The FCC reduced a $17,000 fine on Cornbelt Bcstg. Co., Clinton, Ill., to $1,000. The company, which owns WHOW(AM) and WHOW(AM), originally was found liable for failing to have an operational Emergency Alert System decoder, failing to post the antenna structure registration number and not properly enclosing its antenna structure. The FCC said it reduced the fine because Cornbelt was in financial trouble and didn’t have the ability to pay. In another case, the FCC reduced a $10,000 fine on Richard Munoz of Naples, Fla., to $2,000. It said Munoz had been running an illegal radio station out of the Tree of Life Church in Naples. The agency said it reduced the fine based on his inability to pay.
Country of origin cases
The U.S. military is “actively restricting independent newsgathering from southern Iraq,” European Bcstg. Union Secy. Gen. Jean Stock said. He said the U.S. was detaining some reporters and forcing them to return to Kuwait, and the actions particularly were aimed at reporters from countries that didn’t join the U.S. coalition. The EBU originally supported “embedding” reporters with military units, but said it now had come to mean that only a few European reporters could report from the war front, forcing others to try to report independently from Iraq. Tony Naets, head of the EBU’s news operation, said the EBU had information that journalists could operate safely in parts of Iraq, “so we do not understand why the military is putting up so many obstacles in the path of journalists.”
Full and “expeditious” approval of the FCC rulemaking encompassing the “plug-and-play” agreement on cable-CE interoperability (CD Dec 20 p1) was urged in joint comments filed at the Commission by the CEA and Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition (CERC). Others, including broadcasters and the MPAA, disagreed.
Cable piracy bills being floated in some states are being seen by some critics as a way to infringe on the freedom of people’s use of the Internet. Newly aroused critics said they hadn’t picked up on the state activity because it was billed as a cable-theft measure, because they were focused on Washington as the forum for copyright-law activity and because they lacked the resources and single- minded focus of MPAA. Legislative proceedings received little publicity because the measures were considered routine, Stevenson said.
At the request of NAB and MSTV, the FCC pushed back the comment and reply deadlines on the agency’s 2nd periodic review of rules and policies on DTV. They asked for extensions because the MSTV board is meeting soon and they wanted time to consult with it before completing their comments (CD March 26 p11). The original deadlines were April 14 for comments, May 14 for replies. The FCC said it would extend the deadlines to April 21 and May 21, respectively, “in the interest of compiling a complete record.”
A day after the Justice Dept. signed a consent decree with Univision that would allow the company to acquire Hispanic Bcstg. Corp. (HBC) (CD March 27 p12), an attorney for Univision said that in the settlement talks, “both sides gave up some things.” Attorney James Rill wasn’t specific but said both sides had moved from their original positions. Under the agreement, Univision will have to divest a considerable portion of its holdings in Entravision. Rill said he didn’t anticipate any problems at the FCC, which also must approve the deal.
Banks Bcstg. reiterated arguments at the FCC that it should receive a waiver allowing it to receive 4 Boise, Ida., licenses it says it should have won in the lower 700 MHz auction after Vulcan Spectrum withdrew subsequent higher bids. An auction of 256 licenses in the lower 700 MHz band C- and D-blocks now is set for May 28. The bidding will include 251 licenses that remained unsold in a lower 700 MHz auction that closed Sept. 18. Banks last fall petitioned the bureau for a waiver, saying it was the most effective way to “achieve fairness” for the company, which was a very small business bidder. The company provided the Commission with information that it said showed it would have been the high bidder for the licenses. In a follow-up filing last week, Banks said the FCC had indicated that re-auction was a possible alternative because Banks simply could acquire the licenses in the May 28 bidding. “Given that Banks would clearly have been the high bidder in Auction 44 and given that there would be uncertainty in any re-auction, we did not believe that this was a fair alternative or one that as effectively served the Commission’s goal of putting licenses in the hands of those who valued them most at the time of the original auction,” Banks said. The company said issue had been “mooted” because the FCC decided that the May 28 auction would be open to all bidders, not just those eligible to participate in the original auction. “In light of this eligibility decision, a re-auction of the Boise licenses can no longer even arguably be considered a fair redress for the wrong that deprived Banks of these licenses in the original auction,” the company said.
CANNES, France -- “There has been a shift in Europe away from U.S. television products,” said Markus Tellenbach, CEO of Luxembourg-based SBS Bcstg. At the MILIA convention here, he said that had opened the door for local production, but there was an urgency to generate “fresh, original formats.” SBS executives offered people from outside the established TV community a forum in which to develop their ideas, he said: “We need to embrace ideas that are out there.”
The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) is querying federal agencies as to what spectrum they use in an effort to assess which frequency bands will be moving to the new department, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spokesman said. FEMA is one of 22 agencies that make up DHS and is conducting the inventory on behalf of the department. While some agencies have been concerned that they may have to give up spectrum under the auspices of DHS, the spokesman described the exercise as the creation of a “knowledge base” of who has which frequencies.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) told the National Telecom Coop Assn. (NTCA) Tues. he didn’t believe the FCC had the legal authority to assess universal service fees on cable modem and satellite Internet providers. Stevens said the Universal Service Fund (USF) eventually could become insolvent unless more funds were put in the system or unless spending became more targeted. “The end of this fund is coming unless we find a way to get funds into it,” Stevens said: “Long distance is the primary contributor to the fund. It’s also the industry that’s in the most trouble.”