Analysts are uncertain if any major U.S. telecom operators would plan consolidation with Canadian players if a restriction on foreign ownership there is lifted (CD April 26 p3). Small wireless deals are possible, they said. Some major U.S. telcos were mum on their plans.
Notable CROSS rulings
The FCC should promptly act on petitions for reconsideration of a 2008 order resulting from the media ownership review two years earlier, umbrella group Public Interest Advocates told Commissioner Michael Copps last week. “Because the Third Circuit has lifted the stay and allowed the revised newspaper-cross-ownership rule to take effect, it is important that the FCC give prominent public notice of any waiver requests,” said an ex parte filing. Free Press, Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Public Representation and Media Access Project representatives met with Copps. Supporters and opponents of the order allowing common ownership of a daily paper and a broadcast station in a market in some cases agree that the FCC should act on a reconsideration petition from Common Cause (CD April 2 p1).
The goal the FCC set to wrap up its media-ownership review this year will be tough to meet, said commission, industry and public-interest figures we surveyed. The FCC hasn’t issued notices of inquiry or rulemaking and must deal with a legal challenge to the previous review. Issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) soon with proposed rules, rather than starting with a notice of inquiry (NOI), would speed up the work, the officials agreed. They said time is tight for the commission to wrap it up this year, a goal apparently shared by Chairman Julius Genachowski, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and others. Congress mandated the reviews every four years, including 2010.
The FCC pushed off for the 11th time a deadline for requests for cross-ownership rule waivers and changes in the requests (CD Dec 28 p8). An order Wednesday signed by Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake postponed the time limit three months, to July 6.
FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker said she remains open-minded about net neutrality, but she questioned whether a compromise can be made to gain her support by removing the application of rules to wireless. Baker, who joined the commission in July, told us she’s pleased with the approach of the National Broadband Plan toward spectrum. Baker also called for a quick review of all deals before the FCC, including Comcast-NBC Universal, limiting conditions to those directly involved, and helping broadcasters in small- and mid-sized markets in the media ownership review.
A court’s lifting a stay on cross-ownership rules means they'll take effect (CD March 24 p13) but that may not have much short-term impact, wrote a lawyer with broadcast clients. The current FCC has said it doesn’t approve of the 2008 order relaxing a ban on common ownership of a daily newspaper and radio or TV station in the same market, Dan Kirkpatrick wrote on the blog of Fletcher Heald at http://xrl.us/bg2o4z. “Until the 3rd Circuit [U.S. appeals court] issues its decision on the merits of the pending appeals, the longevity of those changes is still very much an open question."
A pause in court consideration of an appeal of media ownership rules was lifted Tuesday by the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, a move cheered by an FCC member who didn’t support a stay earlier backed by the commission (CD April 6 p8). With its stay lifted in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC, briefs from appellants are due May 17, said an order signed by Chief Judge Anthony Scirica. Respondent briefs are due 30 days after they've received those from petitioners and replies must be served in another 14 days, he said. Commissioner Robert McDowell believes “the lifting of the stay on the Commission’s very modest relaxation of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule is particularly appropriate given the economic upheaval affecting the ongoing viability of many daily newspapers and broadcast stations,” he said in a written statement. “I also believe that the Commission can only benefit from instruction of a Third Circuit ruling on the 2007 ownership rules as we begin the next round of the statutorily required quadrennial review of the regulations.” The FCC declined to comment, a spokesman said. Representatives for the FCC didn’t reply to messages seeking comment. “Although I think lifting the stay is unwarranted and unfortunate, it is understandable that the court would lose patience, given the FCC’s dilatory approach towards this proceeding,” said Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman, representing Prometheus.
The FCC should reclaim TV broadcasters’ spectrum by 2020, Sanford Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson wrote investors. The agency should stay out of retransmission consent negotiations between stations and pay-TV distributors and relax ownership rules, he said. For emergencies, battery-operated radios or voicemail blasts to landline phones will suffice in a post-TV spectrum world, he said. For now, the government should let the retransmission consent process play out on its own, he said. “If the threat of a local station signal blackout gets cable MSOs to the negotiating table, don’t stand in the way of business negotiations,” he said. “After that, change the station ownership rules to allow a national roll-up of TV stations above the 39 percent cap and allow the cross-ownership of stations and newspapers,” Nathanson said. Deregulating ownership limits would prompt a flurry of transactions that “will make the local broadcast industry stronger during this time of change,” he said. It would also give stations more leverage in carriage negotiations with cable operators and the major networks, he said.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The FCC is making “the hard decision” with the National Broadband Plan to shift universal service money toward broadband from current “less productive” uses, instead of creating a new fund at consumers’ expense as the industry would prefer, said Blair Levin, who runs the commission’s staff work on the plan. Most of the lines that don’t support broadband belong to AT&T, Qwest and Verizon, and under the high-cost USF system, “they have no incentive to upgrade,” he said late Wednesday at a Goldman Sachs conference.
Noncommercial stations need to make sure they're crossing their t’s and dotting their i’s in complying with FCC regulations. Fines were recently imposed on several stations for violations involving their public files. Lawyers representing noncommercial stations have taken note, warning that the era of “fix-it” tickets for the stations is over.