DirecTV’s deal with Current (CD Aug 16 p8) doesn’t raise major regulatory issues because of the broadband over power line provider’s business model, said a state regulator who was on the BPL Task Force of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Current pays the utility to get on its system and also pays pole attachment fees, said Public Utilities Commissioner Tony Clark of North Dakota. “To the extent that it is a separate company that is paying the utility company, I don’t know that it raises huge questions,” he told us.
Notable CROSS rulings
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is likely to hold off judgment on the changes made to incorporate Latino experiences in the upcoming Public Broadcasting Service documentary The War until it’s aired in September, a Hill source said. “We are in a holding pattern to see what it consists of when it comes out,” the source said. The 21- member group of lawmakers has been critical about the omission of Latino World War II veterans’ experiences in the Ken Burns documentary, even hinting that it would target public broadcasting funding. The caucus is unlikely to take an “official position” on the issue until after its airing, the source said. But some Latino groups said the Latino “war” against the documentary isn’t over. The groups include Defend the Honor campaign, Hispanic War Veterans of America, National Hispanic Media Coalition and the League of United Latin American Citizens. They asked Burns to meet with Latino representatives to explain in detail the changes made to the series and how he plans to include Latinos in future projects. The groups also urged PBS to explain measures it has taken to ensure such “gross exclusion” of Latinos doesn’t occur in current and future programming. They said Burns met with two Latino groups at the urging of a corporate sponsor in early May and said he would include interviews with some Latino veterans. But the filmmaker didn’t offer details, they said. “Ken Burns cannot choose to make a secret deal with only two of the many Latino groups… and then claim that the matter is resolved,” said Marta Garcia of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Since the issue was first raised earlier this year, PBS and Burns have “met and corresponded with a range of organizations from the Latino community, we have listened to their concerns about The War and we have addressed those concerns,” said a spokeswoman. PBS also met with a “broad cross-section” of Latino leaders in July and provided an update on steps under way to “ensure that PBS continues to build upon our track record of inclusion in programming, in front of and behind the camera, as well as in staffing at PBS and in the system as a whole,” she added. Meanwhile, PBS is giving stations an edited version of the documentary so those concerned about running afoul of the FCC’s indecency rules will have another option. The War contains only four instances of coarse language over the 15- hour series, the spokeswoman said. The FCC’s “vague and inconsistent treatment” of indecency is causing some stations to be wary of airing the documentary, said the American Civil Liberties Union. “To impede the First Amendment rights of those who fought and died for those very rights is reprehensible,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of ACLU’s Washington legislative office. Public broadcasters shouldn’t be afraid to air an “educational and fact-based” documentary because of a few profanities, she said. “This clearly settles any question about the chilling effect of the FCC’s vague and contradictory indecency regime.”
Laggard FCC movement on media ownership liberalization could have goaded Hearst Corp. to take Hearst-Argyle private, Deutsche Bank analyst James Dix said. Hearst CEO Victor Ganzi, in a letter to Hearst-Argyle’s board, cited the utility of Hearst-Argyle’s public shares to finance acquisitions such as its purchase of the Pulitzer stations. But recent Hearst-Argyle deals have focused more on creating duopolies in markets where it already owns a station, rather than expanding its national footprint, and Hearst may see less value in those shares as currency unless the FCC loosens rules on duopolies, Dix said. “Hearst has this public stock as a currency and they haven’t done any deals lately, in part because the rules haven’t allowed them to do any deals,” he said. This decision could be seen as a “tacit recognition that there wasn’t going to be anything on ownership any time soon,” he said.
GENEVA -- The growing dominance of IP-based networks means that the agenda will expand for the upcoming Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conference in Korea, officials said. In addition to basic Internet issues, Internet traffic exchange, World Trade Organization agreements on electronic products and identity management will be aired.
More than 30 unions, public interest groups and opponents of broadcast consolidation want members to attend a Sept. 20 FCC media ownership field hearing in Chicago (CD July 20 p13). Public testimony at this fifth of six such hearings will touch on Tribune’s request that the FCC waive cross-ownership rules so it can keep the Chicago Tribune, WGN-TV and WGN(AM) after the company’s acquisition. The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America, trying to boost attendance, said Tribune’s holdings show why the FCC should ban cross-ownership. The Radio-Television Broadcast Engineers Union also is asking members to attend, along with Common Cause, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and others.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Taking his 700-MHz band auction show on the road, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin passionately defended the Commission’s adoption of open access requirements as helping consumers and innovation. Speaking at a North Carolina Chamber of Commerce lunch Thursday, he predicted the rules will lead to greater competition in wireless communication.
Approval of the News Corp.-Dow Jones merger is no “slam dunk,” FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said in a written statement. The two companies agreed on terms for News Corp. to take over Dow Jones for $5.6 billion. The FCC “should immediately conduct a careful factual and legal analysis of the transaction to determine how it implicates specific FCC rules and our overarching statutory obligation to protect the public interest,” Copps said. The FCC lacks authority to review Dow Jones’ takeover because the company has no broadcast licenses, said Newspaper Association of America President John Sturm. Broadcast lawyers have made similar comments, noting that national newspapers are exempt from FCC cross-ownership rules (CD July 19 p9). “The FCC is not the Federal Newspaper Commission,” said Sturm. “And no one has suggested there are any antitrust concerns” for other agencies such as the Justice Department to look into. The deal includes a stub option under which up to 250 shareholders with 10 percent of Dow Jones’ shares can keep stakes in the new company.
The FCC’s year-long media ownership review is gaining momentum with the public unveiling of 10 economic studies, after many were delayed, as well as the imminent release of a rulemaking notice on minority ownership (CD July 30 p1), said FCC and industry sources. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seems poised to circulate a final report and order dealing with most or all aspects of media ownership limits by the end of the first quarter, said an FCC official. A second official said the chairman wants to wrap up public comments on all aspects of the review by year’s end, which could bode well for a final order to circulate on the eighth floor in Q1.
The FCC adopted rules for the 700 MHz band Tuesday, allowing for some open access requirements on 22 MHz of spectrum and creating a 10 MHz nationwide block for a public- private partnership to build a nationwide interoperable wireless broadband network for public safety use. The commission declined to require a wholesale requirement. The commission voted 5-0, but with FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell dissenting in part. In addition, all of the commissioners except FCC Chairman Kevin Martin concurred on various parts of it.
Advocacy and public interest groups are looking for ways to stymie a possible takeover of Dow Jones by News Corp., even though the transaction presents no obvious avenues, source said. “We've been asked by lots of people to look into it and we think there may be some issues to raise at the commission,” said Media Access Project (MAP) President Andrew Schwartzman. “We're confident there is a basis to pursue things at the FCC. We're being asked to do it and we're giving due consideration to it.” It is unclear if the FCC has jurisdiction, since the deal would not require transfer of broadcast licenses (CD May 3 p5).