LAS VEGAS -- DTV carriage by cable remains a major issue for broadcasters and cable, even as most other issues are being resolved, leading to hopes of a rapid takeoff of DTV, officials said at the CES here late last week. Increasingly, broadcasters want compensation for carriage of their DTV signals, making negotiations more difficult.
NCTA was among those filing petitions for reconsideration or clarification of the FCC’s new rules on the broadcast flag. The rules were designed to offer some copy protection to broadcast content and prevent mass Internet redistribution. NCTA said there were 4 areas in which the rules or misinterpretations could cause “inadvertent departures” from the agency’s goals. The petitions were due Fri.
The Community Bcstrs. Assn. (CBA) said full-power TV stations’ transition to DTV had progressed enough to remove any reason to prevent LPTV stations from being granted 2nd channels to ease their digital migration. Full-power broadcasters, not surprisingly, disagreed in the latest round of comments in an FCC rulemaking.
A group of performing rights organizations that distribute copyright royalties said the FCC had failed to address their need to decrypt commercial performances when the agency issued its plug-&-play order. Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) and the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP), in a joint petition, asked the Commission to reconsider its plug-&-play order, which set out technical, labeling and encoding rules that allowed for compatibility between cable and consumer electronics devices (CD Sept. 11 p4). DirecTV also filed a petition for reconsideration, questioning the role of CableLabs in running aspects of the plug-&-play regime, among other things. Petitions for reconsideration on the plug-and-play order were due Mon., the day the rules took effect.
Two former Clinton Administration officials were credited last month with saving a rural broadband loan program, but due to a shortage of funds among the effort’s beneficiaries, their lobbying efforts were performed free of charge. Former NTIA Dir. Greg Rohde and former Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Dir. Christopher McLean in 2003 grossed more than $200,000 from companies involved in rural broadband issues, Rohde revealed last week in lobbying disclosure filings with the Secy. of the Senate. However, he told us that the lobbying he did in the Senate to save the RUS broadband program was done pro bono, as the lead entity in the effort, the Wireless Communications Assn. International (WCAI), couldn’t afford to pay them, a difficulty confirmed by WCAI Pres. Andrew Kreig.
The FCC voluntarily has revised its definition of “unencrypted broadcast TV” in its encoding rules to square a “potential conflict between our stated intent and the scope of the rules” in its order and a further rulemaking notice addressing the commercial availability of navigation devices and compatibility between cable systems and consumer electronics. The rules prohibit the down resolution of unencrypted broadcast programming and caps on the level of copy protection that may apply to some categories of multi- channel video programming. The caps included a prohibition against placing copy restrictions on unencrypted broadcast TV. “Our stated goal in adopting these encoding rules was to strike a measured balance between the rights of content owners and the home viewing expectations of consumers, while ensuring competitive parity among MVPDs,” the FCC said. However, the agency said the limitation of encoding rules for broadcast could “inadvertently be interpreted to create a competitive disparity” because some program distributors encoded their broadcast signals and others didn’t. The FCC said that could create confusion among consumers who might expect certain recording capabilities no matter what technology was providing the programming. The order on reconsideration revises the prohibition to encompass all broadcast TV programming that is unencrypted when broadcast, regardless of the form in which it’s carried by a distributor.
The FCC released a notice of proposed rulemaking on sharing between satellite services -- including nongeostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) and geostationary satellite orbit (GSO) fixed satellite service (FSS) operations -- and 3 other services -- fixed services (FS), broadcast auxiliary services (BAS) and cable TV relay services (CARS). The final rules would apply in the 7 GHz, 10 GHz and 13 GHz bands, the Commission said: “We undertake this proceeding to facilitate the introduction of new satellite and terrestrial services while promoting interference protection among the various users in these bands.” The Commission proposed the following: (1) NGSO FSS downlink operations sharing with FS operations in the 10 GHz band based on a Growth Zone Proposal by SkyBridge/Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC). It suggested identifying FS growth zones based on geographic areas where “FS use is high and growth is most likely to occur.” The Commission’s proposal would qualify counties as growth zones “where at least 30 FS frequencies are licensed to transmit in the 10.7-11.7 GHz band.” Zone determinations would be made individually, rather than every 6 months, as NGSO FSS earth station applications were submitted to provide a “near real- time” element to the process, the FCC said. Coordination also would adopt proposals determining where the earth stations should be located, who would be protected from interference and how coordination would be determined. (2) Coordination between NGSO and GSO FSS earth stations and mobile BAS and CARS operations in the 6875-7075 MHz and 12750-13250 MHz bands. The Commission said it would apply existing coordination rules from Parts 25 and 101 of its rules to the bands and consider additions or modifications. It said it also would determine whether additional rules needed to be applied separately to FSS coordination with mobile or fixed BAS/CARS operations. Comments are due 30 days from publication in the Federal Register, replies 45 days from publication.
FCC Comr. Martin said Fri. he would be “inclined” to turn away incumbent LEC arguments that they couldn’t build out broadband until they got more deregulation of legacy systems. In a speech at a Practising Law Institute-FCBA telecom conference, Martin said ILECs told the Commission they couldn’t build out broadband infrastructure until they had investment incentives. He said the Commission gave them those incentives in the UNE Triennial Review Order’s broadband provisions so now it was up to the ILECs: “For years, incumbents have been saying ‘Deregulate our provision of broadband and we will invest.’ But now that broadband deployment is deregulated, they are saying ‘Deregulate our provision of historically monopoly service -- basic phone service -- and we will invest in broadband.’ They essentially are saying ‘Free us and we will invest.’ We have responded ‘Invest and you will be free.'”
The FCC published its final broadcast flag rule in the Federal Register Wed. The rule takes effect Jan. 2, with the exception of some reporting requirements, whose effective dates won’t be published until approved by the Office of Management & Budget. Also Wed., the FCC published proposed rules governing its mechanisms and standards for approving broadcast flag hardware and recording equipment. Comments on the rulemaking are due Jan. 14. The Commission is seeking comments on whether cable systems should be allowed to encrypt their digital basic tier to comply with the flag requirement. It also is asking for comment on the interplay between an ATSC flag system and the development of open- source software applications for DTV.
FCC Chmn. Powell gave early indications of his thinking about a regulatory regime for Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) Mon., saying he saw consensus that the service might be deemed “interstate” in nature and that concerns about VoIP were focused on 4 or 5 discrete issues. His comments to reporters came after an FCC forum on VoIP that featured industry leaders, state public utility commissioners and others.