The FCC Media Bureau dismissed the application of Anniston Seventh-Day Adventist Church for a new noncommercial educational station in Anniston, Ala. Jacksonville State University in Alabama filed a petition against the ASDA application and claimed that it “does not meet the reservation standard” regarding FM band allotment, the bureau said in an order. ASDA’s application would have failed to qualify for a fair distribution preference “because it did not meet the 10 percent [population] threshold.” The bureau tentatively selected JSU’s application to construct an NCE station in Anniston.
Nearly six years after NASA requested a waiver of Caller ID rules to let it act more quickly on threats of assassination and mass murder, the FCC granted the agency’s request Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bm866q). Kennedy Space Center security personnel will now have access to the calling party number of anyone who calls the Kennedy Space Center, even if callers block their numbers, according to an order adopted by the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. FCC and NASA spokespeople had no immediate comment.
Promising broadband speeds a thousand times faster than what Americans have today, Gig.U and Gigabit Squared announced the availability of $200 million to fund the nation’s first multi-community broadband gigabit deployment. Dubbed the “Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program,” the project aims to build and test gigabit speed broadband networks by offering them to communities at competitive prices. Community selections will be announced between November 2012 and March 2013. “What makes the Gigabit Squared approach so exciting is that it goes far beyond normal industry business models in how to successfully and creatively improve broadband access for university communities, which is exactly the premise upon which Gig.U was founded,” said Blair Levin, executive director of Gig.U and former architect of the National Broadband Plan, Wednesday. “We intuitively knew this, but to see Gigabit Squared emerge so strongly today proves that yes, America needs an upgrade; and that yes, there are innovators and investors willing to step up to get it done.” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called the announcement a “significant accomplishment” that will help ensure America leads the world in bandwidth. “To drive U.S. global competitiveness, it’s vital that we have super-fast broadband testbeds for innovation,” he said. “It’s an important element of unleashing breakthrough innovations in health care, education, business services, and more."
Viacom said it will increase its quarterly dividend 10 percent to 27.5 cents per share. The increase wasn’t a big surprise because the company has been increasing it annually around this time of year, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote in a note to investors.
There’s no black-and-white answer to the question of whether Netflix viewing helps boost traditional TV ratings or hurts them, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer told The Cable Show Wednesday. There’s no specific network or show that has such a high amount of viewing on Netflix that you'd see a dramatic cause-and-effect hurting a show’s ratings, he said. “Whether or not we took 15 minutes of viewing here or there? I don’t think it’s that scientific,” he said. “But I do think there is an artful way to pick the right content, and the right window and the right license fee that can bring more viewers in” to a show on its main network, he said. He pointed to a boost in Mad Men ratings as an example.
"Some would describe the mood at the 2012 Cable Show as subdued,” a longtime stock analyst wrote after attending the annual show in Boston, which ended Wednesday. But the analyst sees reason for optimism. “Risks that have plagued recent shows, such as OTT (over-the-top) and regulation, have largely dissipated,” Tom Eagan of Cannacord Genuity wrote investors. “On Tuesday’s General Session, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski essentially endorsed usage-based pricing” (CD May 23 p2), Eagan said. “Technology, which has been widely considered to be more of a threat than a benefit, is now being utilized to not only enhance existing services (such as an improved video UI, or user interface, as well as a broadband Skype service) but new services such as complete home monitoring and maintenance.” Attendance at this year’s event in Boston of 12,000 was little changed from last year’s conference in Chicago, an NCTA spokesman said. Exhibitors occupied about 120,000 square feet, less than in 2011, he said.
Sen. Ron Wyden D-Ore., introduced a bill Wednesday to clarify the U.S. Trade Representative’s duty to share trade agreement information with all members of Congress. Wyden said the bill stems from what he called the lack of transparency in the negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in a statement (http://xrl.us/bm87fp). Wyden claimed that “some in the executive branch” are denying trade negotiation information to members who do not belong to the Congressional Oversight Group. “The majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the substance of the TPP negotiations, while representatives of U.S. corporations -- like Halliburton, Chevron, PHRMA, Comcast, and the Motion Picture Association of America -- are being consulted and made privy to details of the agreement.” Wyden said he “continue[s] to be denied a full understanding of what the [U.S. Trade Representative] is seeking in the agreement,” and his legislation would “ensure that the representatives elected by the American people are afforded the same level of influence over our nation’s policies as the paid representatives of PHRMA, Halliburton and the Motion Picture Association.”
The FCC order letting TV stations share channels is effective June 22, a commission notice in Wednesday’s Federal Register said (http://xrl.us/bm87gu). The order approved in April allows spectrum sharing after the agency holds a voluntary incentive auction of broadcaster frequencies (CD April 30 6p). “This item sets out a framework by which two or more television licensees may share a single six MHz channel in connection with an incentive auction,” the notice said.
There’s a “whole series of technologies” involving Sirius XM’s 2.0 platform that needs to be “articulated around a product marketing focus” for Internet radio, Liberty Media CEO Gregory Maffei said Wednesday at a Barclays conference in New York. He touched briefly on Liberty’s bid to gain majority control of Sirius and outlined Liberty’s vision for the company. While Sirius XM’s management is working toward Internet radio, “we would do an accelerated push” using the company’s technology center in Deerfield Beach, Fla., Maffei said “There is a lot of innovative action and progress there and I'm not sure that is as well articulated as it should be,” Maffei said. Liberty Media owns 46 percent of Sirius XM and must show 51 percent ownership to refile with the FCC. The agency, which rejected Liberty’s earlier application because it didn’t own 51 percent, allows 30 days to refile, giving the company a June 3 deadline. Liberty has to buy another 260 million shares to increase its stake to 51 percent, analysts said. Liberty was counting on Sirius XM doing a share buyback to get an additional 4 percent it needs, they said. But Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin said during the company’s annual meeting Tuesday, which was closed to the media, that the satellite radio operator “would not do a buyback if it facilitates Malone getting control,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Karmazin was referring to Liberty Chairman John Malone.
A group seeking new retransmission consent rules “couldn’t agree more” with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski saying at the Cable Show Tuesday that TV station shared services agreements can raise problems (CD May 23 p2). SSAs are among the issues pay-TV companies, many of which are members of the American Television Alliance, want the FCC to tighten rules against. “Collusion in retrans negotiations is giving TV stations unchecked market power to threaten multiple station blackouts and spark skyrocketing fees,” the alliance said. “To protect consumers, the FCC should ban separately owned broadcast stations in the same market from coordinating these negotiations and tighten scrutiny of SSAs.” Broadcasters have said SSAs let separately owned stations share resources within a market, helping give them money to air more news and other programming. An NAB spokesman declined to comment.