The FCC issued an expanded inquiry into the state of the video competition market, asking more questions than the agency has in the past about the effects of horizontal and vertical integration on the availability and pricing of video programming. The Notice of Inquiry also seeks data on several technical issues, including equipment and emerging services, as well as information on the effects of current regulations and data on foreign video markets. The agency uses the data to prepare an annual report to Congress.
FCC Comrs. Abernathy, Copps and Adelstein told a conference on the DTV transition and its effects on children the Commission must enact rules that make clear broadcasters’ obligations on children’s programming. Today, in the analog arena, broadcasters are required to air at least 3 hours of children’s programming per week and must limit the amount of advertising aimed at children. When broadcasters can multicast several channels, it’s not clear whether they will be required to air 3 hours on each stream, or just on a designated primary stream of programming, or whether the obligation could be fulfilled some other way, such as a separate children’s programming channel.
The broadcasters’ analog spectrum band could be a windfall for wireless broadband, and other untethered services, witnesses told the Senate Commerce Committee on Wed. The Committee hearing on the DTV transition seemed to focus less on TV and more on the wireless and broadband services that would emerge once broadcasters relinquish the current analog spectrum band.
Several companies and associations used a call by the FCC for comments on broadband wireless issues to plead for more spectrum for emerging technologies. Most commenters also stressed that the FCC must give companies flexibility in using spectrum while providing more certain rules of the road.
The FCC scheduled a vote June 10 on a modified version of revised ITFS-MMDS spectrum rules. Details emerged Thurs. as the Commission prepared to release its sunshine agenda, shutting off further lobbying. The report and order includes a compromise eliminating any changes to the “open eligibility” rule -- which was pushed hard by the education groups that control ITFS spectrum, sources told us. FCC will also release a notice of further rulemaking asking many questions about future use of the spectrum.
The FCC’s IP rulemaking is so vague that it’s impossible to provide a regulatory analysis of its impact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The Dept. of Homeland Security, meanwhile, said the FCC may need to become even more active in regulating IP-enabled services, in comments on the FCC rulemaking (CD June 1 p1). Other commenters questioned the FCC’s authority to regulate IP services at all.
Public broadcasters charged the wireless industry with failing to respond to their offer to free up the analog spectrum early in return for the govt. setting up a trust fund from proceeds of the spectrum auction. “We are open- minded to working with the wireless service providers, but I have to say that the outreach by the industry to public television has been virtually nonexistent,” said Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS) Pres. John Lawson in an interview. With their commercial counterparts all but refusing to play along, public TV was banking on support from the wireless industry and public safety industry to push its concept on the Hill and at the FCC for a trust fund for public broadcasters in return for embracing a “hard date” for analog switch off.
FCC Comr. Adelstein said he was concerned about an apparent willingness by some lawmakers to impose indecency standards on cable. In a speech to the American Cable Assn., Adelstein noted that the cable industry is willing to provide blocking technology for consumers who don’t want certain channels. Although he acknowledged that children can’t distinguish between broadcast and cable, he said it would be hard for the govt. to force family tiers onto cable. “Families are different,” Adelstein said. “My family’s interests might be different than yours.”
FCC Wireline Bureau Senior Deputy Chief Jeffrey Carlisle called for using VoIP as an opportunity to reexamine existing telecom regulations. “VoIP provides the last best chance to re-examine the federal and state regulatory structures in place, and we'll be fools if we don’t take this opportunity,” he told a VoIP workshop sponsored by CompTel/Ascent in Washington Tues. “Why do we continue to do the same things over and over again when we know many of the [regulatory] requirements make little sense, at least when applied to the majority of small providers and certainly as applied to innovators who might want to get into the market?” he asked: “Why do we do this when we also know that the primary economic beneficiaries of these activities are lawyers and paper companies?”
In a move already causing anxiety among broadcasters, the FCC Thurs. approved a rulemaking that could clear the way toward the use of more unlicensed devices in the white spaces between TV channels, especially by wireless Internet service providers (WISPs).