An FCC proposal to tighten rules on broadcasters swapping network affiliations within a market might lead to a rulemaking but is unlikely to result in a final policy banning the practice, said attorneys who oppose the proposed rule, in interviews. FCC ownership rules already prevent a single broadcaster from owning two Big Four-rated network affiliates in a market, but the 2014 quadrennial review Further NPRM tentatively concluded in favor of extending those rules to keep broadcasters from coming into ownership of two Big Four stations in the same market through network affiliation swaps. Initial comments were recently due on the FNPRM (CD Aug 8 p7).
The FCC Media Bureau extended the comment period on Mediacom’s petition for rulemaking to amend rules for video programming vendors. Initial comments are due Sept. 29, and replies Oct. 14, the bureau said Monday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1opIKCE). Deadlines were extended by one month, it said. American Cable Association requested an extension (CD Aug 5 p8). Granting ACA’s request “is necessary to facilitate the development of a full record,” the notice said.
A public notice focusing on whether FCC online public and political filing requirements should be extended to pay-TV operators and radio stations could have different implications for different companies in those industries, some broadcast and cable attorneys said in interviews last week. The process may be more burdensome for cable operators than it was for TV stations, a cable attorney said. The Media Bureau PN stemmed from a petition for the changes filed by the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and Sunlight Foundation, which asked for multichannel video programming distributors to be included (CD Aug 8 p11). All TV stations began complying with the obligation July 1 (CD July 7 p7).
The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on a petition for rulemaking for expanding online public file obligations to cable- and satellite-TV operators. Comments are due Aug. 28, replies Sept. 8, the bureau said Thursday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1r1T0yf). The petition was filed by the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and Sunlight Foundation, it said. The bureau also seeks comment on whether the FCC should begin a rulemaking proceeding to require radio stations to use the online public file, it said. Because all comments will be posted in the FCC Electronic Comment Filing System, “we hereby waive the requirement that parties be served copies of the comments and reply comments,” it said.
The FCC shouldn’t regulate broadcast ownership at all, commented CBS, NAB and 21st Century Fox in docket 14-50 on a rulemaking on proposed changes to ownership rules as part of the 2014 quadrennial review. Though the Further NPRM sought comment on specific ownership changes, such as relaxing the ban on newspaper/radio cross-ownership, Nexstar and other broadcasters said the competitive video market justified the relaxation of all such regulations. The FCC should “amend or, where necessary, remove ownership restrictions that apply solely to the broadcast industry,” said NAB (http://bit.ly/1nwY5eA). Public interest, labor and consumer groups argued against any rule relaxation. The FCC “must maintain existing media ownership rules to protect local market competition and prevent further media concentration,” said the Writers Guild of America, West (http://bit.ly/1kM3Qup).
AT&T’s plan to buy DirecTV could be used to allow set-top box manufacturers to sell retail boxes for DBS customers as they do for cable, but such an initiative may not find support, said consumer electronics industry observers and communications attorneys in interviews this week. DBS companies are excepted from rules imposed by the FCC on cable companies intended to create a viable retail set-top market, and DirecTV customers can buy TiVo boxes, but there’s interest among CE companies in expanding their market, said a CE company official. Though getting the FCC or legislators to change rules or impose deal conditions or enact new laws requiring DBS companies to make retail competition with their boxes possible would be difficult, getting such rules imposed as conditions on AT&T/DirecTV would be a viable possibility, said Chadbourne and Parke technology, media and telecom attorney James Stenger.
The FCC should require cable and DBS companies to post data on their political ad sales online the same way broadcasters do, said the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and the Sunlight Foundation, in a petition for rulemaking (http://bit.ly/1zE4sVT) filed Thursday. “Political spending on cable has increased by one-third in each election cycle since 2008 and is expected to comprise roughly one-fourth of all political television spending in 2014,” said a news release from the public interest groups (http://bit.ly/1pMGyQU). “About 90 [percent] of American households subscribe to paid television.” Though pay-TV companies are required to maintain public inspection files with the data, they don’t have to share it online as most broadcasters were required to starting July 1, the petition said. “Because stations typically are open only during regular business hours, citizens seeking this information often are required to take time off from work to get it,” the release said. “Broadcasters are now required to put their political files online, and cable companies should be held to the same standard,” said Sunlight Foundation national policy manager Sean Vitka in the release.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau seeks comment on a Mediacom petition (CD July 25 p13) that asks the FCC to restrict programmers from requiring bundling and other concessions during negotiations for their content, said a bureau public notice Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1s4VNsc). The public notice, included in Wednesday’s Daily Digest, gives 30 days to comment. An FCC decision to open a rulemaking in reaction to the petition would be a concern for content companies, said Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant in an email to investors Wednesday. He suggested it might not be coincidental that the Mediacom petition was put out for comment on the same day that Chairman Tom Wheeler sent a letter to Time Warner Cable over the company’s Los Angeles sports programming dispute (CD July 30 p7). (See separate report above in this issue.)
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is working with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., to create an FCC workshop to bring together minority entrepreneurs with companies and individuals who can provide them with funding, Wheeler said Tuesday in a pre-recorded video presentation at a Minority Media and Telecommunications Council conference. Along with providing more opportunities to minorities, speakers at MMTC discussed the lack of minority representation in the leadership of technology companies, legislative efforts to update the Communications Act and the FCC’s recent waiver to Grain Management (CD July 29 p1).
The petitions that Chattanooga’s Electric Power Board (EPB) and the city of Wilson, North Carolina, filed Thursday seeking FCC pre-emption of state laws restricting municipal broadband deployments (CD July 25 p18) give FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler a definitive reason to examine pre-emption, industry participants and observers told us in interviews. Industry is likely to closely watch the FCC’s examination of the Chattanooga (http://bit.ly/1kZ4lM6) and Wilson petitions (http://bit.ly/1kZ54gc), and those petitions will likely have implications for the limits of the FCC’s authority under Communications Act Section 706, observers said. The FCC has been deciding how to pursue pre-emption after Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in a separate opinion in Verizon v. FCC that Section 706 could allow the commission to examine state municipal broadband laws as a barrier to competition. Industry observers have been split on the pre-emption issue (CD Feb 24 p1).