FCC Unlikely to Vote at June Meeting
FCC commissioners are unlikely to vote on any items at this month’s meeting (CD June 11 p1)), said agency and industry officials. A June 28 agenda meeting in Portland, Maine, is being combined with a field hearing on broadcaster diligence in meeting license obligations to carry local news and other programming. The June event likely will resemble one in February in Harrisburg, Pa. That meeting was combined with a media ownership field hearing. FCC members did not vote but listened to 3-1/2 hours of testimony and heard from a panel of local TV and radio executives. The FCC hasn’t released a list of speakers for the June meeting.
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One reason this month’s meeting will be voteless is that final rules for the 700 MHz auction likely won’t be ready, said an FCC official, adding that the rules more likely will come up for a vote in July. Though two cable and consumer electronics items were circulated on the 8th floor by Chairman Kevin Martin in time for a June 28 vote, they probably will be voted on outside the gathering, industry and agency officials said. Martin said publicly last week that it’s too soon to say for sure if any items will be voted on in Portland, a view other Commission officials echoed. A Media Bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
Eighth-floor talks on one of those items, a notice of proposed rulemaking on plug-and-play cable devices, probably will center on a pair of competing proposals, said an FCC official. Some commissioners want the notice to include more input from the cable industry, which in November 2005 unveiled plans for software for use with digital cable devices. The draft Martin’s office circulated focuses on 2006 CEA plug-and-play plans, FCC and industry officials said. The impetus for circulation is thought to have been CEA lobbying on behalf of its plans for devices like interactive program guides from TV set makers. CEA’s plug- and-play guidelines would let digital pay-TV subscribers watch cable programming on computers and send it to TV sets, said an industry official.
NCTA hopes the plug-and-play notice will deal with gear to be used by all multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) including satellite providers, not just cable. In a Friday meeting, NCTA officials told an aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell that it would be difficult to make such navigation devices available at retailers if the devices were “'cable ready’ only,” said an ex parte FCC filing: “Therefore, we urged that the Commission seek comment on approaches for an ‘all-MVPD ready’ device that would ensure all consumers are beneficiaries of a robust retail marketplace.” NCTA’s filing said more than 30 percent of pay-TV subscribers get a service other than cable; most get satellite service.
It would be illogical for the Commission to use plug- and-play rules to make cable operators let third parties offer hardware with program guides, since cable operators have a software-based solution that may be cheaper, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May. He compared backers of plug-and-play rules to supporters of a failed bid for cable operators to open their systems to competing broadband providers. “To the maximum extent possible, they want broadband providers, whether they be cable, telephone, wireless, or whatever, to be ‘dumb pipes,” May wrote Tuesday.
Commissioners haven’t finished suggesting changes to the second cable item Martin circulated, a denial of Comcast’s CableCARD waiver request, said an FCC official. The draft would reject Comcast’s bid to have the full Commission kill a January 10 Media Bureau denial of its plea to keep using cheap set-top boxes after a July 1 ban on combining navigation and security features takes effect. Some commissioners find merit in Comcast’s claims that CableCARDs may increase cable costs, but Martin may have the 2 votes he needs to get the denial approved, said a Commission source. As is Commission custom, Martin voted to deny the Comcast waiver request when he circulated the order. The Media Bureau likely will approve several pending waiver requests by Verizon and other new video providers, cable and telecommunications industry executives said. A Verizon spokesman declined comment before the FCC acts on its CableCARD waiver request.
Martin surprised many by not directing the Media Bureau to approve Verizon’s exemption request before speaking Tuesday to NXTCOMM. (See separate report in this issue). Neither did he use his speech to address Bells’ pleas to escape CableCARD rules. Earlier this year, the Bureau approved several waiver requests around the time Martin spoke to CEA and NCTA conventions. The Bureau doesn’t seem poised to issue more waivers the next day or two, said FCC and industry officials.