FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said broadcasters and pay-TV providers alike must negotiate retransmission consent deals in good faith and not deviate from that because of a forthcoming FCC rulemaking notice (CD March 1 p6) on retrans. Of the notice, set for a vote at Thursday’s agency meeting, he told an audience of broadcast executives visiting Washington to lobby on Capitol Hill for them and pay-TV rivals to “please don’t use this as an excuse” to not negotiate fairly. But most broadcasters and cable companies won’t wait for the FCC to change the dynamic, McDowell said Tuesday at an NAB conference. He also used FCC figures his office received to show that the agency is whittling down the number of indecency complaints against broadcasters, something he’s said should be reduced, although many license renewals are pending.
Notable CROSS rulings
The FCC is probing the representations of News Corp.’s Fox Television Stations in discussions it had with the agency over the pending and contested license renewal of WWOR-TV Secaucus, N.J. Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake on Thursday sent the a lawyer for the broadcast network a letter of inquiry saying it’s investigating whether Fox broke several rules by allegedly misrepresenting the extent of its news and operations. WWOR is the only full-power commercial station in New Jersey and is required to carry news serving the specific audience of the northern part of the state, rather than just its community of license, as is the case with all other U.S. TV stations.
House Republicans revived a short-term extension of the Patriot Act late Monday, redeeming a defeat from a week ago. Members voted 275-144 to extend until December three provisions of the President George W. Bush-era act, including authorization for “roving wiretaps,” a “lone wolf” provision that allows officials to monitor individual terrorists suspects without clear to ties to groups or nations under foreign intelligence rules, and a provision that allows the government to search, without judicial review, “any tangible items” of suspects. President Barack Obama has called for the provisions to be extended through 2013, but his party has mostly resisted in recent votes. In Monday’s vote, 27 Republicans crossed the aisle to oppose the renewals. The provisions now head to the Democrat-controlled Senate.
AT&T and NCTA joined to slam arguments by Level 3 that the Internet backbone provider’s dispute over network traffic peering with Comcast is an issue of net neutrality. In a rare joint filing late Monday by the telco and the cable association, which are often at odds on other issues, they said Level 3 is trying to upend commission precedent predating December’s net neutrality order that peering isn’t subject to regulation. “As the Commission’s approach to Internet policy has evolved over the last eighteen months -- from a proposed rulemaking on net neutrality, to an inquiry on reclassification, to a net neutrality order -- it has consistently emphasized at each step along the way that it has no intention of regulating the highly competitive market for Internet peering and other Internet backbone services."
Europe’s fragmented privacy protections create an “unconvincing and untenable” situation for the world leader in privacy rights, Privacy International, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Media and Communications Study reported Friday, European Data Protection Day. Their survey of European privacy and human rights examined the data protection, data retention, surveillance and other privacy regimes of all 27 EU members, several non-EU countries such as Turkey and the EU itself. On the positive side, European democracies are generally in good health and privacy regulators are getting more complaints, a sign of increased awareness of the issues, they said. But laws on storage of communications traffic data are piecemeal and some countries haven’t been able to build safeguards into processes for gaining access to information from new services, they said. For example, several governments are seeking powers to conduct secret computer searches, and Italy has “ambiguous” powers for warrantless VoIP interception, they said. Some countries’ e-health systems have security faults and/or centralized registries, they said. Effective data protection is needed to help complete the internal market by building trust and confidence, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association said Friday. High-speed broadband access and 4G mobile networks will allow Europeans to reap the benefits of the digital agenda, but their borderless nature means “homogeneous protection of personal data” is key to encouraging people to participate, ETNO said. It urged the European Commission, which is reviewing the data protection directive, to get rid of rigid rules on cross-border data flows and ease administrative burdens on industry. Many consumers are concerned about the protection of their personal data and 80 percent of young Internet users are unaware of how their personal information is used, the European Consumers’ Organization said. It wants the EC to strengthen rules for transparency and minimum use of data, establish joint liability rules between business and third parties using personal data, and introduce mandatory “privacy by default."
EU governments agreed Monday to increase the rights of consumers who shop online and across borders, a change that the European Commission considers crucial to encouraging e-commerce. Internal market, industry and research ministers in the Competitiveness Council said they want to standardize requirements such as the information that long-distance shoppers must receive and the right to pull out of contracts, to increase confidence in trading outside their home countries. The draft consumer rights directive, originally proposed by the EC in 2008, applies to remote and off-premises contracts between a public or private trader and a consumer, except in industries including gambling, the council said. Digital content such as computer programs, games or songs not burned onto tangible media aren’t considered goods, but CDs, DVDs, memory cards and the like are, it said. Digital downloads made under service contracts entered into electronically and performed immediately will also come under the directive, but consumers won’t have the 14-day cooling-off period that other remote buyers get, it said. The measure requires merchants to give consumers all mandatory information clearly and comprehensibly and get consent before imposing extra charges on sales transactions. The EC called the council action a “breakthrough” that will make it easier for people to shop online and will increase legal certainty for cross-border sellers. But the European Consumers’ Organization said the council vote was “something of an anticlimax” in relation to what was supposed to become a milestone of EU consumer legislation. There are several advances -- the measure counters problems with online purchases such as Internet cost traps -- Deputy Director General Ursula Pachl told us, but that shouldn’t distract from a recommendation of full harmonization of rights, diluting national consumer laws and foreclosing tougher rules. The council also “walked away from the opportunity” to provide what’s really needed, a set of modern rights for digital products, she said. European consumers have no clear entitlements, so in effect they have no protection in buying downloaded music, video and software, Pachl said. The directive is the right vehicle for this but the council chose instead the consumer-unfriendly approach of excluding the right of withdrawal from such products, she said. What remains is merely a review of the current remote and off-premises selling directive, which doesn’t add much value for consumers, she said. The European Parliament Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee votes on the proposal Feb. 1, and a plenary vote is likely in April, a committee spokeswoman said.
Level 3 has emerged has an unlikely -- and unwilling -- champion of Internet backbone carriers in its battle with Comcast, industry and public-interest officials told us. Level 3 was “certainly reluctant” to engage in a public battle, but “there is no way to route around Comcast,” said John Ryan, Level 3 chief legal officer. “It is not in our DNA to seek government assistance. Our strong preference is where markets exist, the markets should discipline behavior.”
Vincent Morris, ex-House Rules Committee, becomes communications director for Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. … Brian Raymond, ex-IBM and NetApp, joins National Association of Manufacturers as director-technology policy … Discovery Communications promotes Eileen O'Neil to group president, Discovery and TLC Networks; Marjorie Kaplan promoted to president, Animal Planet and Science Networks; Henry Schleiff adds responsibilities for Discovery Emerging Networks, Planet Green and FitTV … Bill O'Neill, ex-Qwest, becomes Global Crossing vice president-federal sales … New officers at National Exchange Carrier Association: Chair Raymond Henagan, Rock Port Telephone; Vice Chair Ed Buchanan, 35 Telephone Co. … Harmonic changes: Suresh Vasudevan, president of Omneon business, leaving to pursue another, undisclosed opportunity; Mark Carrington promoted to vice president of worldwide sales … CTIA promotes Brian Josef to assistant vice president-regulatory affairs … CBS promotes Steve Gahler to vice president and general manager of KSTW-TV Seattle … Rosaline Crawford, ex-National Association of the Deaf, joins FCC as senior attorney in Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau … Disney Junior hires Joe D'Ambrosia as programming vice president.
The Internet backbone is becoming the next telecom battleground as the demand for online video throws traditional peering agreements out of whack, industry officials said. “There are constant discussions about how backbone providers, content providers and access providers learn to coexist in this new, video-driven world,” said Dennis Brouwer, senior vice president and general manager of backbone provider Savvis. “The thing that people don’t realize or tend to gloss over is that, depending on how those conversations go, it'll determine who’s going to invest, how much and where."
The Tribune Co. updated the FCC on its bankruptcy case, as the commission considers a request by the company for transfers of radio and TV licenses and for cross-ownership waivers (CD Sept 9 p4). Ballots for various reorganization plans have been sent to Tribune’s creditors, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware will hold a confirmation hearing March 7, the broadcaster and newspaper owner said Monday in a filing in docket 10-104. The plans still “appear to be fundamentally the same” in relation to FCC processing of Tribune’s applications to exit bankruptcy, because they all comply with the agency’s rules, the company said.