Tablets are quickly expanding the mobile video market, comScore said. The devices “have quickly reached a critical mass in the U.S. with one in every four smartphone owners using tablets” in the three months to April, the research company said late last week. Users of tablets were almost three times more likely than those of smartphones to use them to watch video, and one in 10 users watches video almost daily on their tablets, it said. Almost 27 percent of those who watched at least monthly on tablets had paid for content.
TV stations’ retransmission consent fees are “minuscule” compared to what channels on subscription-video providers’ basic programming tiers cost, an NAB spokesman said Friday. He cited figures (http://xrl.us/bnbadw) from industry research firm SNL Kagan that broadcast retrans fees cost $1.46 billion total last year, compared to $26.7 billion for basic-cable networks. The firm forecast broadcast retrans fees will rise to $3.89 billion in 2015 and basic-cable fees to $36.5 billion. “The notion that broadcasters are responsible for excessive pay-TV rate increases has no relation to reality,” the NAB spokesman said. NCTA spokesman had no comment.
Comments on changes to emergency alert system rules (CD May 30 p11) sought by an American Cable Association petition for reconsideration of an FCC EAS order are due June 25 in docket 04-296, replies July 3, the agency said in a notice in Friday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bnbab4). Another notice said comments on a request by Ion Media to move WEPX-TV Greenville, N.C., off Channel 51 to 26 (CD May 29 p15) are due in docket 12-130 on July 9, replies July 23 (http://xrl.us/bnbaci).
Cablevision and Game Show Network couldn’t settle a carriage dispute “through confidential settlement negotiations,” the cable operator and independent network jointly told the FCC. The indie’s program carriage complaint alleged the cable operator discriminated against it in favor of channels affiliated with Cablevision. The Media Bureau had sent the case to a commission administrative law judge if both sides couldn’t pursue alternative dispute resolution (CD May 25 p14). The new filing was posted Thursday to docket 12-122 (http://xrl.us/bnbabb).
Comcast wants FCC deregulation in five New Jersey cable franchise areas including Lakehurst and Toms River, where it contends it faces sufficient video competition from Verizon and/or both U.S. DBS companies. The operator’s Media Bureau petition was posted Thursday in docket 12-1 (http://xrl.us/bna994).
The FCC Wireless and Wireline Bureaus seek comment on Keystone Wireless’ petition to redefine the study areas of five rural Pennsylvania telephone companies: Conestoga, Mahanoy & Mahantongo, United, Windstream and Commonwealth, to match the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s redefinition of the companies’ service areas (http://xrl.us/bna96p). The changes will be deemed approved if the commission does not act by Sept. 5. Comments are due in WC docket 09-197, WT docket 10-208 and AU docket 12-25 by June 14, replies June 20.
The FCC’s Wireless and Public Safety bureaus offered further clarification on an April 26 public notice suspending the acceptance and processing of certain applications for Part 22 and Part 90 services operating in the T-band (470-512 MHz). “We clarify that applications that seek to add or change locations are suspended only if the new location extends the station’s authorized interference contour in any direction,” the notice said (http://xrl.us/bna9yt). “Locations may be added or changed if the new site does not increase the licensed contour.” The suspension applies “to any application that seeks to add a new channel to the authorization, whether the channel is a replacement or is being added to existing channels,” the notice said. “The purpose of the freeze is to stabilize the existing spectrum landscape. Allowing licensees to alter their active frequencies in the T-Band would be inconsistent with this purpose and would lead to an unpredictable and unstable spectral environment. This approach is consistent with prior filing and processing suspensions.” The bureaus also clarified that “applications that seek to add or change an emission type (the last three characters of the emission designator) are suspended only if the licensee also proposes to increase the authorized bandwidth. Emission types may be added or changed so long as the emission remains within the existing authorized bandwidth, even if the new emission type nominally expands the station’s spectral footprint."
Verizon Wireless is the best positioned of all the wireless carriers with a national footprint to deploy LTE, Credit Suisse said in a research note. Verizon owns the most spectrum available for LTE, with 20 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum and 33 MHz of AWS, provided its buy of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo is approved, Credit Suisse said. “In addition to having the most spectrum, Verizon has the right mix of spectrum, with 20 MHz of low frequency 700 MHz for coverage and 20-40 MHz of higher frequency AWS for capacity nationwide.” Sprint Nextel is “better positioned than investors realize” and will be able to deploy LTE on 10 MHz of PCS spectrum and 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum following the iDEN shutdown in mid-2013, the note said. “This doesn’t even take into account the substantial capacity that Sprint has access to through [Clearwire].” AT&T “needs to fill gaps in their 700 MHz holdings to deploy a 10x10 MHz [LTE] in the top 100 markets” and has only a quarter as much AWS spectrum as Verizon “across 60 percent of the top 100 markets,” the note said. “T-Mobile has some significant gaps: T-Mobile has more spectrum per subscriber than the other national carriers on average; however, they have some notable gaps, like New York, Chicago, and Houston with only 10 MHz available for LTE and Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Kansas City with no LTE spectrum at all. In addition, T-Mobile is the only national carrier with no low frequency coverage spectrum.” MetroPCS and Leap also both need spectrum, Credit Suisse said.
Ed Moise, managing partner of Alpina Capital, a top spectrum brokerage firm, believes the “odds” of Verizon/SpectrumCo being denied by federal regulators “are not high but are probably higher than the consensus believes,” according to a research note by Wells Fargo Securities. Alpina believes if the deal goes through and Verizon sells off its 700 MHz A- and B-block holdings, AT&T appears the most likely bidder for the B-block but “it is much less clear who would be willing to purchase the A block position,” the note said. “It is also a question whether any bidder would pay a high enough price to get [Verizon] to sell given the channel 51 interference issues.”
European network providers Friday urged the ITU to amend parts of its proposed changes to the International Telecom Regulations (ITRs). The revamped rules should acknowledge the challenges of the Internet economy and the principles that there should be fair compensation for carried traffic and that operators’ revenues shouldn’t be disconnected from the investment needs brought about by rapid Internet traffic growth, said Luigi Gambardella, executive board chair of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. ETNO wants changes to ITR articles dealing with international networks, global telecommunications service and definitions, it said. It called for a new Internet Protocol interconnection system to provide end-to-end quality of service in addition to best-effort delivery. That will enable value-added services to be offered to end-customers and over-the-top players and content providers, it said. It will also reflect the value of traffic delivery over network infrastructures, it said. The ETNO response to the ITU also says that in order to ensure an adequate return on investment in high-bandwidth infrastructures, operating agencies must make commercial deals that ensure fair compensation for telecom services, it said. Endorsing the concept of “quality-based delivery” will make it possible to create new interconnection policies based on the “value” of traffic, not just its volume, ETNO said. That will allow new business models to emerge, it said.