Small cable operators and groups opposed to media consolidation on one side, and media allies on the other disagreed whether the FCC should reconsider newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership and other media-holdings restrictions as NAB wants. The association and Nexstar petitioned for reconsideration, which the American Cable Association opposed (see 1701250054). About a dozen groups including unions and led by the United Church of Christ opposed such deregulation, but it was backed by Cox Media Group and the News Media Alliance (NMA). Filings were posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 14-50 and the subject of an NMA news release Thursday. The UCC, Communications Workers of America, National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Prometheus Radio Project and others said broadcasters raised no new facts not already considered by the regulator. "The US Court of Appeals, which has retained jurisdiction over the remand in Prometheus III [the court case is named after that group] directed the Commission to assess the impact of any repeal or modification of an ownership rule on opportunities for station ownership by women and minorities. The Commission has conducted no such assessment" here, said the consolidation foes. "Neither petition mentions, much less challenges, the Commission’s threshold determination that it is premature to change the media ownership rules before it has had a chance to evaluate the 'dramatic effect' that spectrum auctions will have on the broadcast marketplace." Comments related to FCC plans for shuffling TV stations after the incentive auction were the subject of separate filings posted this week (see 1701260033). Cox Media sees the rules retaining long-time hurdles to one company owning a broadcaster and daily paper in the same market as a "veritable museum of the way things used to be." When the 1996 Telecom Act mandated periodic review of media ownership rules, Congress didn't "expect the endless cycle of delay, court appeals, and regulatory inertia that have characterized the past two decades of biennial and then quadrennial reviews," said the broadcaster. Nix "this analog-era rule once and for all," wrote NMA. "In the remarkable seven years it took the FCC to conduct its 2014 quadrennial review, the Commission compiled a record clearly demonstrating that the cross-ownership ban is a musty anachronism that undermines the very values for which it was promulgated. Yet, inexplicably, the Commission concluded its review in August 2016 by deciding to retain the rule in essentially the same form in which it was adopted in 1975."

The FCC TV incentive auction won't total more than about $10 billion, according to just-released agency figures. The reverse auction clearing cost for Stage 4 is $10.05 billion, said the FCC Public Reporting System. That's down from approximately $40 billion that previously would have been needed to close the auction in the past stage. Some we previously canvassed expected a major drop from that $40 billion figure, but not all the way to $10 billion.

President Barack Obama sent the renomination of Jessica Rosenworcel to the Senate, for its new session that began Tuesday. Her last day as an FCC member was also Tuesday. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., whose committee would need to OK Rosenworcel before the full Senate could vote on her reappointment, had signaled her imminent return to the agency was unlikely.

Chairman Tom Wheeler is leaving the FCC on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, he confirmed Thursday morning before the commissioners' meeting. That would leave the commission with one Democratic member, Mignon Clyburn, who earlier this week told us that she will stay during her term, and two Republicans, Mike O'Rielly and Ajit Pai. That is assuming that Jessica Rosenworcel is not reconfirmed; she is not expected to be.

This Communications Daily Special Report on net neutrality covers the events spanning a period from commissioners voting Feb. 26, 2015, to approve an FCC ban against internet providers discriminating in the content they deliver to broadband subscribers and reclassifying such service, all the way through to court challenges that continue to this day. This Special Report contains four parts. Each excerpts multiple stories written over many months by Communications Daily journalists including Howard Buskirk and David Kaut.

A federal court sided with AT&T in overturning an FCC VoIP symmetry ruling that had allowed local competitors to collect higher switching charges for routing over-the-top long-distance calls to local phone customers. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously reversed the commission's February 2015 ruling that CLECs in partnership with over-the-top VoIP providers were providing the "functional equivalent" of end-office switching and thus could collect associated access charges, instead of the lower charges associated with tandem switching.

Odds of AT&T's $108.7 billion buy of Time Warner getting regulatory OK are about even, wrote a stock analyst, based on conversations with about 20 experts, including former FCC chairmen, ex-commissioners and congressional telecom staffers. Though the analyst, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett, said the approval faces a 50-50 probability, "many of them felt it is nearly impossible to assign any odds at this stage," he wrote Monday of his contacts. "At the time of this writing, Time Warner shares trade at a yawning 24% discount to AT&T’s offer price of $107.50." Odds would be lower than even for approval if the FCC reviews the deal, higher if the commission doesn't, Moffett emailed us Tuesday of the consensus of his interviews. A reason "this transaction is so hard to forecast is that we don’t even know at this point who will conduct the review," Moffett noted of whether the FCC will review the deal or just DOJ. "On one point, there was clear consensus. This process will take a long time. The consensus was to look for an early 2018 decision, with the full process likely taking eighteen months. The key issue is the relatively cumbersome process of personnel changeovers that are coming at the FCC and DOJ" with the presidential elections. The telco looks "forward to discussing the many benefits of this transaction with regulators and legislators," said a past statement (see 1610260070) from General Counsel David McAtee that a company spokesman pointed us to Tuesday. "In the modern history of the media and the Internet, the U.S. government has always approved vertical mergers like ours, because they benefit consumers, strengthen competition, and, in our case, encourage innovation and investment.” Zero rating and programming access likely will be a key focus of government review of the combination, experts have told us (see 1611020034).

Robert McDowell became the latest lawyer to leave Wiley Rein for another law firm. Cooley hired the former Republican FCC commissioner, he and the firms told us Wednesday. McDowell, who was a partner in Wiley's Telecom, Media & Technology practice, now is a partner at Cooley. With Michael Basile, McDowell is co-leader of Cooley's global communications practice, said McDowell. The two communications lawyers succeed practice head John Feore, who remains a partner at Cooley. Feore "wanted to pass the baton to the younger generation," said a Cooley spokeswoman. McDowell said "many" clients remain with him in his new practice, which the firm representative said has 15-20 lawyers in Washington and many more globally. The entire firm employs 900-some attorneys, said McDowell. The "energy, breadth and depth of the Cooley platform is simply irresistible and it’s a very exciting firm that is bringing a lot of new companies, disruptive new companies, to market," McDowell said. Cooley is a multinational firm with many practices including securities, capital formation and litigation, he said. Wiley has been a smaller law firm than Cooley, and more focused on communications, with a lobbying outfit that last month said it renamed itself Signal Group. During September, DLA Piper said it hired two well-known attorneys from Wiley who used to help run Wiley Rein practices in the communications area, others left the firm (see 1609290039), and it promoted David Gross and Kathleen Kirby to co-chairs of the Telecom, Media & Technology practice (see 1609070040). Wiley Rein looks "forward to continuing to maintain a personal and professional relationship with" McDowell, said Gross in a written statement. "The firm is strategically transforming and growing our preeminent Telecom, Media & Technology Practice, which remains the largest in the country.” Richard Wiley, a former Republican FCC chairman who is the firm's chairman emeritus, co-founded the firm in 1983. Like Basile, Feore came to Cooley when it bought Dow Lohnes almost three years ago (see report in the Oct. 16, 2013, issue). Cooley was founded in Silicon Valley in the 1920s.

Even as FCC commissioners began their monthly meeting sans the unlock-the-box order, the item remains on circulation and some parties tell us they're hopeful a version of an apps-based proposal ultimately will be adopted. After a flurry of lobbying by all affected parties as the sunshine period began last week, agency officials told us revisions to the order were in the works. All FCC Democratic members announced just before their meeting began at 10:30 a.m. Thursday they're working toward a resolution.

The FCC exceeds all but one other federal commission in after-hours document issuances, Communications Daily found, a practice that has the effect of delaying reaction by affected parties and that raises transparency concerns. Almost every other business day last quarter, the FCC on average posted something online about an hour after regular hours end at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Only the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) exceeded during Q2 the 27 items the FCC released after business hours, and most other agencies issued no evening items, we found through Freedom of Information Act and other requests to independent federal commissions with a national purview. Over half of late FCC items were from Chairman Tom Wheeler's office. The FCC released another 32 items between 5 p.m. and 5:29 p.m., also after most agencies stop issuing documents.