The FCC is working to demonstrate it received viewer complaints for each of the 235 Fox affiliates that got letters of inquiry on a January broadcast of American Dad that drew more than 100,000 gripes (CD June 4 p10), agency and industry officials said. That would respond in part to a recent request by a lawyer whose filings represent 86 percent of those affiliates, including some owned by Fox network parent News Corp. The request sought proof that each station had a complaint lodged against it by a viewer in its market.

Debate intensified over the FTC’s proposed regulatory expansion of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as trade organizations submitted comments. In March, the agency said that the rapid evolution of technology since COPPA’s implementation in 2000 called for a thorough re-evaluation of the Act and the possible modification of some of its rules. More than 20 trade associations and technology advocacy groups have since commented on the proposed rule changes, largely insisting that the current regulations sufficiently protect young users of the Web.

Tiered pricing for wireless plans could mean application developers pay more attention to the size of their apps and more Wi-Fi connections, experts said. AT&T’s move to abandon unlimited pricing could prompt others to follow suit, analysts had said (CD June 3, p2).

Dish Network sued the FCC Thursday and seeks temporary injunctive relief from enforcement of a rule it carry local HD programming of public TV stations. Dish filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for Nevada. While Dish highly values PBS programming, “this case is about who gets to make the editorial judgment whether to carry local PBS stations in HD — Dish or the government,” the satellite-TV company said.

It was “more of the same” in the second Hill talk among House and Senate Commerce Committee staffers and about 30 outside parties interested in updating the Telecom Act, said attendee Andrew Schwartzman, senior vice president of the Media Access Project. The gathering, held behind closed doors Friday morning in the Russell Senate Office Building, was a follow up to a June 25 meeting hosted by the House (CD June 28 p1). All attendees from the previous week except Sprint Nextel and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation returned.

Comcast’s efforts to shore up support for the cable operator’s planned purchase of control in NBC Universal bore much fruit last week, with six Latino groups supporting the deal (CD July 1 p14), now also backed by affiliates of the Big Four broadcast TV networks. Late Thursday, Comcast told the FCC it backed five conditions the affiliate groups of ABC, CBS and Fox sought (CD June 23 p3) for the cable operator to distance itself from NBC Universal-owned station carriage deals. Affiliate-group executives said they'll support Comcast-NBC Universal as long as the FCC mandates the conditions in signing off on the multi-billion dollar deal.

President Barack Obama unveiled $795 million in broadband grants and loans the morning after the House appropriators passed an amendment to take back $602 million in available broadband money. The latest batch of awards was matched by $200 million in outside investment, and will benefit 685,000 businesses, 900 healthcare facilities, 2,400 schools and “tens of millions of Americans,” the White House said.

To properly establish and enforce laws against copyright infringement, there must be a balance between allowing innovation to thrive and ensuring that piracy is deterred, speakers said at a copyright policy symposium sponsored by NTIA and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Policy makers must ensure “that online creative works generate benefits to rights holders in the broader economy and not for those who infringe on those rights,” NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said. “The Internet must continue to be a platform for innovation and the introduction of new and dynamic services that will continue to drive e-commerce.” Policies must be “flexible enough to adapt to rapid evolution in Internet technologies, applications and content forums."

House Communications Subcommittee leaders met Thursday with ISPs and others about narrow legislation on network neutrality and the FCC’s broadband jurisdiction. Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., invited Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and most of the companies that talked to the FCC behind closed doors (CD June 25 p8) on June 21, Boucher said. Attendees included AT&T, Verizon, NCTA, Google and the Open Internet Coalition, industry officials said.

Tribune’s planned transfer of waivers from FCC cross-ownership rules on common ownership of radio or TV stations and daily newspapers in the same market as the bankrupt company restructures was supported by a bank that will own more than 5 percent of the new company’s stock and by some unsecured creditors. The company, the official committee of its unsecured creditors and debtholder J.P. Morgan, the administrative agent under a 2007 credit deal that will own a large chunk of stock, opposed petitions to deny the transfers. Wilmington Trust Co., which holds about $1.2 billion in subordinated debt in the owner of TV and radio stations and papers, opposed the deal, along with two unions and four non-profit groups while another union sought a delay (CD June 16 p13).