Notable CROSS rulings

Public interest groups asked for a deadline extension to file applications for review on the FCC Media Bureau’s approval of license renewals for Fox stations WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, and WNYW-TV New York. The bureau granted the license renewals and a temporary waiver of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules to allow Fox to own both the stations and the New York Post (CD Aug 11 p14). United Church of Christ, Free Press, Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Voices for New Jersey would like until Oct. 8, instead of Sept. 8, to submit an application for review, they said Tuesday in a motion for extension of time (http://bit.ly/1pMHCY4). The groups each have separate counsel, “all of whom are currently working on several commission matters due on or around September 8,” it said. Also, counsel had previously scheduled vacations in August, and they don’t have the resources available to meet an early September deadline, it said.

The FCC Media Bureau granted a reconsideration petition by Synergy Project for an application for a new low-power FM construction permit. The bureau previously dismissed the application for an LPFM permit in Richmond, Virginia, the bureau said in a letter to an attorney for Synergy (http://bit.ly/1sRpFZB). The bureau granted the petition on the condition that Synergy dismisses its application for review for a noncommercial educational station at Montpelier, Virginia, it said. The FCC decided grant of both the LPFM application and the NCE application would violate the commission’s cross-ownership rule, it said. The bureau found that it hasn’t provided the requisite “explicit notice” for dismissing applications based on application defects, it said.

The FCC Media Bureau approved a temporary waiver of newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership (NBCO) rules and the license renewal application for Fox’s WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, over objections from public interest groups, said an order Friday (http://bit.ly/1uwy44J). The NBCO waiver is necessary to allow Fox to own both the station and the New York Post, the order said. In several petitions to deny and objections to the waiver and WWOR’s renewal, Free Press, United Church of Christ and Voice for New Jersey said WWOR had not fulfilled its obligation to serve northern New Jersey, the order said. Public interest groups had also accused Fox of misrepresenting how much northern New Jersey news and content the station was broadcasting (CD Feb 18/11 p6). The bureau concluded that any misrepresentations were “unintentional and harmless errors.” “Whether the station might have selected different stories to cover or presented its stories using different formats is not a part of our review,” said the order. “It is well-settled law that the Commission does not substitute its own editorial judgment for that of a licensee.” The bureau’s decision “whitewashed Fox’s abject failure to meet the needs of Northern New Jersey,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who represented Voice for New Jersey in the matter. Fox’s NBCO waiver is temporary, pegged to the commission’s 2014 quadrennial review proceeding, the order said. Fox will have 90 days after the effective date of a 2014 quadrennial review order that either adopts a new NBCO rule or upholds the existing one to either come into compliance or request another waiver, the order said.

The FCC shouldn’t regulate broadcast ownership at all, commented CBS, NAB and 21st Century Fox in docket 14-50 on a rulemaking on proposed changes to ownership rules as part of the 2014 quadrennial review. Though the Further NPRM sought comment on specific ownership changes, such as relaxing the ban on newspaper/radio cross-ownership, Nexstar and other broadcasters said the competitive video market justified the relaxation of all such regulations. The FCC should “amend or, where necessary, remove ownership restrictions that apply solely to the broadcast industry,” said NAB (http://bit.ly/1nwY5eA). Public interest, labor and consumer groups argued against any rule relaxation. The FCC “must maintain existing media ownership rules to protect local market competition and prevent further media concentration,” said the Writers Guild of America, West (http://bit.ly/1kM3Qup).

Public Knowledge filed letters of complaint at the FCC Wednesday against the four national wireless carriers, charging they're violating the transparency provisions in the 2010 net neutrality rules. The provisions are the only ones that survived the January court ruling otherwise overturning the rules, PK said (http://bit.ly/1paPVh3). “If the FCC’s transparency rules mean anything, they must require carriers to let subscribers know why, when, and to what speed their connections might be throttled,” said PK Vice President Michael Weinberg. At this point, Sprint and Verizon subscribers “will not know if they are eligible for throttling until after they have crossed the usage threshold,” he said. “AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon subscribers will not know they will be throttled until they are actually connected to a congested cell site.” The complaint against T-Mobile said the carrier must end its practice of exempting speed test applications from network throttling. Last week, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler sent Verizon Wireless a letter asking about the carrier’s announcement it would slow data speeds on its LTE network starting in October, but only for the top 5 percent of data users on unlimited data plans (CD July 31 p1).

Journal Communications and E.W. Scripps will combine their broadcast operations into one company and spin off and merge their newspapers into another, they said. The all-stock transactions will result in Scripps owning 34 TV stations and 35 radio stations while newly created Journal Media Group will cover 14 markets with the combined newspaper properties, the companies said. Though there are no “market ownership conflicts” between the two companies according to Scripps CEO Rich Boehne, Journal has existing TV and radio duopolies in some markets and may brush up against FCC radio ownership limits in others. Though Boehne said the stations involved were “immaterial” to the deal, he said the companies would try to work with the FCC to hold on to them: “We hope we'll prevail and keep them all."

New European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s push for a single digital market is a good thing, said telecom and Internet industry officials in recent interviews. Although the composition of the incoming commission won’t be known for several months, Juncker said he intends, within the first six months of his term, to take “ambitious legislative steps” toward such a market. But it’s too soon to tell whether the newly elected European Parliament will play ball and what impact, if any, the changes to all three EU institutions -- Italy took over the EU presidency July 1 -- will have on policy, said stakeholders.

The FCC should relax or eliminate rules barring cross ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same market, said Aspen Institute President Walter Isaacson in a letter to the FCC (http://bit.ly/1s444ih) posted Friday in docket 14-50. The rule is out of date, and Internet news outlets “have undermined the economic viability of many newspapers,” said Isaacson. “It would seem that we should be encouraging, not forbidding, owners of broadcast outlets to buy or invest in newspapers.” Journalism benefits “from being able to combine print, video, and audio,” he said. “We need to do all we can to encourage investment in newspapers and improve the business models for local journalism.” Isaacson used to run Time Warner’s CNN and more recently wrote a biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

The British government will propose emergency legislation Monday to alter its data retention and communications intercept programs, according to a Thursday news release (http://bit.ly/1mSvsO8). The move is in response to a recent European Court of Justice ruling to eliminate the European Data Retention Directive, citing privacy and human rights issues, said Covington and Burling data protection lawyer Daniel Cooper. The ruling “left many unsure about the status of member state data retention rules,” he said by email Thursday night. Previously, the U.K. government had required telecom providers to retain data for 24 months. Its proposal Monday would implement a 12-month retention period, said Cooper. “Clearly, the government intends to plug that gap by passing similar provisions as a primary act of law.” Human Rights Watch (HRW) was angered by the tactic. “Given what we know about the UK’s involvement in mass surveillance, it is outrageous that the government wants to rush through emergency legislation that allows the government to monitor people not suspected of any wrongdoing,” said Izza Leghtas, Western Europe researcher with HRW. The civil rights advocate said the proposed legislation will expire in 2016. “A proper debate about how to reform surveillance powers is long overdue and it has to happen now, not in 2016,” Leghtas said. As part of its surveillance reforms, Cooper said the British government will propose to further restrict access to collected communications data, establish a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) similar to the American’s PCLOB and launch discussions with the U.S. government and Internet companies on cross-border data sharing. The British government also plans to start a review, to be completed by 2016, of its communications intercept law, he said. “Now, we will have to wait and see whether this legislation, when adopted, will be challenged as being incompatible with European privacy and human rights law."

Interconnection and peering are getting more FCC attention. Chairman Tom Wheeler told agency staff to start gathering information from ISPs and content providers on the extent of such agreements, he said at the agency’s open meeting Friday. “Consumers need to understand what is occurring when the Internet service they've paid for does not adequately deliver the content they desire.” Industry observers told us they aren’t at all surprised the agency is collecting information on the agreements, but some worry the move may portend future regulation.