A chain of truck stops can’t start a wireless TV service that would require waivers to operate in a band used by broadcasters, cable programmers and the federal government, said the FCC. The “entirely new use” of the cable-TV relay service band to run a multichannel video distribution system at Flying J truck stops throughout the U.S. shouldn’t be pursued by a waiver, said an order approved by commissioners and released Tuesday. It said such a change is “the province of a rulemaking.” Since 2006, when Clarity Media Systems first requested the waivers that were a year later denied by the Media Bureau, that company’s owner, Flying J, has filed for bankruptcy and in 2010 combined with another truck stop chain.

Lengthy and repeated retransmission consent violations harming six TV stations owned by Disney, News Corp. and other major broadcasters led FCC members to approve a proposed $2.25 million fine against a master antenna operator. Affiliated companies known as TV Max and by other names violated retrans rules for more than a year in the Houston market, and continued after the Media Bureau in December (CD Jan 3 p11) required the firm to stop the alleged violations, said a commission notice of apparent liability Tuesday. The NAL said that after transactions to “evade responsibility for its ongoing violations,” the “flagrant,” “longstanding” and “egregious” violations didn’t lead to an even higher proposed fine because the company has “only” 10,000 customers, operates in a single market and isn’t part of a larger cable operator.

U.S. radio stations, starting to seek to test all-digital AM broadcasts, have also been adopting the type of HD Radio broadcasts that already are authorized by the FCC as some in the industry and at the commission seek to revitalize the band, said industry officials in interviews Thursday. Beasley Broadcast Group sought experimental authority from the agency to run WNCT(AM) Greenville, N.C., in “all digital transmission mode,” it said in a Tuesday letter. It said NAB would participate in the test, and industry officials told us they believe another broadcaster had also done such tests with help from the association.

Nonprofits, tribes and government agencies can seek low-power FM stations Oct. 15-29 in the first such LPFM filing window since 2001, in what Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn called a “unique opportunity.” The time to file Form 318s, which were revised for the window, fits with expectations of nonprofits that back low-power radio, their officials said. Officials from groups including Free Press and Prometheus Radio Project said they and others will work to alert would-be applicants. The agency had been working to hold such a filing window by acting on applications for FM translators that dated to 2003 (CD April 19 p10), said an FCC official.

The same application of rules to cable as to other industries was sought by two leading executives visiting Washington last week for NCTA’s annual convention. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts mentioned such rules in the context of customer privacy, while Time Warner Cable President Rob Marcus mentioned taxes and issues that also affect satellite. Speaking in separate interviews to have been shown this weekend on C-SPAN, the executives said moving functions from set-top boxes to the cloud, a theme of the Cable Show (CD June 12 p14) , will make it easier for subscribers to do things like search for shows and use apps and other products made by companies beyond the operators.

The executives see opportunities to add customers because they contend they're bucking some telcos’ trend of centralization of small-business services. When telcos turn off certain copper-based services, that may also provide an opportunity for cable operators, said panelists. “I certainly would never underestimate the power of companies like AT&T and Verizon Business” when it comes to marketing, said Time Warner Cable Chief Operating Officer-Business Services Phil Meeks. “We should be faster than a $100 billion telephone company.” Such firms have moved “to a much more of a centralized customer experience” often with call centers located far from business customers, said Meeks.

Comcast, expanding its move of cable functions to the cloud, is revamping set-top boxes to simplify user interfaces (UI) that can handle traditional cable and newer Internet Protocol video on an array of IP-connected devices. CEO Brian Roberts used an appearance at the NCTA’s show Tuesday to download from the cable system on a screen in the Washington Convention Center an Ultra HD video in 4K at 3.2 Gbps. Cable programming executives later said a plethora of ways video can be seen makes measuring audiences for advertisers more difficult, which a Nielsen executive said it’s moving to address.

Several technology companies see themselves as complements to cable, not competitors, their executives said at NCTA’s annual show Monday. Jawbone, Roku, Twitter and Vox Media executives said their products can expand TV viewing, and some have deals with operators. Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge was among panelists who said the cable industry needs to innovate more quickly, while a Twitter executive reaffirmed the company’s commitment to users as some websites have reportedly worked with the National Security Agency on the Prism surveillance program (CD June 10 p5) .

U.S. cable operators, which spent $200 billion since the mid-1990s on infrastructure, have boosted speeds by 1,500 percent in a decade and want to make further improvements, NCTA CEO Michael Powell told the opening of his group’s annual show. “The cable industry has always believed in an open Internet, and we will continue to embrace it,” he said, “competing aggressively but always fairly” with spending that came amid “a light government touch.” The “adoption gap” of the quarter of Americans with access to broadband that don’t subscribe is something “we want to help fix,” he said Monday at Washington’s convention center. Powell cited (http://bit.ly/19i4JmJ) Comcast’s Internet Essentials and other operators’ Connect2Compete (C2C) programs selling inexpensive service to poor families with kids.

Cable executives visiting Washington this week, with programming prices a key concern, generally support the House-passed approach to cybersecurity and ongoing voluntary efforts at privacy standards, they and their lawyers said in interviews Friday. Three days before NCTA’s annual show opens Monday, an FCC Media Bureau report said average monthly prices for expanded-basic cable rose 4.8 percent in 2011 to $61.63 on Jan. 1, 2012. Among operators’ top worries is the prices their companies pay for broadcast and cable programming, said industry officials.