Service providers need to simplify, automate and secure their networks as rising capital spending and operating cost have become a major issue, Pradeep Sindhu, Juniper Networks’ co-founder and chief technology officer, said in an interview. In light of the flurry of legislative activities on cybersecurity and broadband, he warned of unintended consequences of any government mandates.

Whether pay-TV providers ought to tell subscribers before carriage contracts expire is a hot-button issue, judging from responses to our question at a panel discussion Tuesday about retransmission consent. Broadcast representatives continued to support the idea, which has been floated in FCC filings (CD June 7 p5), and cable executives oppose it. A supporter of notice to subscribers is the New America Foundation, one of the public-interest groups that has joined 14 cable, satellite and telco-TV petitioners in seeking commission intervention in carriage disputes between TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). At several points during the Broadband Breakfast Club discussion, speakers interrupted each other and the moderator.

ESPN 3D’s initial start on cable has been limited by some operators’ reluctance to carry the network as they weigh the costs associated with it against the limited number of 3D TV sets in the market and the technical challenges related to acquiring the programming, industry executives said. Comcast will carry the network, but others are still making up their minds.

DirecTV’s launch of ESPN 3D Friday, and later additions of other 3D programming this month, will help differentiate the company from other TV providers as an early adopter of the technology, said Steven Roberts, senior vice president of new media and business development, who’s overseeing the 3D effort for DirecTV. Extensive work with TV manufacturers will allow the company to remain at the forefront of TV technology, as it did with HD, he said. Dish will also begin to offer 3D later this year, but opted not to sign up now for ESPN 3D, said a Dish executive.

ESPN 3D debuts Friday with the opening World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa, armed only with carriage agreements from Comcast and DirecTV. But ESPN 3D is satisfied with its position at launch, senior executives said in an interview. That’s because ESPN is well ahead of where it was, in terms of coverage of homes, when it began ESPN HD in March 2003, the executives said.

The new Public Safety Alliance, representing leading public safety associations, unveiled a national advertising and grassroots campaign Monday urging Congress to reject an FCC move to auction the 700 MHz D-block rather than allocate it to public safety entities for a national broadband network. Ads are running in print and online this week in major Capitol Hill-focused publications. The group also put together a new website.

LOS ANGELES -- Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said the FCC and Department of Justice should do detailed reviews of the Comcast-NBC merger “considering the impact this merger stands to have on competition and consumers,” as well as the possible negative impact on diversity. Speaking Monday at a House Judiciary Committee field hearing on the merger, Waters stressed the importance of transparency and an open process in the FCC’s review of the merger.

Requests to make and sell portable devices capable of getting mobile DTV broadcasts but without analog tuners were backed in all filings on a petition by Dell and LG, and another by Hauppauge Computer Works, in FCC docket 10-111. Commercial and public broadcasters, several CE trade groups and companies like Intel supported the requests for exemption from FCC Part 15 rules that all TV devices include analog and legacy ATSC DTV tuners. That bodes well for quick commission action on the requests, several supporters told us Monday.

Satellite industry revenue growth slowed to about 11 percent in 2009, slightly lower than the average between 2004 and 2009, the Satellite Industry Association said in its annual state of the satellite industry report Monday. The association treated the slowdown as a major success across all satellite sectors given the large-scale economic contraction that has dragged down other industries around the world. The study was done by the Futron Corp. using independent research and surveys of SIA members and 40 other international and domestic satellite companies.

Broadcasters’ proposals that pay-TV providers give subscribers more notice of carriage disputes won’t fix the broken retransmission-consent system, cable and telco-TV providers told the FCC. Replies from them were posted Friday in docket 10-71 on a petition by 14 providers and public interest groups (CD May 20 p4). Mediacom, Suddenlink, Verizon and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) said such notification would have little effect. Disney and Time Warner Cable, the lead petitioner, debated whether economic analyses show that increases in what TV stations are paid for access to their programming and threatened disputes account for rising cable subscription fees.