The implications for the fast-growing online video market of a planned deal for Comcast to buy control of NBC Universal were debated in new FCC filings by the two companies and opponents of their multibillion dollar transaction. As in the past, Comcast, NBC Universal and NBCU parent General Electric said their deal won’t stifle the market, because the risks to the combined company of withholding online programming from pay-TV rivals likely would exceed the profit from such a strategy. FCC staffers continue meeting with each other and outsiders to consider the deal, and much work appears to remain before the Media Bureau starts drafting a decision, commission and industry officials said.
Wireline telcos of all sizes plus the cable industry backed comprehensive Universal Service Fund legislation introduced Thursday by Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., of the House Communications Subcommittee and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. The sponsors are upbeat about winning FCC support and getting the long-gestating bill through Congress, they told reporters Thursday. The measure will rein in the size of the fund and spur broadband deployment, they said. The legislation will make USF “durable and sustainable in the long term,” said Boucher.
Digital sales at LIN TV could reach 25 percent of total sales within three or four years, CEO Vincent Sadusky told investors Thursday. That’s the company’s target and would put it ahead of broadcast peers, he said. Sales from LIN’s TV station websites, mobile applications and retransmission consent now make up about 15 percent of revenue, but all those categories have the potential to keep growing, he said. The company’s recent acquisition of RMM, an online ad company, will help it keep selling new online ad products that incorporate geo-targeting and advanced performance metric-based pricing, Sadusky said.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A push by a broad front of marketing-industry organizations to forestall federal action on behavioral targeting (CD June 15 p10) will burst widely into public view over the next three months, said a co-founder of the company whose technology helps power the disclosure effort. “Self-regulation is happening,” said Colin O'Malley of Better Advertising. “It’s time for everyone to get on board.”
The FCC should not apply “retroactively” Federal Aviation Administration marking and lighting changes for communications towers or replace the FCC’s current “due diligence” standard with inflexible deadlines for lighting repairs, CTIA said in comments on an April 12 notice of proposed rulemaking on construction, marking, and lighting of antenna structures. NAB, PCIA, AT&T and Verizon Wireless also urged the FCC to streamline its tower rules in light of rapidly expanding communications networks.
Public safety would get the 700 MHz D-block under major new bills unveiled separately Tuesday by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz. The latter bill is similar to a House one (HR-5081) introduced a few months ago by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. On a conference call with reporters, senior FCC officials welcomed the Rockefeller bill, even though it clashes with the National Broadband Plan’s recommendation that the band be sold at auction. An agency spokeswoman declined to comment on the McCain-Lieberman legislation.
Software and IT industry groups hailed the administration’s Joint Strategic Plan on IP enforcement Wednesday, reiterating the need for stronger IP protection in the U.S. and abroad. Five industry groups spoke at Wednesday’s House Committee on Small Business hearing to evaluate the impact of intellectual property on entrepreneurship and job creation. They said the administration’s plan was a positive step toward protecting small business from losses incurred by online piracy.
The FCC stood by media ownership deregulation, excusing in five instances licensees from restrictions on owning a daily newspaper and radio or TV station in the same market and allowing such cross-ownership in large cities approved on a party-line vote in December 2007 during Chairman Kevin Martin’s tenure. That was spelled out in a filing Wednesday afternoon to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which is considering industry challenges seeking further deregulation and media consolidation opponents’ requests for stricter rules. Commissioner Michael Copps, who along with then-Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein voted against the congressionally mandated quadrennial review report, slammed the filing, which Chairman Julius Genachowski said he supports because the FCC acted within its discretion.
The FCC’s Sixth Broadband Deployment Report, released late Tuesday, said only a small percentage of Americans don’t have access to broadband -- 14-24 million in a population of almost 310 million (CD July 21 p1) -- but almost one third of U.S. counties are unserved. Broadband “have nots” live in the smallest, most rural parts of the country and tend to be poorer than average, it said, and Native Americans remain largely unserved.
Internet accessibility legislation cleared the House Commerce Committee by a unanimous voice vote Wednesday. The committee reported the bill (HR-3101) to the full House with amendments addressing industry concerns, expanding video description requirements, and establishing an annual $10 million fund to subsidize equipment for the deaf-blind. Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., reaffirmed he wants to see the bills on the House and Senate floors next week in time for the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Senate Commerce Committee passed its own version of the bill (S-3304) last week (CD July 16 p5).