A federal judge approved the settlement of a long- running lawsuit between Hughes Electronics’ DirecTV and the NRTC, ruling that it was “fair, just, reasonable and adequate.” U.S. Dist. Judge Lourdes Baird, L.A., approved the agreement originally struck in Aug. minus Pegasus Communications, which had joined the NRTC in 2001 in suing DirecTV for breach of contract, among other things, stemming from rights to premium programming that DirecTV acquired in buying U.S. Satellite Bcstg. in 1999. Baird ruled the settlement, which didn’t include Pegasus as a signatory, provided the NRTC “with certainty regarding its business and with the opportunity to profit from the business for an extended period on economic terms, many of which are more beneficial than those in place at the start of the litigation.” Pegasus officials weren’t available for comment. Pegasus’s suit remains pending against DirecTV. DirecTV Senior Vp-Gen. Counsel Robert Hall said the settlement “provides all parties with a beneficial resolution of the case.” Under the new terms, the NRTC’s pact with DirecTV now will expire June 30, 2008, after which DirecTV no longer will be required to provide services to the organization or its affiliates. A separate DirecTV breach- of-contract suit against Pegasus stemming from a marketing agreement that was scrapped in 2001 is scheduled for trial March 23. DirecTV is seeking $60 million it claims it’s owed by Pegasus.
Country of origin cases
In a high-definition presentation at the winter TV media tour Wed., HDNet founder Mark Cuban told critics that consumers’ appetite for high-definition programming was on the rise. Calling HD the future of television, he said the biggest misconception was that it was necessary to buy an expensive, large-screen TV to enjoy the benefits. Cuban said: “HD sets have followed the same price point curve that we saw in personal computers. This year, you will be able to buy a smaller screen HD set for $500; you can now get a 50’ screen for under $1,500. And the more people see of HD, the more they will want.” Cuban said Turner’s announced plan to start a high-definition TNT channel as a separate service in 2004 was evidence the TV landscape would become increasingly competitive on the HD front. But he noted that HD channels such as his own HDNet already were producing original HD programming and thus were in a better position to take advantage of HD penetration than were established cable and broadcast networks. “Most of the programming made up to now has been shot on tape or 35 mm film,” he said. “While you can upgrade film, tape will look like crap on a high- definition network. Even film doesn’t have the same depth of field. So you need original programming.” Cuban also said cable networks were hampered by carriage deals with MSOs: “Companies like Time-Warner or Comcast are not going to pay extra fees for the same content just because it’s being broadcast on a HD channel. So for Turner, HD is not a revenue stream but a cost investment.” While sports, nature programs and live performances have been the mainstays of HD programming, Cuban said he believed the next logical application was news, which was why HDNet had developed the world’s first shippable satellite uplink for HD. He said: “Instead of a talking head sitting in front of a few blurry pictures, now we can let the pictures tell a better story so viewers will be better able to decide for themselves.”
HD Radio developer IBiquity finished the year with 300 stations “licensed and in the process of going on the air” in 100 markets, and was “arguably ahead of expectation” from a year ago, when only 250 stations were foreseen, CEO Robert Struble said in a pre-CES interview. By the end of 2004, he said, 600-650 stations are expected to be on the air with HD Radio, representing 75% coverage of the U.S. radio population. As a result of the midyear change to a new codec after AM audio artifacts were found in its original PAC algorithm, iBiquity’s consumer launch is 3-6 months behind schedule, Struble said. Although he conceded the abrupt change to a new codec was “a headline-making event” in 2003, “all things considered, it came out quite well,” resulting in better audio quality. Struble said he hoped that “the fruits of our labor” would come to bear in a successful consumer launch in 2004, beginning at CES with the formal introduction of aftermarket radios by JVC and Panasonic, in addition to Kenwood, followed later in the year by additional receiver partners “diving in the pool.” He also said CES would be the showcase for the first HD Radio multichannel audio demonstrations and there would be “exciting” demonstrations of the “services” capabilities the technology ultimately would offer, including traffic reporting.
National telecom regulators must ignore national laws that prevent them from implementing European Union (EU) directives properly, a European Commission (EC) panel ruled Mon. The Article 7 Task Force was reviewing decisions by Finland’s regulator, FICORA, on market definition, findings of significant market power (SMP) and remedies imposed on SMP operators in the market for voice call termination on individual mobile networks. On the basis of its market analysis, FICORA proposed to designate 4 mobile network operators as having SMP, but to impose all antimonopoly obligations available under national law -- such as interconnection, publishing tariff information and using nondiscriminatory pricing -- on only 3 of them. FICORA intended to subject the 4th operator, Alands Mobiltelefon Ab, to less-restrictive obligations. But the EC said FICORA’s proposed remedies contravened the Communications Framework Decision because they were limited to the termination of voice calls originating on a fixed network in Finland. Because the problem identified by FICORA in the market for voice call termination on individual mobile networks is that several players have SMP regardless of the network on which the terminated traffic originates, the remedies shouldn’t be limited on the basis of the originating network, the EC said. Moreover, it said, the regulator’s remedies are not proportionate or justified under the Framework Decision and discriminate between fixed and mobile telephone networks. Finally, the task force said, the Access Directive guarantees undertakings providing e-communications networks or services the right to negotiate interconnection with and, where applicable, obtain access to or interconnection from other providers of publicly available communications networks. FICORA’s proposed measures deny that right to operators of fixed networks in Finland, the EC said. The panel also faulted FICORA for failing to impose the same remedies on Alands as on the other SMP operators and for not specifying how it would assess the telcos’s cost-accounting procedures. Referring to case law of the European Court of Justice, the EC said, “the primacy of Community law requires any provision of national law which contravenes a Community rule to be disapplied, regardless of whether it was adopted before or after that rule.” The duty to ignore national laws applies not only to courts but also to organs of the state such as telecom regulators, the EC said. The Commission doesn’t have the power to revoke FICORA’s remedies directly but can do so through an infringement procedure, which it said it would do, the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) said. ECTA called the EC’s point about a regulator’s responsibility “very significant.” “Regardless of what occurs during an infringement proceeding process, national courts have an obligation to protect parties from a failure of a national administrative body, including a regulator, to apply EC law correctly.” In fact, one attorney said, failing to implement directives properly could leave national regulatory authorities (NRAs) open to claims from parties damaged by their decisions. The task force’s decision also will serve as a precedent for Germany’s NRA, ECTA Managing Dir. Roger Wilson said. “The conditions of supply and demand are the same for mobile terminations everywhere,” Wilson said.
Tandberg TV said it was providing digital compression, control and monitoring equipment to Intelsat under a new agreement, terms not disclosed. The equipment -- both standard and high definition -- will be used with Intelsat’s hybrid satellite and fiber network that connects 7 sites between the U.S. and Europe. Tandberg said it also would provide integration services under the agreement that originally encompassed only 5 sites.
The FCC called for comments on a petition asking the agency to prohibit exclusive inmate calling service arrangements and collect-call-only restrictions at privately administered prisons. The petition was filed by current or former inmates in facilities operated by the Corrections Corp. of America, their family members and legal counsels. It asked the FCC to require such facilities to let multiple long distance carriers provide service. “Petitioners support the… petition with evidence that it is technically feasible to provide such interconnection and provide for all necessary security and other… needs” of penal institutions, the Commission said. The agency said in a notice late last week it would consider the petition an ex parte filing in a continuing examination of inmate payphone service. The comments are due 20 days after the FCC’s notice is published in the Federal Register, with replies due 10 days later. The petitioners originally filed suit in U.S. Dist. Court, D.C., but the court referred the case to the FCC. The petition filed with the FCC Oct. 31 said: “Prison inmates generally pay some of the highest long distance rates in the country, the result of the exclusive service agreements that prison administrators typically enter into with telecommunications carriers for inmate calling services… Prison officials assert that multiple telephone service providers would jeopardize prison security and antifraud measures and undermine other penological goals. These exclusive arrangements, however, preclude effective competition for inmate calling services and result in excessive calling rates.” The petition argued that “it is technologically and economically feasible to permit prison inmates to choose among multiple carriers, consistent with all legitimate security and other penological concerns.” It recommended that the FCC establish a benchmark “access fee” that the prison phone system would charge a long distance provider selected by the inmate. Inmate service providers also should be required to offer debit card or debit account service as an alternative to collect calling, the petition said. Prison administrators generally award service by accepting bids from multiple service providers and selecting one, often the provider “that offers the highest commission rates, often exceeding 45 percent and sometimes more than 60 percent of gross revenues,” the petitioners said -- CC Doc. 96-128.
The FCC asked for comments by March 1 on a petition by Level 3 seeking forbearance from access charges on “voice- embedded IP communications.” The FCC said the Dec. 23 petition asked for forbearance of rules that might be interpreted as permitting LECs to impose access charges on IP traffic “that originates or terminates on the public switched telephone network (PSTN).” The agency said Level 3 had argued “that grant of this forbearance request while the Commission completes its reform of intercarrier compensation will allow IP communications that embed voice applications (voice-embedded IP) to develop with the cleanest regulatory slate possible.” Replies are due March 31 -- WC Doc. 03-266.
AstroVision International (AVI) said it had reinstated a contract with Ball Aerospace & Technology for its 2-bird commercial land remote sensing system in geostationary orbit. AVI’s original launch milestones were Sept. 2003 and Dec. 2004. However, AVI asked the FCC for a 48-month extension of construction and launch milestones after it agreed to suspend its construction contract with Ball to “modify construction and payment milestones under the construction contract.” AVI said both companies still were holding “additional discussions regarding certain provisions of the agreement, including delivery dates and payment schedules,” but modifications wouldn’t result in further delays.
“Is Free TV Worth Saving in a 500-Channel World?” is a question that will be put before attendees during the Jan. 18-20 NATPE programming conference at the Venetian Hotel and Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas. Other sessions include “Loose Cannons: They Say What They Mean and Mean What They Say,” how electronic media have taken over political campaigns, “Challenging the Boundaries of Acceptable Content,” plus 2 panels on the impact of new technologies such as video-on-demand (VoD).
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) said it awarded 4 multiyear contracts to 6 companies for the equipment needed to support the Global Information Grid- Bandwidth Expansion (GIG-BE) project. “Indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity” contracts went to Ciena for the optical transport system equipment, Sprint and Sycamore for the optical digital cross-connects, Juniper Networks for the Internet protocol routers and Qwest and Cisco for the multiservice provisioning platforms. Sprint, Qwest, Ciena and Juniper will be the primary subcontractors to Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), with Sycamore and Cisco subcontracting Sprint and Qwest respectively. DISA, which was on schedule with the award, said it received more than 55 proposals across the 4 equipment areas.