The FCC got Office of Management and Budget approval for six months of information collection requirements as part of an emergency alert system order, which took effect Thursday, the commission said in that day’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bna5a2). That means new rules for radio and TV stations and subscription-video providers to pass along warnings in the common alerting protocol format (CD March 23 p4) are in effect before the June 30 deadline for CAP compliance, said the Fletcher Heald law firm that has clients who are alert participants (http://xrl.us/bna5aw). “While OMB approval normally lasts three years, the Commission had sought ‘emergency’ OMB review, meaning that the FCC had cut some procedural corners in the usual Paperwork Reduction Act clearance process. The abbreviated six-month approval from OMB will give the Commission the opportunity to fill in the gaps.” FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials spoke on a webcast organized by FEMA, which developed CAP, about the format late Wednesday. (See report above.)
Intelsat introduced its Epic NG satellite platform Thursday. It will be deployed for wireless and fixed telecom, enterprise, mobility, video and government applications “requiring broadband infrastructure across the major continents,” Intelsat said. The platform features multiple frequency bands, wide beams, spot beams and frequency reuse technology, the company said. It offers “the benefits of broadcast and high throughput,” data-centric services and other features, Intelsat said.
Virgin Mobile will offer the iPhone 4 and 4S to prepaid customers on its Beyond Talk unlimited data messaging plans beginning June 29, the carrier said Thursday. The phones, which come without a contract or activation fees, will sell for $649 for the 16GB model and $549 for the 8GB version, the company said. Voice and data plans, using the Sprint network, range from $30-$50, and the phone will be sold at virginmobileusa.com, RadioShack, Best Buy and some local retailers, the company said.
Verizon said it translated its 2012 data-breach report (CD March 23 p16) into six more languages -- French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish (http://xrl.us/bna4yf). “The more people we can touch through our computer forensics work, the better prepared we all are to fight cybercrime,” said Wade Baker, Verizon director of risk intelligence. It’s the first time the company has published the annual report in a language other than English, a spokeswoman told us.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn was nominated by President Barack Obama to her first, full five-year term. She’s been a Democratic commissioner since 2009. Her first term expires June 30.
The FCC Wireline Bureau asked Albert Hee, CEO of Sandwich Isles, a carrier in Honolulu, a battery of questions about its businesses practices, in a letter sent Wednesday. The carrier gets USF support of as much as $13,000 per line. The carrier asked for a waiver of new FCC rules limiting high-cost support to $250 per line per month. An “overwhelming majority of Sandwich Isles’ expenses -- many millions of dollars -- consist of significant payments to a number of affiliated companies” and many of them are owned by Hee, or family members, the letter notes. In its request seeking a waiver, “Sandwich Isles has failed to be forthcoming regarding its affiliates, the finances of these affiliates” and other financial matters, the FCC said. The letter was released on the eve of a hearing by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on USF reform, at which Hee is expected to testify. “We strongly disagree with the FCC’s categorization of Sandwich Isles’ responses as not being forthcoming,” said Rick Joyce, a lawyer at Venable who represents the carrier. “We have responded to every single question the FCC has presented and have repeatedly invited the FCC to meet with the owners, lawyers and accountants to answer any questions they might have."
DirecTV urged the FCC to grant waivers to the Digital Media Association regarding “specific closed captioning requirements in recognition of the practical inability of video programming distributors to meet the commission’s aggressive implementation deadlines.” Grant would serve the public interest “by assuring that parties are given sufficient time to develop the capabilities necessary for an orderly transition to the closed captioning regime envisioned by the commission,” DirecTV said in docket 11-154 (http://xrl.us/bnaute). DiMA’s requests seek very targeted relief, “such that the vast majority of the rules will remain in force and ensure the availability of closed captioning delivered via Internet protocol in the large majority of cases,” the DBS company said. DiMA filed the petitions last month (CD May 14 p13). In one petition, DiMA requested a 16-month delay until Jan. 1, 2014, of enforcement of rules around Internet Protocol-transmitted closed captioning from video programming distributors. A second petition urged the agency to allow VPDs that don’t provide captioning to offer it by Jan. 1, 2014.
News Corp. said it agreed to buy Disney’s 50 percent of ESPN Star Sports (ESS), an Asian pay-TV network. “After 16 years jointly managing ESS we have decided to independently pursue future opportunities in Asia,” ESPN President John Skipper said. “With the growing digital landscape in Asia, we look forward to continuing to serve Asian sports fans through ESPN-branded digital businesses.” A stock analyst put the likely price between $2.5 billion to $3 billion, though terms weren’t disclosed. Citigroup’s Jason Bazinet said he reached that range based on estimates of how much ESS contributes to Disney’s profit.
Consumers Union Policy Counsel Parul Desai raised some concerns about letting DTV viewability rules expire next week, in separate conversations with aides to all FCC members other than Commissioner Robert McDowell. “Revising the current rule could result in an unfair burden and unjust cost to consumers if the new rule required consumers to pay an additional fee for a set-top box,” an ex parte notice said (http://xrl.us/bnaud4). Though such a rule change would benefit cable operators, it shouldn’t be made at the expense of consumers, the notice said. “For that reason, I urged the Commission to either extend the current viewability rule or ... require the availability of set-top boxes at no cost to the consumer,” the notice said. “Alternatively, the Commission could extend the current rule and create an exemption for those cable operators that meet certain criteria, such as offering a no-cost box.” Also in docket 98-120, Ion Media CEO Brandon Burgess wrote Pai with data that show how minorities and the elderly would be affected by allowing the rule to sunset. “Sunsetting the Viewability Rule will fall much more heavily on minority and especially African-American viewers than on non-minorities,” Burgess wrote (http://xrl.us/bnaugt). Ion estimates that it has viewers in 7 million analog cable homes, representing about 7 percent of total household audience and 13 percent of its ad market. Ion draws a larger than average share of its audience from minorities and the elderly who subscribe to analog cable, data submitted with the letter show. “Sunsetting the rule will have a disproportionate effect on independent broadcasters like ION that have a large number of viewers ... that continue to rely on analog cable,” Burgess wrote. Two more broadcasters wrote letters this week asking the commission to extend the rule. “Congress mandated that cable operators provide all their customers with must-carry signals, not the opportunity to purchase yet another piece of equipment to self-install,” Ramar Communications General Manager Brad Moran wrote (http://xrl.us/bnaumo). Northwest Broadcasting CEO Brian Brady also wrote the commission to push for the rule to be extended another 3 years (http://xrl.us/bnaumw). “The expense required of cable operators to obtain equipment needed to convert digital broadcast signals to analog has already been incurred,” wrote Brady, who had been head of the Fox affiliates’ association. “Retention of the rule will actually serve as an incentive for cable operators to build out digital systems ... while allowing the viewability rule to sunset would reward a lack of investment from cable providers, further delay the deployment of digital cable system and deny cable subscribers access to diverse programming."
A survey of Internet use by those 10-13 found “that parents are doing a good job monitoring their children’s online behavior, including talking to them and setting guidelines and restrictions for Internet use on home computers,” said an announcement Wednesday. “Yet there is room for improvement, especially when it comes to keeping tweens safer when they use mobile and other connected devices.” Cox Communications sponsored the research, the Tween Internet Safety Survey, with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. It found that 95 percent of the subjects use mobile devices to go online. These devices and gaming consoles lack “guidelines and controls,” leaving “tweens vulnerable,” the announcement said. “While 68 percent of parents surveyed said they monitored their child’s Internet behavior on mobile devices, the survey showed that only 1 in 5 (17 percent) actually use basic parental control features such as age appropriate web content filtering on smartphones, tablets and game consoles."