News Corp. is working on delivering TV programs and content from its newspapers to mobile devices using its broadcast TV spectrum, Chairman Rupert Murdoch told a conference at the Federal Trade Commission Tuesday. “For newspapers, the spectrum could well prove an economic vehicle,” he told the meeting on the future of the news industry. “Today’s news consumers do not want to be chained to a box in their homes or offices to get their favorite news and entertainment -- and our plan is to meet the needs of the next wave of TV viewing by going mobile.” His remarks come as the FCC looks at ways to reallocate some of the spectrum held by TV broadcasters. (See separate report in this issue.)
Notable CROSS rulings
The FCC should allow a company to own three TV stations in markets with at least 18 total and duopolies in smaller areas, Entravision said Friday in a filing on the media ownership review. The commission should “adopt regulations targeting anti-competitive behavior to prevent media conglomerates from driving smaller broadcasters and minority- owned media companies from the marketplace,” the Spanish- language broadcaster said. Media General asked the commission to take local news Web sites into account in the review. Company research found three to eight such sites not owned by traditional media in each of a sample of four of the top 100 markets. “Such sites have become another established outlet for local content and compete for ‘eyeballs’ and, in many cases, for advertisers,” said Media General, owner of TV stations and daily newspapers. Because of the “complexity of the quadrennial review,” the NAB asked the commission to limit itself to evaluating the five rules required by Congress. They include newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership and local TV cross-ownership rules, the group said.
The FCC is continuing to hold off deciding on three petitions against AT&T and Comcast over the companies’ digital carriage of public, education and government (PEG) channels, several commission and industry officials said. The petitions from December and January by towns and municipal groups ask the commission to require pay-TV providers to treat PEG channels the same as others. The petitions are among the media items that could get FCC approval this or next quarter, and in the past some officials there have sought action, but the regulator for now is taking a wait-and-see approach, said commission officials and communications lawyers.
The FCC is continuing to hold off deciding on three petitions against AT&T and Comcast over the companies’ digital carriage of public, education and government (PEG) channels, several commission and industry officials said. The petitions from December and January by towns and municipal groups ask the commission to require pay-TV providers to treat PEG channels the same as others. The petitions are among the media items that could get FCC approval this or next quarter, and in the past some officials there have sought action, but the regulator for now is taking a wait-and-see approach, said commission officials and communications lawyers.
Coming steps in the FCC’s media-ownership review probably will include a notice of inquiry and hearings outside Washington, said commission, industry and public- interest group officials we surveyed. The commissioners probably will approve a notice formally starting the review, done every four years, in the first quarter, FCC officials said. The office of Chairman Julius Genachowski has given little indication about timing, because the National Broadband Plan is due Feb. 17 and takes priority, officials said.
Google has acquired Gizmo5, an IP-calling software firm targeting mobile and PC users, the companies said on Friday. Google is poised to become a voice provider, analysts said, calling the company an uncommon carrier. Google, which reportedly set the price at $30 million, didn’t detail specifics of the deal.
Lobbyist terminations accelerated sharply in the second quarter, said a study by watchdogs OMB Watch and the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). The groups found a net 1,418 “deregistrations” of federally registered lobbyists in the second quarter, up from 219 in the first three months, the biggest increase since a midyear report in 2007. Lobbyists terminate registrations for various reasons, but typically only a few hundred “fall from the ranks” of active lobbyists each quarter, the center said.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said he hopes the FCC will produce net neutrality rules that he can support. “We welcome that conversation” and “want to be a constructive participant,” he said late Tuesday at the Web 2.0 Summit. Roberts called FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski “very capable, very smart, very likable.” Roberts said he takes Genachowski at his word that the commission’s work will be “very fact-driven, very open and transparent.”
A public notice on the FCC’s quadrennial media ownership review asked more than two dozen questions in what officials inside and outside the commission said was another step toward opening a formal proceeding (CD Oct 7 p6). The notice was issued by the Media Bureau Wednesday in advance of workshops with academics, broadcasters and public interest groups it will hold Nov. 2-4 on the subject. Comments on the notice, due Nov. 20 (Docket No. 09-182), and discussion during the meetings should focus on the questions listed in the document, it said.
Two groups are upset that Fox owns a newspaper and TV stations in the New York market after a second FCC cross- ownership waiver expired, they told FCC Media Bureau staffers Thursday. The commission didn’t make Fox comply with the rule after the waiver involving WWOR-TV Secaucus, N.J., and WNYW New York (CD Sept 21 p10) ended in December, the United Church of Christ and Georgetown University’s Institute for Public Representation said in an ex parte filing. “UCC questioned the legal basis for Fox’s contention that an expired waiver remains in effect until the FCC acts on its request for extension.”