The FCC is “very aware of its responsibility” to complete its media ownership quadrennial review, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake told House lawmakers Wednesday, pledging to make such recommendations by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s June 2016 deadline. Lake acknowledged the market evolution that the hearing’s panelists and witnesses described, but said the agency’s task is making “rules for the current state of evolution.”
Notable CROSS rulings
Paid peering and interconnection agreements, not necessarily something the FCC should be regulating, are ripe for agency examination, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said in an interview Tuesday. “I want to be careful here.” The FCC doesn’t need to look at “every single agreement,” he said. “But I am interested in learning more about how those agreements are structured, and learning how is that changing the marketplace?”
A media-brokers group wants the FCC to nix newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership limits on radio and TV, without changing broadcast-only ownership caps. “Allowing newspaper/broadcast combinations in today’s marketplace, where there are so many choices for reading, viewing and listening, can only strengthen local content and public service,” said a filing Friday in docket 14-50 by the National Association of Media Brokers (http://bit.ly/1j3kuOs). It said ending cross-ownership rules wouldn’t “generate a significant wave” of deals, and may lead to stations investing in papers in smaller markets. The association successfully backed waivers of foreign ownership caps of 25 percent on U.S. stations (CD May 2/13 p5).
With a small group of protesters camping outside at the FCC, Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai put out a statement Thursday urging FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to delay the May 15 vote on a net neutrality NPRM. Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on Wednesday also asked Wheeler to delay a vote (CD May 8 p23). An FCC spokesman said Wednesday the vote will take place as planned. “I have grave concerns about the Chairman’s proposal on Internet regulation and do not believe that it should be considered at the Commission’s May meeting,” Pai said (http://bit.ly/RrMzJh). “Instead, I believe that the Commission should focus for the next week on getting the rules for the incentive auction right."
The FCC should “think long and hard” about adopting any repacking plan that would cost more than the $1.75 billion set aside to reimburse repacked broadcasters, said Commissioner Ajit Pai in a speech Monday at the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Convention (http://fcc.us/1njcPAn). “If broadcasters that stay in business are repacked and are required to pay some of their relocation costs, can we say that the incentive auction is truly voluntary?” Pai asked. The commission should ensure that non-participating broadcasters are “held harmless,” and make it simple for broadcasters to channel-share with the goal of encouraging them to participate in the auction, he said. “Channel sharing can allow broadcasters to stay in business while still receiving a cash infusion that can be used to improve their services or facilities,” he said. Keeping the repacking cost under the $1.75 billion mark is one of several ways Pai said the FCC could improve its relationship with broadcasters. “Every segment of the industry we regulate should have confidence that the commission will give them a fair hearing, and none should be under the impression that the FCC is out to get them.” Pai said it isn’t the commission’s role to urge broadcasters into the over-the-top video marketplace, a reference to Chairman Tom Wheeler’s speech at the National Association of Broadcasters show last month (CD April 9 p1). “For all of the talk of over-the-top programming, it’s still over-the-air programming that draws the largest crowds,” Pai said. Another way to help broadcasters would be to “modernize” the commission’s media ownership rules and eliminate the prohibition against newspaper-radio cross-ownership, he said. “The commission has signaled an openness to getting rid of this anachronism,” he said. “The FCC has no evidence at all justifying our newspaper-radio cross-ownership prohibition -- and nobody even bothers trying anymore.” The AM revitalization proposal could also be a way for the FCC to help broadcasting, and enjoys broad support, Pai said. “There are many issues at the FCC that are controversial. AM radio isn’t one of them.” The FCC should move forward with an FM translator window for AM broadcasters, Pai said. The commissioner said he will hold meetings with stakeholders this summer to collect more ideas for improving the AM band. “Our decisions should reflect a consistent regulatory philosophy instead of appearing to help or harm a particular segment of the industry,” Pai said.
Relaxing open meeting rules to allow FCC commissioners to meet in larger groups would lead to less contention and quicker decision-making for the agency, said a panel of former FCC commissioners at a Quello Center Communication Policy Forum event Thursday. Former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley moderated the panel of former Commissioners Rachelle Chong, Michael Copps, Susan Ness, Henry Rivera and Deborah Tate, who discussed issues ranging from net neutrality to media ownership. All agreed that increasing dialogue between commissioners could facilitate commission business.
The FCC new 2014 quadrennial review doesn’t appear likely to lead to much change in broadcast ownership rules, said several broadcast attorneys, public interest officials and a broadcast executive in interviews. Though the actual text of Monday’s further rulemaking notice launching the review hasn’t been released, the information released by the FCC makes it look to many industry observers as though Chairman Tom Wheeler is kicking the can down the road on issues like cross-ownership, several told us. “The FNPRM for the 2014 quadrennial review recommends retaining the FCC’s existing ownership rules virtually intact,” said blog of the Wiley Rein law firm.
EU lawmakers approved net neutrality protections and an end to mobile roaming fees Thursday, as expected (CD April 3 p13). By a 534-25 vote on the European Commission-proposed “connected continent” package, members of the European Parliament barred Internet access providers from blocking or slowing selected services for economic or other reasons. They also approved language banning mobile data, voice and text roaming charges as of Dec. 15, 2015. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) wanted clear rules to stop Internet access providers from promoting some services at the expense of others, Parliament said. Under the language approved, providers would still be able to offer specialized services of higher quality, such as VOD, as long as that doesn’t affect the availability or quality of access services offered to other companies or service suppliers, it said. Amendments also shortened the EC’s list of cases in which access providers could still be entitled to block or slow the Internet. MEPs want those practices to be permitted only to enforce a court order, safeguard network security or prevent temporary network congestion, Parliament said. All Internet traffic must be treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, regardless of the sender, recipient, type, content, device, service or application, it said. The Netherlands enshrined net neutrality into law in 2012, noted MEP Marietje Schaake, of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, the amendments of which she said helped close loopholes in the text. “The public value of an open internet can not be underestimated,” she said in a news release. Digital rights activists were overjoyed, telcos dismayed. The net neutrality vote “established the EU as the major global force to protect the freedom of the open internet,” said European Digital Rights Executive Director Joe McNamee in a news release. By amending the text with cross-party amendments, MEPs “took a historic step” to protect net neutrality and the Internet commons in the EU, said French citizens’ advocacy group La Quadrature du Net. BEUC-The European Consumer Organisation said MEPs heard consumers “loud and clear” in tackling roaming fees, the “hydra of EU regulation,” and building a net neutrality buffer against granting control over Internet traffic speeds and access to “Europe’s handful of network operators.” The telecom and digital technology sectors said the net neutrality provisions could reduce consumer choice and hurt competitiveness. Amendments mandating the complete separation of specialized services and requiring that they not have any influence on capacity available for other Internet services are concerning, said the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. The text approved would place far-reaching restrictions on traffic management, making efficient network management nearly impossible, it said. The European Parliament’s stance on net neutrality is too specific about how networks should function, and it will quickly become obsolete as innovation drives the technology forward, said DigitalEurope. The question now is whether operators feel they can work within the scope of the regulation to offer the services they plan to, but a last-minute lobbying effort to remove some of the wording of what constitutes such services suggest not, said Ovum analyst Matthew Howett. “The fear exists around whether even basic (and generally accepted) forms of traffic management will be permissible” under the EC’s vision for an open Internet, he said. The telecom package now needs approval from EU members. The EC expects final agreement by year’s end, said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes.
Lobbying on a European Commission telecom reform package ratcheted up a day before Thursday’s European Parliament vote. Although the “connected continent” measure (CD Dec 2 p8) addresses a range of issues such as mobile roaming charges and spectrum allocation, most of the attention has focused on its net neutrality provisions, which have attracted intense lobbying from major telcos, digital rights and consumer activists and EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Everyone seems to want an open Internet, but few agree on what that means, said consultant Innocenzo Genna, who represents non-incumbent telecom and Internet players. The fate of the package was unclear at deadline, but some observers predicted the more net neutrality-friendly provisions might pass.
The FCC made joint sales agreements attributable for ownership calculations and kicked off the 2014 ownership quadrennial review with a 3-2 vote split along party lines, at Monday’s open meeting. Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly voted against what Pai called “a thumb in the eye of Congress.” As expected (CD March 28 p1), the new JSA rule gives existing arrangements where one company accounts for more than 15 percent of another’s sold advertising time two years to be unwound and includes an expedited waiver process, the Media Bureau said. The FNPRM that begins the new ownership proceeding incorporates the 2010 quadrennial review, seeks comment on changes to cross-ownership rules and proposes rules for requiring disclosure of shared service agreements. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said JSAs had been used to skirt the commission’s rules, though the ownership rule change is “admittedly not perfect.” Chairman Tom Wheeler praised it for closing “an end run around the rules” that allowed large companies to amass too much market power.