Cities and cable operators disagree on whether the FCC should let the companies get franchise relief the Commission granted to new video providers including telcos. In issuing streamlined franchise rules to bolster Bell video (CD April 9 p3), the FCC launched a rulemaking asking if the rules should extend to existing cable providers. The agency should grant such relief, said the Broadband Service Providers Assn. (BSPA) and members including Knology, PrairieWave, RCN and SureWest. Executives of those companies and a BSPA official made their case last week in meetings with aides to Chmn. Martin and Comrs. Adelstein, McDowell and Tate. “The same FCC authority that applied to new competitive franchises applies here,” a BSPA ex parte filing said: “Existing incumbent franchises should not be affected until wireline competition enters the market.” Not so, said some cities. Redding, Cal., opposes the FCC’s tentative conclusion that cable operators should get franchise deregulation when their contracts with cities expire, it told the FCC. Sec. 621 of the Communications Act, which undergirds the March franchise order for new entrants, doesn’t apply to “incumbent cable operators,” Redding said: “Those operators are by definition already in the market, and their future franchise terms and conditions are governed by the franchise renewal provisions of Section 626 and not Section 621.” Not giving RCN the same franchise rules as Bells hurts the cable operator, RCN Senior Vp Richard Ramlall told us: “Verizon will have a large cost advantage over us until those renewals. Some of our existing franchises extend past 2012, so this is not a short-term issue for us.” - JM
A U.S. appeals court will likely hear oral arguments on a challenge of the FCC video franchise order because the case raises high-stakes questions on whether U.S. regulators’ authority trumps cities’, said industry lawyers and law professors. It’s uncertain which court will make the call, since municipal groups last week filed appeals with a half- dozen courts (CD April 4 p8). Bells cheered March’s FCC order because it clears some hurdles for them to compete with cable by selling IPTV and fiber TV service in addition to broadband. Cities slammed the rulemaking as exceeding FCC constitutional and statutory authority.
Chmn. Martin plans a vote on rules for the 700 MHz auction at the April 25 agenda meeting -- though he didn’t circulate an order Wed. giving colleagues the usual 3 weeks to study the item, sources said Thurs. Martin asked other FCC members to waive this rule. He’s expected to circulate an item as early as today (Fri.).
An FCC report to Congress on violence in TV network programming that’s due within 2 weeks raises more questions than it answers, Comr. McDowell said during a news briefing Wed. He also fielded questions on a wide range of wireless and wireline issues. McDowell said the 700 MHz auction may face delays if the Commission adopts a proposal by Frontline Wireless. Chmn. Martin was expected to start circulating a 700 MHz order as early as Wed. McDowell also said he was frustrated with 800 MHz Transition Administrator’s (TA) lack of progress on rebanding.
Carriers are expected to challenge in court the FCC’s decision to require them to get customers’ consent before sharing customer proprietary network information (CPNI) data with joint venture partners or independent contractors for marketing, sources said Tues. Under the rule change, customers must “opt in” to give carriers permission to share the data.
The FCC can’t regulate deals between cable operators and owners of multiple-dwelling units (MDUs) because Congress didn’t authorize the agency to intervene in private contracts of that sort, said some communications lawyers and apartment trade groups. The Commission would violate the rights of cable operators and property owners alike if it decides it has authority under the Telecom Act to remedy anticompetitive video contracts. Last Thurs., commissioners voted to take a first step, seeking public comment in a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) tentatively concluding the FCC has such authority. The NPRM addresses allegations by SureWest and Verizon that exclusive video deals make it harder for them to sell packages of video, phone and broadband (CD March 23 p7).
The FCC unanimously approved Univision’s $13.7 billion takeover by 5 leveraged buyout firms, as expected (CD March 19 p10). Democratic commissioners wrote concurrences expressing concerns that may anticipate issues in reviews of future broadcast mergers. Comr. Copps said a reason he concurred was because the FCC failed to address how debt issued to take the publicly traded broadcaster private will affect the company. “The Commission has never analyzed the consequences of this type of transaction,” he said in prepared comments: “I, for one, have some real questions about how the assumption of massive amounts of debt will affect a media company’s stewardship.”
FCC Chmn. Martin aims to gnaw down a stack of rulemakings -- some more than 4 years old -- by circulating over 150 items to commissioners for votes outside normal meetings, a latter-day record according to current and former agency officials. Items awaiting commissioner votes exceeded 170 ahead of a March 14 House Telecom Subcommittee hearing (CD March 15 p1), according to officials. A source put the total at 180 now. That compares to a late Nov. total of about 40 rulemakings on the 8th floor, a former staffer said. Usually no more than a few dozen orders await commissioner review at a time.
The FCC could regulate exclusive deals between cable operators and apartment building owners when the pacts are found to be anticompetitive, under preliminary conclusions of a rulemaking approved by the FCC Thurs. After declining to address the issue as recently as 2003, the FCC reversed course out of concern that such deals slow telco TV and broadband deployment, said staffers and commissioners. Commissioners voted to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) seeking comment on what Media Bureau lawyer Holly Saurer called a tentative finding.
The FCC voted 5-0 Thurs. to study network management practices among telecom and cable broadband providers although Comrs. Copps and Adelstein said the agency should have taken stronger action. The Commission approved a net neutrality “notice of inquiry” (NOI) asking how telecom companies manage networks, whether there’s evidence of discriminatory practices and whether the FCC should expand 4 non-binding net neutrality “principles” it wrote in 2005. The NOI asks if a 5th principle should be added to encourage “nondiscrimination,” FCC officials said at the meeting.