CEA and NCTA have asked the Department of Energy to pause a rulemaking process on energy standards for set-top boxes and instead allow multichannel video program distributors to police themselves, the trade groups said at a joint media briefing Monday. Davis Wright attorney Paul Glist, representing NCTA, said he believes DOE proposals (CD April 10 p19) on whether set-top boxes should be regulated and how they should be tested could be finalized soon. If so, they would be a “switch point” for the cable industry, he said. If the DOE continues with the rulemaking, it will invalidate a voluntary agreement (VA) on set-top box standards that’s already being followed industry-wide, and discourage other industries from working proactively on energy efficiency, “undermining the very thing the DOE wants to encourage,” he said. DOE and the National Resources Defense Council, which backed tighter standards on set-top boxes, didn’t comment.
The FCC released an NPRM on accessibility for user interfaces and video programming guides, implementing Sections 204 and 205 of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (http://bit.ly/19qAKaI). As expected (CD May 1 p6), the NPRM released Friday proposed that Section 205, which governs video program guides for “navigation devices,” would apply to devices from multichannel video programming distributors, while Section 204, which governs user interfaces, would apply more broadly to other electronics that display or receive video.
The FCC will make information on the incentive auction repacking available for “meaningful comment” this summer, said Assistant Wireless Bureau Chief Brett Tarnutzer. At an FCBA panel Thursday, he discussed several issues associated with the auction, including the recent public notice on the 600 MHz band plan and the commission’s reliance on TVStudy software to run the auction. Despite the complications inherent in the auction, the commission still believes it’s on track to release a report and order on it this year, and hold the auction in 2014, said Tarnutzer. “I believe we can do this."
Media cross-ownership has a “negligible” impact on minority and women broadcast ownership, said a Minority and Media Telecommunications Council Study submitted to the FCC Thursday (http://bit.ly/178iVhE). The commission delayed a vote on media ownership rules in February (CD Feb 27 p1) anticipation of the study’s completion. Several communications attorneys told us Thursday that even with the study done, it’s unlikely a vote will occur with a depleted commission and an acting chairwoman. Although MMTC President David Honig said the study satisfies a directive from 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to study the effects of cross-ownership rules, Free Press attacked the study for not being quantitative enough.
A week after being sued in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., online TV service FilmOn.com will stop streaming major broadcasters in D.C. and eventually all over the country, said an open letter sent to U.S. broadcasters by CEO Alki David. Doing business until now as Aereokiller, David’s company continues to call itself FilmOn.com after a recent legal settlement with competing company Aereo. David said FilmOn will replace the local network affiliates, the content of which it’s been streaming online, with independent stations, with which his company will negotiate residual fees. “This model will set a standard by which companies like Aereo will have a tougher time establishing the precedent of not paying broadcasters for the content that they own,” wrote David. Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC didn’t comment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the FCC can’t force Comcast to carry the Tennis Channel on the same tier as the operator’s own Golf Channel and NBC Sports, in a 3-0 ruling Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/12gefp0). In an opinion that communications attorneys said could affect other FCC carriage conflicts, the judges said the agency failed to show unlawful discrimination, or present evidence to refute “Comcast’s contention that its rejection of Tennis’s proposal was simply ‘a straight up financial analysis.'” Judges were skeptical of the FCC’s case during oral argument, with some courtroom observers predicting the cable operator would win the case (CD Feb 26 p1). The channel said it will appeal, while FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai cheered the ruling, as did Robert McDowell, who left the commission earlier this month and had voted against the agency’s order siding with the programmer over Comcast.
Several major broadcasters sued online TV service Aereokiller in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, and requested a preliminary injunction barring the company from rebroadcasting Washington-area TV stations. The lawsuit is the latest in an ongoing battle between broadcasters and Aereokiller and competing service Aereo, which both use networks of tiny individual antennas to rebroadcast TV stations’ content. “A court in California has already enjoined Aereokiller from operating in nine western states, in the process recognizing that the commercial retransmission of our broadcasts without permission or compensation is a clear violation of the law and congressional intent,” said ABC, NBC, Fox and Allbritton Communications in a joint statement. “We believe that the DC court will uphold our copyright interests and further restrict Aereokiller’s operations.” Aereokiller did not comment.
The 600 MHz band plans proposed in a FCC Wireless Bureau public notice would promote competition among carriers and lead to more revenue for federal coffers than the plan endorsed by Commissioner Ajit Pai, NAB, AT&T and Verizon, representatives of several public interest groups said last week. Consumer Federation of America Research Director Mark Cooper and Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld told us the “down from 51” plan endorsed by Pai, and by NAB and the two carriers in a joint blog post Wednesday (CD May 22 p4), would require higher relocation costs and lead to a concentration of the best spectrum in the hands of a few large companies. That’s as compared to the plans outlined in the May 17 public notice, said Cooper and Feld.
The FCC’s proposed plan for the 600 MHz band shows a “disconnect” between the commission and the wireless and broadcast industries, said AT&T, Verizon and NAB in a joint blog post featured on all three entities’ websites Tuesday (http://bit.ly/191hcK7). Echoing comments by Commissioner Ajit Pai on Friday’s public notice requesting comment on the band plan (CD May 20 p4), the three said the FCC proposals of a reversed “down from 51 plan” and a time division duplex (TDD) plan fly in the face of “hundreds of pages of comments” and two industry consensus letters. “The first has absolutely no support in the record and the second adopts a technological approach contrary to the one proposed by the majority of U.S. carriers,” they said. An FCC official responded that the PN was intended to “expand the record” on the ways “various band plans can deal with market variation so that we avoid a ‘least common denominator’ effect that could limit overall spectrum recovery and revenue generation."
The FCC Media Bureau contradicted its own rules and exceeded its authority when it granted Charter Communications a two-year waiver from the agency’s CableCARD rules in April (CD April 22 p3), said CEA. The association’s application for review (http://bit.ly/16FKP51) filed Monday asked the bureau to reconsider or rescind the order. “In freeing Charter from its post-waiver obligations by fashioning arbitrary conditions never offered for public comment, while declining to determine whether this outcome complies with Commission regulations ... the Bureau’s Order exceeds both its own delegated authority and the Commission’s legal authority,” said CEA. Spokeswomen for Charter and the bureau declined to comment.