The FCC Enforcement Bureau began investigating cable operators’ switched digital video deployments in November, at the height of the commission’s scrutiny of the cable industry, a Nov. 8 letter of inquiry (LoI) to Cox Communications shows. The bureau sought information about Cox’s switched digital service in northern Virginia. It asked how digital cable-ready customers and local franchise authorities were notified when Cox moved programming onto the switched platform. One-way plug-and-play devices such as CableCARD-enabled TiVos or DTV sets can’t receive that programming. Communications Daily obtained the LoI through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Notable CROSS rulings
The FCC renewed the licenses of Media General TV stations in four markets where the company owns daily papers, denying requests by Common Cause, Free Press and the NAACP that it not do so, said a Media Bureau order released Tuesday. Petitions to deny or dismiss the renewals weren’t granted because the newspaper-broadcast combinations are permitted under the FCC’s 2007 media ownership order, said the bureau. That “rendered moot” the opposition, it said. The renewals are for WJHL-TV Johnson City, Tenn., WBTW Florence, S.C., WRBL Columbus, Ga., and WMBB-TV Panama City, Fla. Common Cause and other groups had asked the FCC on Monday to revise the 2007 order to cancel waivers of cross- ownership rules granted Media General in those markets (CD March 26 p14).
The FCC should make it more difficult to get waivers of its newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership order allowing such combinations, six groups said late Monday in a petition for reconsideration. Cross-ownership should be permitted only when a property is failing financially or a broadcaster agrees to air newscasts when it hadn’t done so previously, the Benton Foundation, Common Cause, National Hispanic Media Coalition and others said. Broadcasters buying daily papers in markets where they operate should have to seek cross- ownership waivers within a month of closing such deals, the groups said. “This will prevent broadcasters from abusing a loophole, whereby they can acquire a newspaper early on in their license terms and not comply with the NBCO rule for up to eight years,” until the station needs to renew the FCC- issued license. The groups asked the agency to reverse its decision letting Media General keep operating newspapers and TV stations in the same markets in Phoenix and elsewhere. “The Commission should lower local radio ownership limits,” they said. “Despite abundant evidence that radio market concentration has harmed competition and diversity, the 2008 order does not contemplate lowering the limits.” The order was approved 3-2 Dec. 18 (CD Dec 19 p1) and the text was released Feb. 4.
Eight EU countries have higher broadband deployment rates than the U.S., the European Commission said Wednesday in its 13th progress report on the single telecommunications market. Labor productivity and rollout of broadband, mobile, 3G and data services are all up in an industry, now worth over $469 billion, that accounts for 2 percent of the EU’s gross domestic product, the EC said. Despite the “nice” success stories, however, there are still major roadblocks to a unified market, said Information Society & Media Commissioner Viviane Reding.
The FCC removed definitions of broadband from its advanced services report after FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell objected. Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein dissented to the entire report, in which the majority said broadband deployment nationwide is occurring in a “reasonable and timely fashion.” Also at the meeting, commissioners unanimously approved a ban on phone companies signing exclusive contracts in residential multiple tenant environments.
Media General, Cox Enterprises, Belo Corp., and Morris Communications asked a federal court to separate their appeals of the FCC’s rewrite of the newspaper-broadcast cross ownership rule from more 15 similar appeals to be heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (CD March 12 p13). The Media General, Cox, Belo and Morris appeals weren’t included in the March 11 order putting the 15 consolidated appeals in the 9th Circuit. In a motion filed Wednesday, the four companies asked the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to keep their appeals. The appeals raise questions of FCC procedure that belong only in the D.C. Circuit, the motion said.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin must give Congress answers to detailed questions on FCC regulatory decisions, preparation of reports, staff travel, hiring decisions and consultations with industry on rulemakings, according to a letter Wednesday from House Commerce Committee and Oversight Subcommittee leaders of both parties. The letter, which demands a response within two weeks, signals stepped-up action in the FCC investigation begun in January (CD Jan9 p2).
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear challenges to FCC revision of its newspaper-broadcast cross- ownership rule, said an order combining the 15 challenges the rule change. The 9th Circuit was picked at random from among the courts where appeals were filed.
Prometheus Radio Project sued the FCC over the cross- ownership order the agency approved 3-2 on Dec. 18, filing a petition for review Tuesday with the 3rd U.S. Appeals Court in Philadelphia. The 3rd Circuit’s remand of 2003 media ownership rules in Prometheus v. FCC prompted the commission review that led to the recent order allowing joint ownership of a newspaper and radio or TV station in many cases in large markets (CD Dec 19 p1). That order is unlawful, arbitrary and capricious, “an abuse of discretion and in excess of statutory authority,” said Prometheus. An FCC spokeswoman declined comment.
GENEVA -- Talks to update the aging World Trade Organization Telecommunications Agreement to account for next-generation networks could cover content, national security and other hot-button matters that have inspired little support for liberalization. The 1998 telecom agreement talks addressed connectivity, said consultant Don Abelson, who was the chief U.S. negotiator for the telecom agreement. Connectivity work began in the 1980s with corporate cross border data flows in the OECD, said Abelson during a WTO symposium on the Telecom Agreement, Feb. 20 to 21.