The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council media ownership study won’t provide the level of analysis required by the Prometheus II decision, Free Press told staff from Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s office Monday, said an ex parte filed Thursday (http://bit.ly/109zeqe). Outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski paused a vote on a draft bureau media ownership order to allow MMTC to conduct the study of cross ownership on minority-owned broadcasters (CD Feb 27 p1). Policy Director Matt Wood said Free Press has “serious concerns” about the study, which he characterized as consisting of “interviews with former and current broadcast station principals and executives.” Wood told us Friday that this kind of “qualitative study” won’t provide data showing the economic impact of consolidated media ownership on smaller businesses and minority owners. “It’s nice to see MMTC volunteering to take this on, but it’s not necessarily the kind of research,” requested by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its decision on the FCC’s media ownership rules, he said. MMTC President David Honig said in an email Friday that Free Press had been involved in the design process for the study, and that the council had adopted all of Free Press’s suggestions at the time. “So it’s puzzling why they would be critical of our study even before it’s been completed and published,” said Honig. Wood agreed that his organization had been involved, but said that it still preferred a quantitative study to meet the court’s requirements. “When science is being done, an open mind is helpful,” said Honig. MMTC has said the study will be submitted to the FCC May 29 (CD May 3 p12).
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System allows localities to reach those a normal EAS alert wouldn’t by triggering multiple alert systems, officials said during a FEMA webinar Wednesday on how localities can plan for, test and use the IPAWS system. The system allows officials to send out warnings using the Emergency Alert System, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) and other public alerting systems from a single interface. IPAWS Program Manager Manny Centeno said that because IPAWS alerts across multiple systems, it can be used to reach people beyond those a standard EAS alert would reach. He used the example of WEAs, which send short text alerts to mobile devices. “WEA can wake people up with their phone,” he said. Centeno pointed out that though the short WEA messages don’t convey much information, they can be used to get people’s attention, so that they will go check for other information that might be provided by EAS or another system through IPAWS. Centeno also said it’s important for localities new to the system to test it extensively, through tabletop exercises and other methods. “We certainly don’t want to go out there and press the big red button before we know how to press the big red button,” he said. The seminar included a presentation on the Joint Interoperability Test Command, a federal organization affiliated with the Department of Defense that helps FEMA test alert systems like IPAWS without accidentally triggering a real response. Because IPAWS involves so many different systems working together, JITC’s work is especially important, said Centeno. “Knowing that the message I put into the system is going to be properly represented elsewhere in the system -- that’s interoperability hand-in-glove.”
The consumer groups said they tested a variety of online videos, full-length online TV shows and video clips using multiple Web browsers and different devices. The report said 10 percent of full-length video viewed for the study lacked captions, but that the numbers went up significantly for shorter chunks of online video. The FCC order said IP video clips aren’t required to be captioned, but longer video segments, or multiple segments that together constitute the bulk of a full-length program are required to have captions. The consumer groups said that telling the difference between a video clip and a segment was extremely difficult, but 76 percent of video segments they viewed were uncaptioned, including 70 percent of news segments and 93 percent of non-news segments. Video clips, not required to sport captions, lacked them 87 percent of the time, said the report. “This is a big issue,” said Associate Professor Christian Vogler of Gallaudet University and director of its Technology Access Program. “During the Boston bombing, there were lots of news clips out there and they weren’t accessible to us. We have limited access to news, because everything has gone video."
Aereo filed a motion for summary judgment in the case against it by several major broadcast networks over its online TV service. Aereo said Tuesday that all of the issues in the case were already decided in the company’s favor during failed preliminary attempts by broadcasters to get an injunction in lower court and again in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Both courts ruled that Aereo’s system of tiny, individualized antennas doesn’t infringe on broadcasters’ copyrights. “Because that reasoning applies with equal force at this stage, Aereo is entitled to summary judgment,” said the motion.
U.S. demand for spectrum will quickly outstrip supply and wireless companies are focused on expanding infrastructure and technology to keep up, officials from several of those companies said at the Winnik International Telecoms & Internet Forum Friday. To make up the gap, they said their industry is looking to alternatives to cellular towers, bandwidth sharing technology, and additional ways to clear spectrum. “There is a huge challenge facing operators on how to come up with forward-looking spectrum and spectrum utilization technology that can handle the upward turn in spectrum traffic,” said David Jeppsen, NTT DoCoMo USA vice president-business development.
Online TV service Aereo wants a federal court to stop the threat of additional lawsuits from broadcasters as it moves into new jurisdictions by ruling that its system of tiny, individual antennas doesn’t violate copyright laws, according to documents filed Monday. Already in the midst of a lawsuit brought in New York by major broadcasters including Fox and CBS, Aereo told the U.S. District Court in New York that it plans to expand to Boston later this month, and that CBS has said it will sue Aereo again there if it does expand.
Antenna industry officials said the FCC freeze on modifications to stations is hurting their business just as the approaching spectrum repacking seems likely to increase demand for their products. “When something like that is done at the FCC that impedes broadcasters, it affects manufacturers,” said Alex Perchevitch, president of Jampro Antennas. He and other industry executives, along with the NAB, said the April 5 freeze (CD April 8 p5) on station modifications was partly to blame for the April 19 announcement that Dielectric Communications, one of the largest broadcast antenna manufacturers, will go out of business. “The government’s just destroyed the biggest antenna company, and now they want to have a repacking that will put a terrible demand on manufacturing,” said one antenna industry executive. “That’s the dumbest thing I've ever seen."
The FCC required all Web browsers on mobile phones be made accessible for the visually impaired by Oct. 8, said an order Monday on implementing the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. On circulation is an NPRM on implementing CVAA rules on accessibility requirements for video user interfaces and programming guides, said agency and public-interest officials. An order last month implemented CVAA rules on emergency video description (CD April 10 p6). While some groups representing disabled consumers have said they found the orders and the coming NPRM vague, they also praised the FCC for issuing them. “We've been generally very pleased with the FCC’s efforts to complete these rulemakings in a timely fashion,” said American Council for the Blind Governmental Affairs Director Eric Bridges.
Undecided Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas could limit FCC efforts to encourage diversity in broadcasting, said a presentation to the commission’s Diversity Committee Thursday. Akin Gump lawyer Ruthanne Deutsch said she and others who follow the Supreme Court believe the court will hand down a decision striking down the University of Texas program that factors race into admissions, which she said would leave “a very very tiny tiny window” for government programs considering race. Minority Media and Telecommunications Counsel Executive Director David Honig said diversity in media law “flows from” education diversity law, and that such a decision “could affect a great deal” of what the commission might do to encourage diversity in the communications industry.
Uncertainty about the details of the upcoming spectrum incentive auction and a perception of unfair treatment by the FCC has Class A owners worried about the future of their stations, said several owners and other industry officials in interviews. “How can you know if you should sell your business if you don’t know the value, or even how the auction will work?” asked Vincent Castelli, general manager of a Prism Broadcasting Network Class A in Atlanta. The executives we spoke with elaborated on questions they have for the commission, some of which were posed at a Media Bureau event at the NAB Show (CD April 10 p9).