DirecTV customers in San Diego are experiencing a blackout of KFMB-TV (CBS) San Diego -- that blackout being "one of the main reasons everyday people are fed up with Washington," the American Television Alliance said Friday, repeating its frequent push for changes in retransmission consent rules. KFMB didn't comment.

NAB and Nexstar are pushing back at a Mediacom petition for new blackout rules. It's "little more than a cynical ploy to curry favorable governmental treatment to lower its costs and help its bottom line," NAB said in an FCC filing posted Friday in RM-11752. Mediacom in July petitioned the FCC to adopt rules preventing local broadcasters from imposing blackouts unless a station's signal is available for free over-the-air or via Internet streaming to 90 percent of the homes in the relevant market (see 1507070061). "Their comical plea might as well have been delivered ... on the back of a unicorn," NAB said as it argued against Mediacom's assertion broadcasters are focused primarily on satellite uplink facilities and multiplexing their signals to the detriment of free public access to those signals, not extending the public's free access to those signals. Mediacom's proposal "is just one more filing [by an MVPD] seeking Commission assistance to avoid negotiating in good faith to reach fair and equitable terms," Nexstar said as it echoed NAB's assertion that the FCC lacks the authority to make such a move. Mediacom "conflates the broadcaster obligation to serve the needs and interests of their communities with a requirement that broadcasters transmit viewable signals via MVPDs," Nexstar said. The broadcaster called the proposal unworkable because it would require the FCC to both define "active" negotiation and come up with a means for determining that a specified percentage of MVPD subscribers were also reached by a broadcaster's over-the-air signal at a particular point in time.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit partially affirmed and partially overturned a 2013 Copyright Royalty Board decision that gave the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and 22 other religious ministries that own copyrights on devotional TV programming 59 percent to 62.86 percent of royalties for cable programming aired between 2000 and 2003. The CRB had ruled that the Independent Producers Group would receive 37.14 percent to 41.02 percent of royalties. The religious ministries had argued that they should receive full royalties on the programming because IPG had no “valid, compensable claims” within the devotional programming category. IPG proposed they receive 37.3 percent to 53.1 percent of royalties. The religious groups objected to IPG’s claim to represent several of the ministries, saying BGEA revoked IPG’s agreements for 2002 and 2003. The three-judge D.C. Circuit panel -- Judges Janice Brown, Brett Kavanaugh and Patricia Millett -- vacated the CRB’s ultimate royalty allocation Friday, ruling it “was arbitrary and capricious” since the royalty judges had rejected the allocations proposed by both the ministries and IPG. “Settling royalty distributions by agreement reflects a separate avenue for resolving royalty distributions under the Copyright Act, subject to its own requirements,” Millett said in the court’s opinion. “In this case, any intersection of the two parties’ numbers was the product of accident, not agreement.” The CRB must now re-examine the royalty allocations, the court ruled. The D.C. Circuit also said, however, the CRB “reasonably determined” that IPG had authority to represent four of the claimant ministries and “reasonably declined” consideration of the ministries’ claim for full royalties. The ministries are generally pleased with the D.C. Circuit’s ruling, said Pillsbury Winthrop lawyer Matthew MacLean, who represented the ministries in the case. The ministries are confident the CRB will re-examine the royalties allocation based on evidence instead of “simply splitting the baby,” MacLean said. The IPG takes issue with the D.C. Circuit’s vacation of the existing CRB royalties allocation because the court appeared to suggest the IPG’s allocation methodology was “100 percent worthless,” said Pick & Boydston lawyer Brian Boydston. The CRB in reality was critical of the IPG methodology but didn’t completely discount it, he said. The D.C. Circuit “could have reached a different decision if it saw it that way,” Boydston said. “I’ll be curious to see what the CRB judges have in mind.”

The top three broadband providers on the Netflix U.S. ISP Speed Index in July maintained their respective positions from the June rankings, with Cox in first at an average streaming speed of 3.62 Mbps, followed by Cablevision Optimum and Verizon FiOS, the video streaming service said in a Monday blog post. Charter jumped two spots and is now in fourth place, bumping Comcast down to No. 5. Suddenlink dropped two spots to seventh, while Time Warner Cable climbed one position to No. 8. Frontier, Windstream, CenturyLink, Verizon DSL and Clearwire rounded out the bottom half of the list of major ISPs. Bell Canada Fiber Optic took the top spot on the July Canadian index with an average speed of 3.73 Mbps. MTS Fiber Optic finished in the second spot for the month in Canada and Bell Aliant Fiber Optic finished third.

Chairman Tom Wheeler likely will begin circulating a retransmission consent NPRM this week, as the Sept. 4 deadline set by Congress to launch it looms, New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin emailed investors. The 2014 Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization Act, which became law Dec. 4, gave the FCC nine months to start a rulemaking "to review its totality of the circumstances test for good faith negotiations under clauses 12 (ii) and (iii) of section 325(b)(3)(C) of the Communications Act." An FCC spokesman Tuesday declined to comment on a time frame for an NPRM to be circulated but said the agency "will meet the statutory deadline." While the FCC has to begin the process by Sept. 4, "it did not set a date for completion," Chaplin said Monday, adding that if not tackled within the next 12 months, it may become an item for the next FCC to resolve. While Wheeler's draft likely will recommend dramatic changes in retrans rules, it probably will put limits on the broadcaster practice of requiring cable multichannel video programming distributors to guarantee that networks reach a certain percentage of customers -- a practice that has been criticized by a number of organizations and businesses already advocating for retrans consent rule changes (see 1508100030). The FCC also likely will look kindly on the idea of not allowing the blocking of Internet access to blocked programming during a retrans blackout when the programming is otherwise available, Chaplin said. The agency also might address the nonduplication rule and eliminate the requirement that MVPDs block duplicate carriage of the same program being carried on a nonlocal broadcast signal that is being imported, as that gives broadcasters "a regulatory, extra-contractual mechanism to exclude competing sources of network and syndicated programming on MVPD lineups," Chaplin said. All those changes would not "dramatically shift the leverage between broadcasters and MVPDs" while still giving some help to MVPDs, he said.

Univision and Common Sense Media are kicking off a campaign to highlight the importance of Internet connectivity to education, the broadcaster said in a news release Monday. Called ¡Avanzamos Connectados! (Connected, We Advance!), the campaign will use public service announcements, news segments and educational outreach to address “the homework gap” -- the disparity between schools that are connected to broadband and homes that are, Univision said. ¡Avanzamos Connectados! will focus on informing parents about the relationship between broadband access and education, provide guidelines for safe Internet use, and “connect Hispanics with local resources to get broadband access and computer hardware at the best value,” the release said. Along with the public service announcements and outreach, Univision and Common Sense will use phone banks, Facebook and Twitter town halls to speak with families about the program, the broadcaster said. Univision is also launching a text messaging platform and a new section of its mobile website that will help parents identify discounted broadband and computer services by ZIP code, and find local Internet training, it said. The Hispanic Heritage Foundation, Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media, League of United Latin American Citizens, National Hispanic Media Coalition and National PTA are also involved in the program, it said.

NAB opposes any commission action that would allow third parties to view “commercially sensitive, confidential information” involved in Charter Communications’ proposed buy of Time Warner Cable, association officials told aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel in phone calls and meetings Wednesday, said an ex parte filing in docket 15-149. “NAB does not object to Commission review of such material, but knows of no persuasive reason for third party access to such documents.” The FCC should move forward with its review of Charter/TWC and examine proposals concerning the review of video programming confidential information in a separate proceeding, NAB said. “Such a proceeding would be consistent with the Commission’s obligations under the Administrative Procedure Act.”

Broadcasters that don't make a contract proposal at least 90 days before expiration of an existing one; prevent a multichannel video programming distributor from divulging rates and terms of a contract proposal to the FCC or other government entity in connection with a legal or administrative hearing; or discriminate in price among MVPDs in a particular market without demonstrating legitimate economic benefit reasons to do so should be considered to be failing to negotiate in good faith, the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 10-71. With the FCC expected to commence a rulemaking on the circumstances test for good faith negotiations, ITTA representatives including President Genny Morelli met with Media Bureau staff Wednesday to discuss retransmission consent negotiation issues. Broadcasters have a variety of negotiating tools at their disposal, including blocking access to online content, ceding the right to negotiate to third parties, and program tying -- all of which should be considered violations of the duty to negotiate in good faith, ITTA said. If the FCC doesn't go so far as to prohibit program tying, it should look at tier placement and penetration requirements as indications of bad faith, ITTA said. Small and new-entrant MVPDs are particularly targeted by such broadcaster tactics as the manipulation of an initial contract offer to "a last-minute, 'take-it-or-leave-it' proposal"; nondisclosure provisions that block legal or regulatory remedies; and discriminatory pricing, ITTA said. "Without non-discriminatory access to programming content under reasonable terms and conditions, smaller and new entrant MVPDs face a competitive disadvantage that impedes their ability to compete and/or deters them from entering new video markets altogether."

Eligible Microsoft shareholders are able to nominate candidates for positions on the company's board due to a newly adopted corporate policy, the company said in a blog post Friday. The policy allows up to 20 shareholders -- having each held the stock for at least three years -- collectively holding at least 3 percent of the company's outstanding shares to nominate up to two individuals or 20 percent of the board for election, the software maker said. "This proxy access framework strikes the right balance for Microsoft by ensuring that board nominees are supported by long-term shareholders representing a significant, but attainable, proportion of outstanding shares."

The $1 billion CBS expects to make next year is part of "the greatest heist ever perpetuated on the American people," the American Television Alliance said Friday. ATVA pointed to comments earlier in the week by CBS CEO Leslie Moonves about revenue the company was making from retransmission and reverse compensation. Moonves told analysts during a conference call that the company expected to pass $1 billion in retrans and reverse compensation next year, a year ahead of schedule. That is "solid evidence" of "broken regulations that rig the game in favor of the big special interest at the expense of the American consumer," ATVA said. "Broadcasters are bilking billions from TV fans for broadcast signals that are 'free' over the air. What's worse is that Congress has failed to modernize the old, broken laws that permit the theft." CBS didn't comment Friday.