Easing rules around spectrum use, streamlining rules for satellite license applications and satellite export control reform efforts will likely remain the top satellite-related priorities at the FCC and from a broader administration perspective under a Barack Obama presidential term, industry executives said. The agenda for satellite proceedings isn’t expected to change if FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski leaves his post, as some think he will next year, they said. Genachowski said Friday he has no plans to leave (CD Nov 13 p3).
Change is on the way at the FCC, with Chairman Julius Genachowski widely expected to step down some time next year after nearly four years in the job. Change won’t be nearly as sweeping as what would have followed a Mitt Romney victory and the likely reversal of several key Obama administration policy calls, starting with 2010 net neutrality rules, government and industry officials told us Wednesday.
The Consumer Federation of America continues to hope set-top boxes will use power more efficiently, whether through Department of Energy rules or an accord among industry and energy efficiency advocates, a CFA official told us Monday. The DOE said last week it will issue a rulemaking notice on set-top energy efficiency, now that talks have ended for expanding a voluntary commitment by makers of consumer electronics and multichannel video programming distributors led by cable operators (CD Nov 5 p9) OR (CED Nov 5 p1). “It’s unfortunate” the talks, where the Natural Resources Defense Council but not the CFA was among the advocates at the table, broke down, said CFA Energy Projects Director Mel Hall-Crawford. “But we certainly support negotiated agreements and standards,” she said. “We are hopeful that we will see progress made, one way or the other” on set-tops, she added. “We certainly want to see these devices made more efficient."
The Department of Energy will issue a rulemaking notice on set-top box energy efficiency standards, a spokeswoman said Friday. That’s now that talks lasting for most of this year for some multichannel video programming distributors to agree on voluntary guidelines broke down (CD Nov 2 p8). Stakeholders each blamed the other side for why the negotiations ended Oct. 26 at the request of advocates.
Negotiations for energy-saving commitments by cable companies for set-top boxes ended, advocates for energy efficiency who had sought rules and the cable and consumer electronics industries that had opposed them told us. They said talks ended last Friday with CEA and NCTA on one side and groups including the Appliance Standards Awareness Project and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on the other. The continuing talks had prompted the Department of Energy (DOE) to delay issuing a rulemaking on such standards until at least Oct. 1 (CD July 6 p4). The notice has not been issued, and a DOE spokeswoman had no comment.
The deadline for comments on the FCC further notice of proposed rulemaking on program access rules is Nov. 30, a Media Bureau public notice released Wednesday said (http://xrl.us/bnw799). Replies are due Dec. 17 also in docket 12-68. And the FCC’s rule that let its ban on exclusive contracts between cable operators and the networks they own expire becomes effective Nov. 30, a notice in the Federal Register said (http://bitly.com/X1CiDq). The agency released both the further notice and the order on the exclusivity ban on Oct. 5 (CD Oct 9 p1).
NCTA, DirecTV, NPR and others asked the Copyright Office to adopt audit procedure rules in the implementation of audit provisions mandated by the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act. The organizations jointly submitted replies to the office in the audit provision rulemaking, which would allow copyright owners to audit certain statements of account with the office. Replies were due this month. The rules were carefully tailored “to take into consideration the unique characteristics of the cable and satellite compulsory licenses,” the joint reply said (http://xrl.us/bnwozh). For each semiannual statement of account filed with the office for accounting periods beginning Jan. 1, 2010, the licensee must maintain all records “necessary to confirm the correctness of the calculations and royalty payments reported in each statement for at least three and one-half years after the last day of the year in which that statement or an amendment of that statement was filed with the office,” they said. Following the selection of the auditor and “until the distribution of the auditor’s report to the participating copyright owner ... there may be no ex parte communications regarding the audit between the selected auditor and the participating copyright owner(s) of their representatives provided, however, that the auditor may engage in such ex parte communications” where either the auditor has a reasonable basis to suspect fraud or the auditor provides the licensee with a reasonable opportunity to participate in communications with the participating copyright owners, they said. The procedures for designating an auditor “should be strengthened and specifically preclude the payment of contingent fees,” AT&T said (http://xrl.us/bnwo45). Although the NCTA/copyright owners’ proposal addresses these issues to a degree, “AT&T continues to believe that additional requirements should be imposed,” the telco said. The audit shouldn’t be allowed to commence “until any objections regarding the auditor’s independence have been resolved,” it said. The company also said that the regulations “should limit the scope of the audit to issues that are not evident on the face of the statement of account."
The TV band repacking that is to take place after the FCC completes the incentive spectrum auction might not affect most broadcasters that remain on the air, Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology said at the commission’s first workshop on the auction Friday. “The repacking does not mean that all of the stations will move,” he said. “In fact, probably a majority will stay right where they are.”
An FCC proposal to reform its regulatory fee process highlighted a rift between the satellite industry and telecom providers, which disagree on how to count work done by full-time employees (FTE) in different bureaus. The FCC proposed in July (http://xrl.us/bnvuqh) to reform its processes for assessing the fees that cover its operational costs, changing how it allocates “direct” and “indirect” FTEs to calculate fees. Based on aggregated bureau-level FTE data, the commission would allocate all FTEs in the Wireless, Media, Wireline and International bureaus as “direct” and all FTEs in the support bureaus as “indirect.” In replies, the satellite industry criticized telco and carrier proposals to treat all work done by FTEs as the same, fearing this could lead to disproportionately high fees for earth and space station applications.
The FCC is meeting with stakeholders to decide what to do with the unallocated Connect America Fund Phase I money, according to industry officials and ex parte filings. Carriers accepted only $115 million of the original $300 million, leaving about $185 million still available (CD July 26 p3). The commission is teeing up several questions for a potential rulemaking about how to use that money, industry officials said. The notice, circulating on the eighth floor, proposes adding the unused money into another Phase I round of funding that could dole out $485 million for broadband buildout, an agency official said. As an alternative the notice also contemplates rolling the unused money into Phase II, the official said.