Arguments that joint sales agreements increased opportunities for minorities before the FCC changed the rules governing them are a “charade,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a speech at a National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters conference Thursday. Changing the JSA rule already has increased the number of minority broadcast owners, he said, promising that more minorities and women would own stations by the time his term ends than did when it started. The conference also featured a panel of commissioners, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., urged the agency to consider diversity as it reviews large industry deals and the incentive auction.
Indie Programmers, Mid-Sized Cable Support Mediacom Petition Against Large Programmers, Broadcasters
Independent programmers, mid-sized pay-TV companies and Public Knowledge disagreed with larger programmers and broadcasters on Mediacom’s requests for the FCC to restrict programmers and broadcasters in content negotiations, in comments posted online in docket RM-11728 Tuesday. The proceeding is about a petition submitted by Mediacom in July (CD July 25 p13) asking for new FCC rules that would restrict bundling, volume discounts and programmers’ ability to halt online access to their content to provide leverage during negotiations.
A draft rulemaking notice on broadening the definition of a multichannel video programming distributor to include certain types of over-the-top video hasn’t been shared with most eighth-floor commissioners’ offices and won’t necessarily go on circulation, an FCC official and officials in several eighth-floor offices told us Tuesday. The eighth-floor officials said they had received no information about the draft NPRM. Calling the item “a proposal going around” is “a bit of an overstatement,” Chairman Tom Wheeler said at a news conference after Tuesday’s FCC meeting. “I'm not ready to plant the flag,” he said.
In the days leading up to Monday’s deadline for filing replies to the FCC in the net neutrality debate, those on both sides told us they didn’t expect any major shifts or developments to come in the comments. Though the FCC, which said Tuesday the proceeding now has more than 3.7 million comments, still hadn’t posted most comments to the NPRM, observers said that based on those they've been able to obtain, their predictions were coming true.
Opposition to the Senate Commerce Committee’s Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (S-2799) cooled slightly ahead of a planned markup Wednesday. Senate Commerce Committee leaders further chopped down controversial parts of the legislation, in a new draft circulated among committee member offices Friday (CD Sept 15 p9). Broadcasters initially opposed the bill strongly, but the changes address some of their concerns. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., plans to offer what she’s calling the McCaskill Customer Service Amendment, collecting several of her concerns about the pay-TV industry, while Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., is eyeing broadcaster joint sales agreement with his own amendment, among several others expected.
Public interest groups opposing relaxation of FCC ownership rules “rely on the myth of the media mogul boogeyman,” said NAB in replies (http://bit.ly/1opj4l5) to a 2014 quadrennial review Further NPRM in docket 14-50 (CD Aug 8 p7). Broadcasters don’t have “a dominant hold on the attention of audiences” that warrants heavy regulation, NAB said. Public interest groups such as Common Cause chastised the FCC for not doing enough to increase ownership diversity. Other commenters said no evidence has been presented to justify the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, and several groups urged the FCC to regulate and require disclosure of shared service agreements (SSA).
Senate Commerce Committee leaders plan to include the controversial Local Choice proposal directly in their five-year Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bill, their staffers told other members’ committee staff and industry officials Friday in two briefings. The legislation sets the stage for a full-throttle lobbying war between broadcasters and pay-TV companies leading up to STELA’s Dec. 31 expiration. Local Choice, which would overhaul retransmission consent rules to end TV blackouts, would take effect July 1, 2017, said a three-page section-by-section committee breakdown of the STELA reauthorization bill, called the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (STAVRA).
Some radio broadcasters and state broadcaster associations urged the FCC not to create an additional burden on radio stations by requiring them to provide public inspection files online, in comments in docket 14-127 on a public notice on whether to adopt such a rule for radio stations. Some public media entities argued against including noncommercial educational (NCE) stations in the regime. The notice also sought comment on whether to extend the requirement to cable- and satellite-TV operators. NCTA asked the FCC to explore how it can modify online filing rules to fit cable’s obligations.
Initial comments on a petition for a rulemaking that expands online public file obligations to cable and satellite TV operators are due Aug. 28, the FCC said in a Federal Register notice (http://1.usa.gov/1sDwRHn). Reply comments are due Sept. 8, it said. The Media Bureau also set the same comment deadlines on expanding the obligations to radio licensees (CD Aug 8 p14).
Concerns raised by rival Neustar about naming Telcordia the next Local Number Portability Administrator (LPNA) have already been addressed, Telcordia said in its final reply comments. To the extent that issues like Telcordia’s ability to stay neutral, protect the security of the network from intrusion and work effectively with law enforcement agencies remain unaddressed, they can be dealt with after the FCC formally awards it the contract, said Telcordia’s filing (http://bit.ly/1vGSFny), posted on Monday.