The Department of Energy abandoned efforts to regulate the energy efficiency of set-top boxes and network equipment and ways to test the power consumption of set-tops, as 11 multichannel video programming distributors and three of their box suppliers reached a deal with advocacy groups. Three groups pressing MVPDs to reduce the energy they say needlessly costs $1 billion-plus a year for unused set-tops that continue working will now participate in the voluntary agreement (VA) the companies reached previously. Talks between the sides cratered in 2012. The distributors expanded the previous deal, which had been reached with the industry (CD Dec 7/12 p5) only after the advocates wouldn’t sign on, to make commitments for a few years longer than the last edition of the VA.
Gannett’s $2.73 billion purchase of Belo and Tribune’s $2.2 billion purchase of Local TV were approved by the FCC Media Bureau, according to a pair of orders released Friday (http://bit.ly/1ds4aFD) and (http://bit.ly/1cGP7WV). That was as expected (CD Dec 19 p1). Though cable companies and public interest groups had filed oppositions to both transactions, bureau Chief Bill Lake said in an email to us that the agency had considered both deals in terms of their effect on the public interest. “Our public interest mandate encompasses giving careful attention to the economic effects of, and incentives created by, a proposed transaction taken as a whole and its consistency with the Commission’s policies,” said the bureau in the Gannett/Belo order. Free Press, which along with other public interest groups had opposed both deals, said it was “disappointed” by the decisions. The FCC “needs to fix its rules now, and throw out the rubber stamp that’s making America’s media system less local, less diverse and less accountable to the people in hundreds of communities,” said Free Press President Craig Aaron in a release.
The FCC granted Dish Network the relief it sought to decide on the operations of its AWS-4 spectrum. The waiver, granted Friday, is conditioned on Dish’s bid of nearly $1.6 billion in the H-block auction next month. “Failure by Dish to comply with either of these conditions will automatically terminate the waivers granted in this order,” the Wireless Bureau said in its decision (http://fcc.us/1i8eU1M). Dish must elect no later than 30 months from the release of the order whether operations at 2000-2020 MHz will be uplink or downlink, the order said. The DBS company also was granted a one-year extension of the final buildout requirement, which gives it eight years to build a terrestrial network service, it said.
DirecTV, Dish Network, American Cable Association and others continued to urge the FCC to take action on the retransmission consent regime. The commission can prohibit separately owned TV stations from coordinating their retransmission consent negotiations, the multichannel video programming distributors, as well as Charter and Public Knowledge, said in an ex parte filing in dockets 10-71 and 09-182 (http://bit.ly/IZ6ZF7). The FCC can protect consumers caught in the middle of retransmission consent disputes “by establishing dispute-resolution mechanisms and requiring interim carriage in the event of negotiating impasses,” the filing said. The commission can take such actions in the context of either its 2010 rulemaking considering changes to its retrans consent regime or its pending 2010 quadrennial media ownership review, “or address them in both proceedings,” it said. “But it cannot simply permit the status quo to continue consistent with its statutory obligations to protect consumers and competition.” The filing recounted a meeting with Adonis Hoffman, chief of staff for Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.
In a proposal to eliminate the sports blackout rules, the FCC seeks comment on whether the rules are needed to give the public access to telecasts and the effect that a repeal of the rules would have on consumers. The rulemaking notice was released Wednesday, after circulating among commissioners in draft form last month (CD Nov 4 p3). If the record in the proceeding confirms that the sports blackout rules are no longer necessary “to ensure the overall availability to the public of sports telecasts, we propose to repeal these rules,” said a Media Bureau NPRM unanimously approved by the commission (http://fcc.us/1bQ7VC2). The rules prevent multichannel video programming distributors from carrying games that are blacked out by sports leagues on TV stations in markets where the games haven’t sold out.
The FCC shouldn’t eliminate the UHF discount without also examining the possibility of increasing or eliminating the 39 percent broadcast ownership cap, and the commission may not have the authority to change the discount at all, said 21st Century Fox, Univision, Sinclair and other major broadcasters in comments filed Monday in docket 13-236. The broadcasters were responding to an FCC rulemaking notice seeking comment on eliminating the discount (CD Aug. 14 p1), possibly grandfathering existing and pending ownership combinations, and a proposed VHF discount. Though most broadcaster comments characterized the NPRM as a backdoor method of changing the ownership cap, Free Press, the Competitive Carrier Association and broadcaster Block defended the measure. “Eliminating that discount doesn’t change the cap; it merely changes the calculation under the cap because the equation was unequivocally wrong,” said Free Press.
The FCC’s pending media ownership proceedings don’t prevent it from intervening in Sinclair’s proposed buy of New Age Media’s TV stations, said the American Cable Association in comments filed Wednesday (bit.ly/1cbE2gy). Sinclair and other companies have argued that ACA and public interest objections to mergers raise issues that should be hashed out in larger rulemakings rather than in individual transactions (CD Oct 28 p15), but ACA said that’s not the case. “It is well established that the Commission may choose to proceed either by adjudication or rulemaking and need not tackle all instances of a problem associated with particular behavior at one time, but may choose to proceed in a deliberative fashion,” said ACA. Sinclair’s proposed deal, which includes sharing agreements with Cunningham Broadcasting in two Florida markets where Sinclair already owns stations, should be considered by the full commission because it raises “novel” issues, ACA said. The lack of “specific findings” allowing contracts that let stations coordinate retransmission consent negotiation “precisely speaks to the novelty of the issue in this transaction,” said ACA. However, ACA said it doesn’t object to sharing arrangements in general. ACA is challenging only portions of the sharing agreements that show “the contemplated posttransaction behavior of the Applicants in colluding in the sale of their retransmission consent,” said ACA. “The Applicants designed the transaction to attempt to cynically observe the letter of the Commission’s rule,” ACA said.
Cheerleading for a Communications Act rewrite began to be tempered with more muted consideration among industry stakeholders and observers Wednesday. They questioned current congressional tensions, timing and the choice of legislative vehicle for communications updates. On Tuesday, House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said they plan hearings and white papers in 2014 to reevaluate the 1996 Telecommunications Act and then legislation to change it in 2015 (CD Dec 4 p1). Speaking Wednesday at a Hudson Institute event on retransmission consent (see separate report below in this issue), Walden reiterated his desires for a flexible rewrite and cooperation with the Judiciary Committee on changing the compulsory licensing system.
Any break-up and purchase of Time Warner Cable (CD Nov 26 p11; Nov 25 p16) by some combination of Cox Communications, Charter Communications or Comcast would likely face a stronger challenge at the FCC than at the Department of Justice or FTC, said several cable attorneys and industry observers in interviews last week. Individual cable operators’ lack of market power relative to some other sources of video programming would undercut antitrust arguments against such a deal, said the attorneys. Public interest groups disagree, contending operators have significant market power even though none are nationwide like DBS companies. “The cable operators will make a strong argument that any deal like this will be pro-competitive,” said Fletcher Heald cable attorney Paul Feldman. “They'll say they need to get bigger to stay competitive with the likes of DirecTV and telephone companies."
The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to discuss at its Dec. 5 open meeting a proposed decision to revise the state LifeLine program. Commissioner Catherine Sandoval’s proposed decision would extend the price cap and adopt specifications for LifeLine wireless services (http://bit.ly/Ihm0C6). The proposed decision requires all participating providers to have a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN), a wireless identification registration from the PUC and/or a franchise authority to provide service. All wireline service providers must charge no more than $6.84 per month for flat-rate local service and no more than $3.66 monthly for measured rate service through Dec. 31, 2015, said the proposed decision. To participate in the California LifeLine program, any fixed VoIP provider or wireless service provider must file a Tier 3 advice letter to demonstrate that its proposed services are in compliance with the proposed decision, it said. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a bill that would have limited the PUC’s powers to adopt new rules for its LifeLine program due to the open proceeding (CD Oct 16 p16).