LOS ANGELES -- ABC executives at the TV critics here promised to curb their over-reliance on reality shows. ABC Entertainment Group Chmn. Lloyd Braun said: “We did learn lessons. The biggest was that reality is subject to the same laws as other types of programming. Good shows last, bad shows fail… We also learned a lot about sticking to strategy and not getting greedy. We have promised to be militant about exercising restraint and not rush into reality as a quick fix. Because the days when you could put in any reality show and get good ratings are over.”
Country of origin cases
The FCC’s International and Wireless bureaus concluded NextWave had met regulatory conditions on its C-block licenses on foreign ownership requirements. The conditions required NextWave to either restructure and bring its indirect foreign ownership in line with the 25% benchmark of the Communications Act or demonstrate that it would be in the public interest to exceed that mark. The bureaus’ clearance on the foreign ownership question appeared to be the last regulatory hurdle that NextWave had faced at the FCC on its licenses. Sec. 310(b) of the Act set a 25% benchmark for indirect investment by a foreign entity in a common carrier radio license, but gave the FCC discretion to allow higher ownership stakes if they were deemed in line with the public interest. Based on NextWave’s original 1997 petition for a temporary waiver of its restructuring options under the foreign ownership limits, the FCC held that NextWave’s indirect foreign ownership complied with the Commission’s foreign participation order. At that time, it said NextWave’s level of foreign equity share ownership was less than 27%, and more than 95% of its total equity ownership could be traced to U.S. citizens and citizens of other World Trade Organization countries. “We find no basis to attribute to NTI [NextWave] a level of foreign voting interests that is higher than the level of attributable foreign equity,” the Commission said. In a letter to the FCC in May 2003, NextWave said its Series A stock, which represents legal and actual control of the carrier, was held by U.S. citizens or companies, with a “de minimis” share owned by foreigners. The FCC also concluded that NextWave’s current level of indirect foreign equity and voting interests fell below the 25% benchmark for foreign ownership. It said NextWave’s ownership was divided, with 80.9% of issued and outstanding shares held by domestic interests, 14.5% by foreign individuals or companies and 4.6% by U.S. brokerage houses on behalf of individuals or firms whose citizenship wasn’t known to NextWave. “NextWave appreciates the attention the Commission and its staff have given to this matter in recent months, and we're glad that it’s now put to rest,” a company spokesman said. Petitions previously filed by AT&T Wireless, Verizon and VoiceStream questioned NextWave’s foreign ownership status, but the carriers later rescinded those filings. Questions also were raised in 1997 when 2 failed C- block bidders, Antigone Communications and PCS Devco, asked the FCC to dismiss NextWave’s conditional license approval based on alleged violations of foreign ownership limits. Before the FCC had taken final action on that petition, the agency cancelled NextWave’s licenses for nonpayment. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year upheld a U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling that had held that the FCC had erred in cancelling the licenses.
At a hearing last Wed. House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) said he would like to move antispam legislation out of his committee this week, and Hill sources suggested that could very well happen. We're told Thurs. is the tentative date for what would be a full committee markup of HR-2214 by Rep. Burr (R-N.C.). Tauzin also said anything the committee approved needed to address wireless spam as well. What was unclear was the extent to which negotiations to incorporate provisions of HR-2515 by Rep. Wilson (R-N.M.) with HR-2214 will have taken root. Neither bill currently addresses wireless spam.
The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed this week’s hearing on the WorldCom/MCI bankruptcy. Originally scheduled for Tues., the hearing titled “The WorldCom Case: Looking at Bankruptcy and Competition Issues” has been moved to July 22, 10 a.m., Rm. 226, Dirksen Bldg.
LOS ANGELES -- Video-on-demand (VoD) technology is the key to pay cable’s continued success, Showtime Chmn. Matthew Blank told the TV critics tour here. “I think bullish is too soft a word” for the network’s approach to on demand services, he said: “We think that subscription video-on- demand [SVoD], along with high definition, are what help maintain the premium in premium television and keep us competitive and, in some ways, keep us ahead of the marketplace as the technology changes. I think that on the original programming front there’s tremendous opportunity in SVoD.”
The European Commission (EC) said it had widened its investigation into 138.3 million euros in govt.-guaranteed loans to German MobilCom. The German govt. has told the Commission it planned to extend its guarantees as the company “probably” would be able to repay the loans in 2007, rather than Sept. 2003 and May 2004, when they originally were due. It said that without extending the guarantees “it would not be possible to extend the loans.” However, the Commission said it had “doubts whether an extension of the guarantees… [was] compatible with the common market.” It said MobilCom could start repaying the loans by selling assets. It also said there was a “realistic possibility” of replacing the state-guaranteed loans with different sources of financing. The Commission said it would investigate whether the state guarantees were “indispensable to the successful restructuring of the company, and if so for how long.” It said it also would examine whether the proposed compensatory measures were “enough to avoid undue distortion of competition.” The EC earlier this year approved a 50-million euro loan to MobilCom, but deepened its probe into additional 112 million euros the German govt. promised to the company (CD Jan 22 p9). The Commission then expressed concerns that the guarantee on the 2nd loan constituted rescue aid “indispensable… to keep the company in business pending its restructuring.” As a result, only 88.3 million euros of the 112 million euro loan were used.
In the FCC’s 3rd report and order on multichannel video distribution & data services (MVDDS) in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band, the Commission said it would allow MVDDS providers to use designated market areas (DMAs) to define service areas instead of component economic areas (CEAs). “DMAs may allow MVDDS licensees to compete more vigorously with cable systems who generally have a royalty-free statutory copyright license to retransmit local TV programming within the DMA of the station being rebroadcast,” the Commission said. The order also established a 5-year build-out period, a reduction from the original 10-year period. A shorter build-out will reduce spectrum warehousing and decrease deployment time for the services, the Commission said.
E911 legislation (S-1250) could be marked up as early as July 17, Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R- Mont.) told reporters after addressing the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) meeting Wed. The bill, co- sponsored by Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.), would require location technology for cellphone calls and would prevent states from taking money from E-911 funds for other purposes. Burns and Clinton are co-chmn. of the Congressional E-911 Caucus. At the WCA, Burns said the original 911 legislation, and the current E911 bill, “will have as much impact on public safety as any legislation ever passed.” He emphasized that govt. should “set policy, not the standards.” Burns also said all public safety communications equipment should be interoperable. It’s important, he said, to fund R&D in educational institutions, especially smaller colleges, since great ideas often don’t come from prestigious tech schools, but “out of the garage.”
The FCC’s Technological Advisory Council (TAC) wrestled Mon. with how to measure spectrum interference and noise, with officials stressing that solutions were key to some of the next steps laid out in last fall’s Spectrum Policy Task Force report. Among the questions raised at an all-day TAC meeting were how broad a measurement program should be, whether it should be run by a govt. agency or the private sector and who would pay for the monitoring.
FiberSat Global Services began its satellite-fed channel called S Networks, the company said. The network will originate its video programming from PanAmSat’s Galaxy 9 satellite at 127 degrees W, as well as provide satellite uplink capabilities to the bird, FiberSat said.