Don’t open the floodgates for more TV programmers to start airing shows based on cartoon characters that hawk goods, by allowing a Viacom cable channel to keep running a show based on characters sell kids’ sneakers, a dozen groups asked the FCC. Those groups and Free Press backed a request by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood that the commission find the Zevo-3 show that began running Oct. 11 on Nicktoons violates the Children’s Television Act. Opposing a petition for declaratory ruling was the cable programmer, Skechers -- the sneaker maker whose Z-Strap, Kewl Breeze and Elastika characters are on the show -- and several ad industry groups. How the FCC treats the petition may show how, under Chairman Julius Genachowski, it will tackle the issue of increased commercialism on kids media (CD Sept 23 p6).

NEW ORLEANS -- Cable engineers are looking at various ways to boost their upstream bandwidth capacity for high-speed data, user-generated video, commercial services and other possible applications, they said at the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers (SCTE) convention. But don’t expect too many moves right away.

An FCC vote on net neutrality principles proposed by Chairman Julius Genachowski in September 2009 appears unlikely before the January open meeting, industry and some agency officials said. Genachowski in particular appears ready to give Congress one last chance to approve net neutrality and broadband reclassification legislation during an expected lame-duck session, though congressional action seems unlikely.

The FCC should block or attach significant retransmission consent conditions to two proposed TV station transactions involving LIN TV, Time Warner Cable said in petitions to deny the deals filed with the FCC Friday. The cable operator is seeking to stop LIN’s purchase of WCWF-TV Suring, Wis., from Acme Communications and Acme’s sale of WBDT-TV Springfield, Ohio, to Vaughn Media, following which the station would be run under a joint sales agreement by LIN. Allowing the transactions would give LIN undue market power in retransmission consent negotiations in the Dayton and Green Bay markets, where it already owns other stations, TWC said in its petitions. LIN and Acme didn’t immediately respond to our queries.

Congress is unlikely to make changes soon to retransmission consent rules despite stepped up lobbying by pay-TV companies trying to make the most of an ongoing dispute between Cablevision and News Corp., according to broadcast, cable and Capitol Hill officials. A bill on FCC handling of such disputes that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has said he'll introduce soon (CD Oct 20 p1) seems unlikely to pass this Congress, they said. Legislators focused on getting re-elected means there’s less time to pay attention now to the blackout of three Fox TV stations owned by News Corp. on Cablevision systems in the New York area, a cable executive acknowledged.

Fox and Cablevision are to describe how they've met a statutory obligation to negotiate in good faith during their retransmission consent dispute, FCC Media Bureau Chief William Lake wrote them Friday. He asked Chase Carey, President of Fox parent company News Corp., and Cablevision CEO James Dolan to explain how each is satisfying the “important statutory obligation” to conduct good-faith negotiations. Also asked: “If you are aware of any conduct by the other side that you believe violates the good faith requirement, please so indicate and provide supporting evidence.” The responses are due at the close of business Monday. Cablevision welcomed the letter. Fox declined to comment.

A federal appeals court rejected an effort to revive a class-action lawsuit against wireless carriers and cellphone makers that had been thrown out on grounds it was preempted by FCC regulations. The case in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Farina v. Cellco, had bounced around the courts since April 2001. The 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., had reached a similar decision two years ago.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said he plans to introduce a bill to end taxpayer funding of public broadcasting. The action comes on the heels of NPR’s firing Senior News Analyst Juan Williams over comments he made about Muslims in an O'Reilly Factor appearance Monday. Williams’ comments “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices,” NPR said Wednesday. The incident “shows that NPR is not concerned about providing the listening public with honest debate of today’s issues, but rather with promoting a one-sided liberal agenda,” DeMint said Friday.

Three dozen nonprofits asked the FCC to resume collecting the numbers of minorities and women employed at each broadcaster, after a lapse of most of the past decade. They said late Thursday it’s far past time for the commission to require radio and TV stations to fill out Form 395-B yearly and for the FCC to disclose publicly each broadcaster’s information. Those requesting the commission action include the Communications Workers of America, Common Cause, Free Press, the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge. Broadcasters have asked that the data be kept private and submitted to a third party, not the FCC, a position that some still support, said nonprofit and industry officials.

Verizon reported net income of $881 million in Q3, down from $1.18 billion a year earlier. The results included 25 cents per share in non-operational charges, including a noncash charge related to pension settlements. Verizon Wireless added 997,000 net new customers --compared with 1.3 million a year earlier -- bringing its total to 93.2 million.