Those wanting the FCC to deny Comcast’s planned buy of Time Warner Cable are likely to be disappointed when the agency likely approves it with conditions, cable operator and programmer officials told us Wednesday. Though several powerful commenters, including Dish Network, asked the FCC to deny the transaction, many others suggested possible conditions, said an industry official. Many other influential entities, such as large content companies and NAB, didn’t weigh in for or against the deal. “It’s very dangerous to come out against this deal because of the amount of influence Comcast will have if it’s approved,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who filed comments opposing Comcast/TWC.
Critics of Comcast’s deal to buy Time Warner Cable are making “discredited arguments” that “don’t have any merit” said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen in a blog post responding (http://bit.ly/1p9Ffk7) to comments filed in docket 14-57 Monday (http://bit.ly/1wthpno). The deadline was 11:59 p.m. for comments on the transaction.
The FCC wants more information from Charter Communications, Comcast and Time Warner Cable on their cable systems, subscribers, dealings with other companies and many other details, said letters sent to the companies from Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake (http://bit.ly/1toXNNC). The bureau requires “additional information, documents and clarifications of certain matters” to decide whether Comcast’s (http://bit.ly/1njTwoH) plan to buy TWC (http://bit.ly/VIb1YD) and its companion divestiture to Charter (http://bit.ly/1q2W0wc) is in the public interest, Lake said Thursday. The companies have to Sept. 11 to provide the data. The initial comment period for the deal ends Monday, and more than 60,000 comments were filed in docket 14-57 (http://bit.ly/YKaXt7), said the FCC website.
NAB’s court challenge of the FCC incentive auction order is likely to delay the auction and unlikely to be the only such challenge, broadcast attorneys said in interviews Thursday. Though NAB, AT&T (see separate report below in this issue) and others have said the broadcast association’s petition for review (CD Aug 19 p1) was filed early enough in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it can be resolved without causing undue delays, few in the broadcast industry believe that’s the case, attorneys said. Increasing the likelihood of delay, the auction order is also going to be the focus “numerous separate and distinct” challenges from the low-power TV industry, said LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino.
Media General is divesting stations in five markets to get regulatory approval for its $2.59 billion buy of LIN Media (CD March 24 p6), said the companies in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1tqM8fr). The divestitures include Media General and LIN swapping three stations with Sinclair (http://bit.ly/1oSguJd), Media General and LIN each selling a station to Hearst Corp. (http://bit.ly/1tilKWU), and LIN selling a station to Meredith Corp. (http://bit.ly/1mmV69a), according to news releases from the companies involved. The deals are contingent on approval of the Media General/LIN deal, the releases said.
An FCC proposal to tighten rules on broadcasters swapping network affiliations within a market might lead to a rulemaking but is unlikely to result in a final policy banning the practice, said attorneys who oppose the proposed rule, in interviews. FCC ownership rules already prevent a single broadcaster from owning two Big Four-rated network affiliates in a market, but the 2014 quadrennial review Further NPRM tentatively concluded in favor of extending those rules to keep broadcasters from coming into ownership of two Big Four stations in the same market through network affiliation swaps. Initial comments were recently due on the FNPRM (CD Aug 8 p7).
NAB filed a court challenge on the use of auction software TVStudy in the FCC incentive auction order. “Broadcasters are effectively left with an auction that benefits everyone else while harming only them,” said NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan in a blog post (http://bit.ly/VA7RWM).
Low-power TV broadcasters and interest groups all want deadlines for construction permits for new LPTV stations extended well beyond the FCC incentive auction. They disagree over the method the FCC should use to do so, according to comments filed Thursday in docket 03-185 in response to an Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance petition. The FCC should deny the ATBA petition and address CPs as part of a larger rulemaking on other LPTV issues, said the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition (http://bit.ly/1rdZizE). “A permittee must be able to anticipate at least the near-term fate of its station before investing in construction,” said LPTV licensee CTB Spectrum Services (http://bit.ly/1vSibK).
The FCC’s 2014 Quadrennial Review of broadcast ownership rules is unlikely to lead to substantive change in the commission’s rules, several broadcast attorneys and industry observers told us. Comments on the quadrennial rulemaking were due last week, and though many commenters asked for rule changes, some didn’t seem to think such changes were likely. The review is mandated by Congress.
The FCC shouldn’t tell video distributors how often to check their closed captioning equipment or tighten rules for live and near-live captioning, said NAB, NCTA and other industry commenters in reply comments filed Friday in docket 05-231 in response to an FCC rulemaking on video closed captioning quality. Though the commission created caption quality standards in February, it also issued a Further NPRM seeking comments on some deferred issues from the rulemaking (CD Feb 21 p5).