The FCC should ask Mediacom to open its books so the commission and public and see where its subscription fees are spent, Sinclair Broadcast Group General Counsel Barry Faber wrote in a letter to the FCC. The letter was in response to an earlier letter from Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso (CD March 23 p18) to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about retransmission consent (RTC). “It would be helpful for the FCC to examine Mr. Commisso’s claim that the RTC price escalation is responsible for the exorbitant cable rate increases imposed on the public over the last several years,” Faber wrote. “While some truth may exist in Mr. Commisso’s claim that smaller systems are being charged higher fees than the largest cable companies, this results not from broadcasters asserting leverage on small cable companies, but rather from broadcasters being forced to accept below-market rates from these large companies which enjoy tremendous leverage over most broadcasters,” Faber said.
Three of the top music publishing organizations inked an agreement to set royalty rates for five new categories of digital music services, the groups said Wednesday. The agreement aims to resolve the Copyright Royalty Board’s mechanical royalty rate proceedings under Section 115 of the Copyright Act, said the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Music Publishers Association and the Digital Media Association, in a joint statement. The settlement, which has not been approved by the Copyright Royalty Board, establishes a royalty rate category for mixed service bundles, paid locker services, purchased content lockers, limited subscription-based service offerings, and bundled music products. RIAA Chairman Cary Sherman said the agreement will make it easier for entrepreneurs to develop and “launch cutting-edge business models and streamline the licensing process.”
Gilat said it completed a project in support of Russia’s March presidential elections. Gilat provided very small aperture terminal connectivity to more than 1,600 of the voting sites to allow “the secure and reliable transfer of broadcasting data from the election venues to central servers located around Russia,” Gilat said. The company’s satellite-based connectivity helped serve a Web-based system of live video streaming to provide visibility of the sites, registration tables and ballot boxes, it said.
BlackArrow said it’s selling new software to pay-TV operators that will let them deliver more dynamic VOD ads. “The new products enable use of third-party ad systems … for fulfillment of programmers’ national ads across a service provider’s multiple platforms,” it said. The Ad Router and Business Suite software tools are already deployed and in trials with major operators, BlackArrow said.
The FCC and wireless industry’s cellphone theft agreement (CD April 11 p1) won kudos from House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Eshoo and Markey last month requested information on cellphone theft from 19 carriers, handset makers and operating system developers. “The FCC’s planned database takes a smart approach to mitigate theft of cellphones by utilizing the latest mobile technologies and partnering with wireless carriers,” Eshoo said. Markey also praised the agreement but said he still expects responses from the companies queried.
Nielsen’s smaller estimate for the total universe of TV viewers is an overlooked factor in this year’s lower TV ratings, Sanford Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger wrote in a note to investors. With Nielsen estimating a 1 percent reduction in total TV households and a 2.7 percent reduction in viewers 18-49, a show’s total projected audience would drop by that factor even if the percentage in a Nielsen TV panel watching it remained the same as a year earlier, he said. “This effect has been compounded in Q1 because total consumption of TV is down ~1% as well,” he said. Why the drop? “The cause for the decreased addressable universe is debatable,” he said. “We believe it is primarily due to a lack of household formation and poverty. Others argue it is evidence of cord-cutting,” he said. But while ratings fell during Q1, demand from advertisers to buy spots remained high, leading to higher pricing, he said.
Comcast petitioned the FCC to exempt it from rate regulation in four more California local franchise areas (LFA) (CD April 11 p13). Filings posted Tuesday to docket 12-1 were for Scotts Valley (http://xrl.us/bm3emu), Albany, El Cerrito and Pinole (http://xrl.us/bm3ems). As with recent requests for findings of effective video competition for other LFAs in the state, the cable operator cited availability of DBS service and the contention that more than 15 percent of households buying TV service purchase it from multichannel video programming distributors other than Comcast.
The American Cable Association wants the FCC to “immediately require that formal or informal agreements between separately owned, same-market broadcasters that facilitate the coordination of retransmission consent negotiations” be placed in those stations’ public files and be put online. That’s what ACA reported an executive told an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, in a filing Tuesday in docket 00-168 (http://xrl.us/bm3ekr). FCC members are to vote April 27 on a draft Media Bureau order that now excludes such retrans negotiating agreements and other deals between multiple stations in a market with different owners from going in the public file (CD April 11 p3).
The state of Hawaii and the counties there planning to build an early network for first responders in the 700 MHz band will issue a request for proposals this quarter to “procure technical services to further research and define numerous technical, procurement, operational, and site specifications required for the successful deployment of an LTE Public Safety Network in Hawaii,” the state said. Hawaii’s quarterly report filed at the FCC said the state still hasn’t decided how it will pay for the network (http://xrl.us/bm3ei7).
TracFone asked the FCC for clarity on the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board’s policy on whether the company can contact customers there who were de-enrolled from the Lifeline program for receiving duplicate service, in violation of commission rules (http://xrl.us/bm3ehh). The low-cost wireless carrier said the board has sent different messages. Directives issued in January and early February instructed eligible telecom carriers to “de-enroll all duplicates on March 1, 2012, and April 1, 2012, respectively, and that such de-enrolled duplicates would be prohibited from receiving Lifeline benefits for prescribed periods of time.” That led to complaints filed at the FCC by TracFone and others, the filing said (CD Feb 24 p13). But in a March 7 order, the board “revised its prior debarment of de-enrolled duplicates from receiving any Lifeline-supported service for four months by allowing such de-enrolled customers to re-enroll without waiting four months,” TracFone said. “However, such de-enrolled customers may only re-enroll in the Lifeline program of the ETC to whose service the Lifeline ’subsidy was first applied.'” That was followed by a March 26 letter to those de-enrolled. The letter said in part “those who received the communication informing them that their subsidy service would be suspended by March 1, 2012, can immediately request, with the company of their preference, only one subsidy for wireline or wireless service per person, as long as they comply with the criteria for eligibility,” TracFone reported. It also informed customers that “if your wireline or wireless provider does not inform you correctly, you may visit the Telecommunications Board of Puerto Rico offices personally or you may request information by sending a letter to [the Board].” The carrier said the messages from the board had left it confused. “By indicating that consumers may now request immediate re-enrollment with the company of their preference, the Board’s March 26 notice would appear to contradict the Board’s March 7 Order which expressly limited re-enrollment to the Lifeline service of the ETC who served the customer first,” the company said. “Also, the notice’s statement about contacting the Board if the consumer’s wireline or wireless company does not inform the consumer correctly seems to suggest that wireline and wireless ETCs may communicate with their de-enrolled Lifeline customers.”