Deaf, and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Many of those groups have opposed other recent waiver requests (CD May 16 p14; April 23 p13).
Verizon Wireless’ 4G network is available in 46 new U.S. markets and expanded in another 22, the carrier said. The new markets include Yuba City, Calif.; Panama City, Fla.; and Waco, Texas, it said. Expanded markets include Denver; Hilo, Hawaii; and Norfolk, Va., it said. Verizon Wireless’ 4G markets total 304, it said.
The House Commerce Committee unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday to express Congress’ opposition to any proposal to exert ITU control over the Internet in the World Conference on International Telecommunications. “Today, Republicans and Democrats -- in a loud and unified voice -- made it clear that the United States must fight any attempts to fundamentally alter the governance and operation of the Internet,” said Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., who authored the legislation. The non-binding resolution (H Res 127) urges the State and Commerce departments to convey the “consistent and unequivocal policy of the United States to promote a global Internet, free from government control and preserve and advance the successful multi-stakeholder model that governs the Internet today.” A committee spokesman could not say exactly when the House will take up H Res 127, but said he expects it to happen “soon, definitely before the August recess.” The resolution has 58 co-sponsors, including Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.; Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. Approval was hailed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the NCTA, Software and Information Industry Association and Information Technology Industry Council.
Comments are due July 3 on a streamlined domestic Section 214 application for transfer of UPN Holdings from Banc of America Capital Investors to REP, said a public notice released Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnccmn). UPN, the indirect corporate parent of two non-dominant carriers, provides more than 2,500 metro fiber route miles to 1,500 on-net buildings in 18 states, the notice said. Reply comments are due July 10 in WC docket 12-131.