Many TV stations probably won’t be able to broadcast to mobile devices anytime soon, because of an FCC action Tuesday (CD June 1 p20), industry lawyers and executives said in interviews. They said the Media Bureau decision to stop accepting applications to change TV channels means the several hundred broadcasters using VHF channels must stay there for the foreseeable future. The so-called freeze starting Tuesday on petitions to substitute digital channels was long awaited by some, but surprising to others, they said. Broadcasters who hadn’t sought moves can’t, foreclosing moving to the UHF band where it’s much easier to do mobile DTV, industry executives and lawyers said. More stations sought to move to UHF last week, citing mobile DTV.
GENEVA -- Some power line telecom gear already on the market and future development of industry specifications for systems using frequencies above 80 MHz may adversely affect a critically important aeronautical instrument landing system, or hobble broadcaster and scientific use in bands up to about 400 MHz, said participants Thursday at an ITU forum on the co-existence of power line telecom (PLT) systems and radiocommunication services. New high-data rate systems that use or may adversely affect frequencies in the HF, VHF, and UHF bands are being introduced into the market, they said.
The largest combination of radio stations in many years likely will be approved later in 2011 and perhaps with few FCC conditions, agency and industry officials predicted based on the Media Bureau review so far. Cumulus in March agreed to buy Citadel in a $2.4 billion deal to form a company with more than 550 radio stations in about 120 markets. Last week, the companies said the transaction should be approved and offered more reasons, which an opponent of media consolidation said sweeten the possible public interest benefits. The transaction and another deal for $500 million may spur a small renaissance in the previously moribund market for radio station mergers and acquisitions, a consultant predicted, although a broker isn’t so sure.
CEA joined with a frequent foe, the RIAA, to announce support for H. Con. Res. 42, which opposes mandating FM chips in cellphones. The resolution, sponsored by Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., also recognizes what it calls the unique, cooperative and beneficial relationship between CE innovators, wireless companies and the music community, CEA and RIAA said. CTIA and the Recording Academy also joined in supporting it. “An FM chip mandate is unnecessary and unjustified,” CEA President Gary Shapiro said. “These new mobile devices are platforms for innovation and creativity, and Americans can decide for themselves what functions and features they want. Requiring today’s digital phones to include an analog FM chip makes as much sense as requiring them to include a telegraph."
Congress shouldn’t mandate FM chips on cellphones, said a House resolution introduced late Thursday by Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. H Con Res 42 also said Congress should protect creators of intellectual property and “provide economic incentives that will encourage American artists, creators, and innovators to take the necessary risks to create and innovate.” Issa said “Congress’s imposition of needless technology mandates on the wireless market would hurt consumers by creating tremendous harm to the innovation and creativity that continues to spring forward from this industry.” Eshoo said consumers “deserve to enjoy the technology that’s most appropriate to them” and government shouldn’t “mandate specific technology that limits the way consumers listen to local news, information, and music.” The NAB “supports the inclusion of radio chips in mobile devices, and we would prefer that this be done on a voluntary basis by the carriers,” an association spokesman said. “For public safety reasons alone in an era of terrorism, AMBER Alerts and weather emergencies, there is a strong argument for including broadcast radio reception capability in all mobile devices."
In pushing for incentive spectrum auctions, “I sort of wish we had started with satellite spectrum,” rather than broadcast TV, FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker told the NAB show in Las Vegas. She participated in a Q-and-A late Tuesday with NAB President Gordon Smith. “I think that would have been a better proof of concept,” Baker said. Broadcasters “deserve more details” about what will happen if voluntary incentive auctions for TV spectrum occur, she said. “Mobile television is really starting to take off.” The agency should take a long-term view about what broadcasters will be able to do with their spectrum, she said. “I understand your frustration.” The commission should proceed with its review of media ownership rules and probably look at them in the context of its spectrum reallocation goals, Baker said. “I think they need to take into account the whole picture,” she said. “If we are going to ask a player to remove themselves from a market,” the regulator should also look at how that would implicate duopoly rules and other ownership limits, she said. The commission should also look at ways beyond spectrum auctions to spur innovation, Baker said. “We need to look at a much broader picture.” Incentive auctions should be one tool in a larger toolbox, she said. That could include giving broadcasters more technical flexibility to use advanced compression and transmission systems, she said. “MPEG-4 has a lot of promise” for broadcasting, she said. Baker also encouraged broadcasters to work with the FCC on incentive auctions. “I think these discussions shouldn’t be acrimonious, and I'm sorry it started that way.” There is some evidence to suggest that FM receivers are making their way into cellphones and consumers who want those devices will be able to get them, Baker said. “There’s some evidence that the market is working and there will be cellphones with radios.” Baker said she doesn’t support mandates that would require FM chips in cellphones.
The Japan earthquake and tsunami could result in significant shortages of some electronic components and possible sharp price increases, said HIS Global Insight analysts. The components affected could include NAND flash memory, dynamic random access memory, microcontrollers, standard logic, LCD panels, and LCD parts and materials, they said. The research firm said Japan produces about 60 percent of the world’s semiconductor chips. The supply chain has about two weeks of excess component inventory in the pipeline for semiconductor parts affected by the quake, the analysts said, so shortages aren’t expected until late March or early April. But the shortages and their price effects probably will linger until Q3, they said.
Serious issues continue to surround European satellite navigation system Galileo, EU lawmakers said Monday at a European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy Committee meeting. On the agenda was discussion of a draft report by Vladimir Remek, of the Czech Republic and the European United Left-Nordic Green Left, responding to the European Commission’s mid-term review of Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (CD Jan 19 p10). Among so-far-unanswered questions are how Galileo will be funded, exploited and governed, panel members said.
The New Jersey Broadcasters Association supported creating a congressional caucus on emergency alert systems. In its weekly newsletter, the association said Friday the caucus would “bring emergency messaging and security conscious law makers together to introduce and pass legislation that fortifies our nation’s EAS; immediately activate and/or put FM chips in all cell phones and handheld devices; increase the number of PEP stations for true nationwide coverage, and generally support and strengthen our emergency communications broadcast capabilities and network around the United States.” Primary entry point stations help disseminate EAS messages.
Comcast is maneuvering to “destroy” Hollywood unions, Writers’ Guild of America West board members Chip Johannessen and Patric Verrone said on the guild’s website. At issue is Comcast’s opposition to efforts by its TV shows’ writers to unionize. “Despite what Comcast promised when it was under the microscope of federal merger hearings, it is now clear that they're not interested in maintaining Hollywood’s union environment,” the board members said. The writers said Comcast’s official corporate policy “is more frankly expressed in their anti-union training manual,” which they quoted as saying, “Comcast does not feel union representation is in the best interest of its employees, customers, or shareholders.” Johannessen and Verrone said unions are an integral part of the entertainment business. “Comcast thinks it can pull a sleight of hand, labeling some of its writers ‘Comcast,’ and [therefore] non-union, when across the hall there is NBC. That may be the way they built the cable company with the worst customer satisfaction ratings in America, but we can’t let it be the way they behave here. None of us can."