TV Music License Committee sees real progress in its music licensing agreement with BMI, officials said here. Settlement at least partially accepts TV station arguments that each station’s actual audience is down, and that amount of music used on each station is down because of growth of news, talk and reality programming, said Catherine Nierle of Post-Newsweek Stations. Settlement also includes license covering stations’ web sites, both for live and archived streaming, and DTV signals, she said. One concern, said broadcaster lawyer Bruce Rich, is that new licensing firm, SESAC, is competing for music composers by promising higher license fees. Traditional groups BMI and ASCAP have had to counter with their own fee promises, Rich said, and broadcasters worry fees will be passed on to them. New final se agreements provide local broadcast TV stations with public performance rights to BMI’s repertoire of about 4.5 million musical works. Agreements run from April 1999 through Dec. 2004. Parties agreed to settlement for April 1999 through Dec. 2001 period that will be paid by local TV stations over next 3 years along with their newly agreed to fees. Stations licensed on blanket basis will pay their allocated share of $85 million annual blanket base fee. Stations also may choose per-program license agreement, and will pay their allocated share of $98.1 million per program base fee. Under new agreements, stations can Webcast locally produced news and news-based public affairs programming on live or archived basis from their Internet sites. Stations’ digital TV signals also are covered in agreements. “We have worked hard with representatives from the local television industry to create an agreement that fairly compensates BMI songwriters, composers and music publishers and encourages our television customers to use BMI works for the purpose of increasing their viewership,” BMI CEO Frances Preston said. TMLC Co- Chmn Charles Sennet said new agreement “provides fair compensation to BMI for their share of the music we broadcast on local television. This was and will continue to be the focus of our negotiations with all music performing rights organizations.”
Motorola asked FCC Tues. to postpone 700 MHz auction now set for June 19, urging it not to hold sale “prematurely.” Motorola request came within days of similar petition by CTIA that asked FCC to delay auction because of uncertainties and “contradictions” involving process. “While the Commission has adopted voluntary mechanisms for relocating broadcasters through negotiated buyouts by new licensees, these voluntary mechanisms provide no certainty as to when or if the spectrum will actually be available,” Motorola wrote to FCC Chmn. Powell. Motorola Vp Richard Barth said Powell’s call last week for voluntary efforts by broadcast, cable and manufacturing industries to move quickly on initiatives that would accelerate DTV transition was “important step.” But he added: “With the spectrum auction looming, additional time is required to judge the full impact that your leadership will have in bringing certainty to the availability of this spectrum.” Motorola also cited current FCC proceeding to identify additional spectrum for 3G and to mitigate public safety interference at 800 MHz. In both proceedings, several options are under consideration for relocating incumbents, resolving interference and finding spectrum for new services, Motorola said. “The 700 MHz spectrum could play a significant role in resolving the difficult issues before the Commission in these proceedings,” letter said. “Therefore, it is our belief that the Commission should not squander an opportunity to assemble a comprehensive strategy, developed as a cooperative effort with NTIA and industry, by auctioning off this spectrum prematurely.” Letter noted that U.S. govt.’s study of 1710-1770 MHz and 2110-2170 MHz band for 3G and other advanced services wouldn’t wrap up until after June 19 auction. “It is not possible for mobile service providers to make accurate business judgments about the need to participate in the 700 MHz auction without knowing whether the 120 MHz of spectrum under consideration in the NTIA and FCC study will be available for commercial service,” Motorola said. It said uncertainties on availability of 700 MHz spectrum would have detrimental impact on prices those licenses fetched at auction and ability for carriers to use spectrum. Motorola said that in previous postponements of upper band of 700 MHz, FCC had weighed conflicting statutory mandates and found that public interest obligation favored delay.
FCC released its 4th quarter 2001 inflation factor Tues. for cable operators that use FCC Form 1240. Factor was adjusted down to -0.11%, and cable operators may adjust nonexternal cost portion of their rates for inflation accordingly.
LAS VEGAS -- Internet will be offering regular programming “very soon” -- within 2 years -- on home computers and within 10 years will be able to provide just about everything free TV has to offer, said Lawrence Roberts, chmn. of technology firm Caspian Network. TV group heads on same “supersession” at NAB convention here Tues. didn’t disagree, but all participants (including Roberts) agreed over-air TV stations would remain vibrant. Public won’t watch TV on computer screens, said Lowell Paxson, CEO of Pax TV: “We have a great future” in over-air TV.
FCC has surveyed every cable channel in U.S. in its continuing effort to develop new rules on horizontal and vertical ownership limits for cable MSOs. Survey asks details about each channel’s number of subscribers at end of calendar year in which it became profitable and extent of each channel’s audience reach. As part of its look at monopsony power, Commission is trying to determine how wide reach cable channel needs -- in other words, how much carriage across cable systems is required -- to be profitable. Survey was sent Feb. 15, and replies were due March 15. Spokeswoman for FCC Media Bureau said responses were being kept private.
LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters and content producers at NAB convention here have been seeking digital rights management (DRM) solutions, and at least 2 leading IT experts chose to dedicate portion of their addresses to that topic. However, Microsoft vp and Netscape founder, not surprisingly, had differing approaches. Meanwhile, counsel for Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.) defended selection of FCC as agency to design and enforce DRM solution if one isn’t developed by industry, prospect that Commission’s chief of staff didn’t appear to greet with enthusiasm.
Top Transportation Dept. officials, including Secy. Norman Mineta, urged public safety officials, wireless industry and local govts. to step up implementation of Enhanced 911. Mineta, DoT Chief of Staff John Flaherty and National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Jeffrey Runge spoke at E911 summit in Arlington, Va. Mon. “Events of Sept. 11 highlight the need to be able to quickly and precisely locate people when they make 911 calls on cellular phones,” Mineta said. “When people are injured, response time is critical in determining survivability, and bringing experts together like this will help expedite deployment of wireless E911.” Summit participants included representatives of CTIA, Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials International, National Assn. of State 911 Administrators, FCC, International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, National Governors Assn., National Conference of State Legislatures. Mineta convened E911 summit and gave keynote lunch speech. CTIA said summit’s Wireless E911 Steering Council called for implementation of programs for model location, knowledge transfer and outreach. “Establishing statewide representatives to coordinate E911 implementation will help the wireless industry get the job done,” CTIA spokeswoman said. Industry source said Mineta’s comments focused, in part, on 40,000 lives lost on roadways each year and extent to which broader E911 deployment could help mitigate highway accidents. Model program to which summit participants committed would involve up to 8 states, as yet unnamed, source said. Program would focus on rapid deployment of E911 programs in those states, which could provide lessons learned for states whose rollouts weren’t as far along, source said.
Local number portability (LNP) administrator Neustar in letter to FCC disputed some of concerns raised by CTIA over Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC). CTIA had raised concerns in earlier letter about ability of NPAC to handle increased volume of number ports that would result from wireless LNP implementation, now set for Nov. 24. CTIA said it had “serious concerns” about ability of NPAC to handle stepped-up port volumes after wireless LNP rolled out, saying LNP Administration Working Group had held emergency meeting on problems related to NPAC. In April 2 letter to FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Thomas Sugrue and Wireline Competition Bureau Chief Dorothy Attwood, Neustar said working group meeting wasn’t held to talk about “NPAC- generated problems. Rather the meeting was held to address issues relating to the ability of some carriers to handle and process large quantities of data in a recovery situation.” That type of recovery scenario could include one carrier’s taking its network offline during normal operations or carrier outage of operations support system. In some cases, Neustar said carriers have run into problems downloading large backlog of data during recovery situation. It said data backlog occurred when carrier’s system went down for period and data from NPAC, which still was being processed, built up. Issues raised at meeting of working group last month “are not generated by volumes of transactions related to pooling or porting,” Neustar said. “The concerns discussed relate to the ability of the carrier’s existing OSS technology to process backlogged data and are addressable through coordination among all of the industry parties in the ordinary course of business.” Neustar also urged FCC to adopt schedule for contracting and initiating testing with NPAC in anticipation of Nov. 24 deadline for wireless LNP. “We believe that such testing is vital to the successful implementation of the FCC’s objectives,” it said. “Phased national rollout schedule” was key component of implementation of wireline LNP 5 years ago, Neustar said. Verizon Wireless has asked FCC to forbear on Nov. 24 wireless LNP implementation deadline and other major carriers are asking for at least delay.
NCTA and NAB are at it again over dual must-carry, with argument focusing this time on what is or isn’t burdensome for cable operators. Latest salvo came from NCTA Senior Vp- Law & Regulatory Policy Daniel Brenner, who in letter to FCC Chmn. Powell Tues. disputed study that NAB paid for based on Commission’s survey of cable operators on their current and expected capacity to carry channels. NCTA paid for its own study and found that NAB’s conclusions were “largely based on erroneous legal assumptions as to what is and is not burdensome for purposes of assessing the constitutionality of a dual must-carry requirement.” NAB’s study by Merrill Weiss Group concluded that dual must-carry requirement during digital transition wouldn’t impose significant burden. “But it is wrong on the law, and therefore it has no basis for its conclusion regarding the burden,” Brenner wrote. NCTA’s study, by PDS Consulting, found that dual must-carry would impinge on cable operators’ ability to provide other services, such as video-on-demand (VoD), high-speed Internet, telephony.
LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters should “just completely ignore” Hollywood in fight over digital rights management, HDNet Chmn. Mark Cuban said at NAB convention here. He said Hollywood program producers had “created a chicken little environment” with claims that DTV would be pirated, including via transmission over Internet. Other speakers here said DTV transition was going much better than most believed, topping speed of transition to such technologies as VCRs and color TV sets.