WorldCom filed opposition at FCC to challenge by United Church of Christ (UCC) to company’s transfer of licenses from its pre-bankruptcy entity to its new debtor-in-possession unit. UCC’s petition for reconsideration, filed with FCC Wireless Bureau this month, was follow-up to challenge last year that Bureau rejected in Dec. In original filing, UCC urged Commission to block WorldCom’s request to transfer licenses and authorizations, saying company wasn’t qualified to hold them because of false reports to SEC, contrary to character standards of Communications Act. Bureau turned down that objection, saying that assignment of licenses simply marked change of status in which licensee held licenses. WorldCom also urged Bureau to reject latest challenge, arguing it didn’t provide new information. “In addition, it is entirely unclear whether UCC’s pleading even presents a facially plausible for reconsideration or clarification,” WorldCom said. It also took exception to UCC request that FCC consider character issues at next opportunity.
Country of origin cases
In response to new advice late Tues. by Office of Govt. Ethics (OGE), NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory plans to report as gift contributions that industry lobbyists made to Oct. 2001 party for her, officials said. Her plan to report what hosts paid for party as gift represents change from earlier this week (CD Jan 22 p1). After AP reported party, hosted at her Great Falls, Va., home by 6 lobbyists she counts as personal friends, Victory said Commerce Dept.’s Ethics Office had ruled “benefit” didn’t qualify as reportable gift. Commerce Dept. spokeswoman said Wed. that OGE subsequently asked department to re-interpret calculation used to make original assessment whether gift had to be reported. Based on that math, Victory now will report party as gift in amendment to her financial disclosure form for 2001, spokeswoman said. Gen. Counsel’s office at Commerce Dept. initially had interpreted federal ethics standards based on Victory’s portion of party, spokeswoman said. What has changed in latest calculation is that she had suggested list of some people to be invited to party, spokeswoman said. Dollar threshold for what had to be reported as acceptable gifts in 2001 was $260 under federal guidelines, officials said Tues. “The pro rata shares of the invitees moves that above the $260 limit,” spokeswoman said. Original ruling examined only Victory’s share of party costs, spokeswoman said. Updated advice late Tues. from OGE came after Victory asked Gen. Counsel’s office to take another look at how it reached conclusion on whether gift had to be reported. “What she had done at the beginning was exactly what she was supposed to do,” spokeswoman said, noting that she had asked Gen. Counsel’s office to vet party in advance: “A few days ago she asked them to take a look at it again.” Hosts of party listed on invitation were lobbyists for Cingular, CTIA, Motorola, SBC and partner at Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Motorola Vp Richard Barth, not his company, was co-host of party, spokesman said. “It was his initiative motivated by personal friendship,” Motorola spokesman said. “He has said he doesn’t remember if he later got reimbursed for it.”
NBC News Channel signed long-term agreement with Teletrax to watermark its news video in order to track usage of its content by local TV stations and other clients. Announcement was made at NATPE. Teletrax video tracking allows video content owners to monitor broadcast usage of their material electronically for proof of performance and copyright protection and to respond to market demand. Technology isn’t being used now to monitor streaming content or other Internet applications, said spokeswoman for Medialink Worldwide, which offers Teletrax. However, she didn’t rule out that technology could be used that way in future. Company hasn’t approached Broadcast Protection Discussion Group on possibly using Teletrax technology as broadcast flag, she said, but she didn’t rule it out as possibility. Company said service also was being tested by European Bcstg. Union and other major news and entertainment program providers. Under agreement, Teletrax will provide NBC News Channel with monitoring of more than 100 stations in 85 U.S. markets to provide detailed tracking and analysis. NBC News Channel also will use Teletrax to track usage of its material in Europe. Using Teletrax, owners of video content encode, or “embed,” invisible digital watermark into their material whenever it’s edited, broadcast or duplicated. Network of decoders, or “detectors,” then captures all incidents of embedded video being broadcast via satellite, cable or terrestrially and generates tracking reports for original content owners. System provides proof of performance reports and alerts copyright owners to any violations. NBC News Channel is unit of NBC News that’s managed under cooperative agreement with NBC affiliates and provides live and taped news stories to NBC affiliates, MSNBC, CNBC, foreign broadcasters, other news organizations.
HOLLYWOOD -- Biggest lesson to be learned from spate of successful nonscripted shows introduced during summer in last several years is that broadcasters need to buck long-standing tradition of relying on Sept. rollouts, Fox TV Entertainment Group Chmn. Sandy Grushow said at TV critics session here. “I think the problem is everybody is constrained by the conventions that exist in the television business.”
NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory said through spokesman Tues. that lobbyists who hosted party at her home in Oct. 2001 were “long-time personal friends” who paid for event out of their own pockets. Victory vetted party plans through Office of Gen. Counsel at Commerce Dept., which cleared “benefit” as gift that didn’t need to be reported, spokesman said. Several sources familiar with federal govt. ethics guidelines said that in virtually all instances, gifts involving corporate money must be reported.
BellSouth (BS) urged N. American Numbering Council (NANC) to continue reviewing effect of voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology on numbering process, saying it was concerned that issue might be dropped. BellSouth said Tues. that issue was too important to be subject to industry battle and urged various segments to work for “consensus.” Issue, which is on agenda of NANC’s meeting today (Wed.), has been marked by disagreements, with group of Bell companies on one side and AT&T, WorldCom and several others on other. BS, Qwest and Verizon brought controversy to head by submitting paper in Nov. (CD Nov 20 p1) that asked NANC to consider whether VoIP conflicted with current numbering system. Issue then moved to workshop sponsored by Industry Numbering Committee earlier this month (CD Jan 14 p6). At that meeting, AT&T submitted paper questioning whether VoIP numbering issues were “much ado about nothing” and recommending against any changes in current guidelines. “Potential issues should be identified and examined,” said Randy Sanders, BellSouth dir.-regulatory & external affairs. He said BS hadn’t made any specific recommendations but believed NANC should address issue because it could have effect on number conservation measures. AT&T technology consultant Penn Pfautz said issues raised by White Paper prepared by BellSouth and others didn’t appear to be specifically related to VoIP and “we just felt there wasn’t that much there.” For example, he said, one of key issues involved fact that VoIP calls sometimes originated outside of area code identified with VoIP phone numbers. However, that situation already occurs with wireless calling, he said. “We don’t object to looking at [VoIP issue] but we don’t see any beef there,” Pfautz said. Most importantly, he said, “we want to counteract the view that VoIP is somehow a threat to the numbering system.” He said there was only one area that AT&T might like to see discussed further and that’s whether end users had right to port numbers that their VoIP provider had obtained from another carrier. Even there, if there’s problem, “we think it can be fixed,” he said. Schedule for today’s NANC meeting includes presentation by VoIP provider Vonage, after which further discussion of issue probably will arise, parties said.
HOLLYWOOD -- While nonscripted fare is taking over many time slots on broadcasters’ schedules, dramas and comedies are flourishing on cable, leading to what production executives told TV critics here was cable creative renaissance. Russ Krassnoff, pres.-programming for Sony Pictures TV, said cable networks were “hitting the bar where they can actually afford to produce original programming.”
FCC’s latest rulemaking on EEO rules has exposed large rift over how part-time positions in broadcasting and cable should be treated. In documents filed at FCC’s comment deadline Thurs., it wasn’t even clear how many people issue affected, since NAB said there was “apparently low prevalence” of part-time jobs in industry, while National Organization for Women (NOW) said part-time positions constituted “a significant portion of the total work force in the broadcast industry.” FCC defines part-time as fewer than 30 hours per week.
ITU Study Group is to meet for first time today (Tues.) in Geneva to hash out ultra-wideband (UWB) policy issues, including definitions and operational and technical characteristics. In flurry of last-min. contributions last week, Canada and several European countries submitted proposals, some of which used emissions limits in FCC’s Feb. 14 UWB order as starting point. In other cases, companies such as Ericsson, Nortel and Qualcomm submitted similar data on interference concerns as they had been teed up at Commission.
Bayonne, N.J., is “far superior site” for new 2,000 ft. transmission tower for 9 N.Y. TV stations, Metropolitan TV Alliance (MTVA) has concluded after “an extensive and exhaustive search” of all possible locations in N.Y.C. and northern N.J. Disclosure came in 16-page response to 14 questions raised on environmental impact of tower and benefits to state by Bradley Campbell, comr. of N.J. Dept. of Environmental Protection. Dept. is seeking comments, due Jan 24, on Bayonne proposal. FCC, FAA and other govt. bodies still must approve proposal, which MTVA said it hoped to have in time to start construction in June, with completion target of June 2005.