Requests to make and sell portable devices capable of getting mobile DTV broadcasts but without analog tuners were backed in all filings on a petition by Dell and LG, and another by Hauppauge Computer Works, in FCC docket 10-111. Commercial and public broadcasters, several CE trade groups and companies like Intel supported the requests for exemption from FCC Part 15 rules that all TV devices include analog and legacy ATSC DTV tuners. That bodes well for quick commission action on the requests, several supporters told us Monday.

Broadcasters’ proposals that pay-TV providers give subscribers more notice of carriage disputes won’t fix the broken retransmission-consent system, cable and telco-TV providers told the FCC. Replies from them were posted Friday in docket 10-71 on a petition by 14 providers and public interest groups (CD May 20 p4). Mediacom, Suddenlink, Verizon and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) said such notification would have little effect. Disney and Time Warner Cable, the lead petitioner, debated whether economic analyses show that increases in what TV stations are paid for access to their programming and threatened disputes account for rising cable subscription fees.

The FCC will hold at least one informational hearing on Comcast’s plan to buy control of NBC Universal, the commission confirmed Thursday, as expected (CD April 29 p4). The seven-hour “public forum” will be July 13 at Northwestern University’s law school in Chicago and will include two panels and a two-hour session for members of the public to ask questions and “share their views” about the deal, the regulator said. It’s unclear if there will be additional hearings, though some at the FCC hope for more, a commission official said. A Media Bureau spokeswoman said no additional events are now planned. Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps will attend the gathering, their aides said. “We hope the FCC will plan for more hearings in the very near future,” said Free Press Policy Counsel Corie Wright. Separately, Comcast and NBC Universal emphasized their deal would empower minorities. The comment came in a filing Wednesday at the FCC answering questions for Comcast and NBC submitted to the commission by Congress. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., among other legislators, has criticized the companies’ commitment to minorities. “We believe that, more than any other [pay-TV company], Comcast has facilitated ownership and programming opportunities for Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and women,” the cable operator said. “Based on our record and the voluntary commitments we have offered in connection with the NBCU transaction, Comcast’s contribution to minority ownership and programming opportunities has been and will continue to be very strong.” The companies plan to use the deal to “offer an unprecedented set of ownership opportunities to people of color and women in broadcasting, on cable, On Demand, and online,” Comcast said. As the combined company carries out its commitment to add two new independent channels each year for the next three years, Comcast will give “heightened consideration to the carriage of networks that are owned by or affiliated with people of color or women,” it said. Comcast has never commissioned an independent diversity report or implemented a business strategy prioritizing ownership and program diversity, but it has conducted internal reports to enhance programming diversity, the companies said. NBCU conceded later in the filing that none of its primetime programs are owned or supplied by minority production companies, nor do any feature minorities as show runners. Comcast said it’s made “significant strides in recent years to increase diversity” among top-ranking employees. The company currently has “106 executives of color, 50 (almost half) of whom have been promoted through the ranks.” None has been in his or her position for more than 10 years, but 35 have been there more than five years, it said. Ten percent of the cable operator’s “corporate officers are people of color,” and the company employs 1,353 managers who are minorities, it said. Comcast has “a number of programs in place to ensure a diverse workforce” and plans to expand them after the NBCU deal, it said.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn defended the broadband reclassification approach of Chairman Julius Genachowski, contending fears that it would create regulatory uncertainty are vastly overblown. Forbearance has worked in wireless, with companies including AT&T and Verizon supporting that approach, and it can work for broadband transport, Clyburn said. The agency can act on Genachowski’s plan to apply some sections of Title II to broadband transport while forbearing on the other parts, even as Congress looks to rewrite the Telecom Act, she told a Media Institute luncheon audience Thursday. She took some pot-shots at spending on lobbying, the relationship between FCC and industry and some carriers’ complaints about regulatory uncertainty.

The FCC is partway through trimming a backlog of requests from cable operators to be freed of local rate and equipment regulation, said commission and industry officials. The Media Bureau in recent months has stepped up approvals of petitions seeking findings of effective video competition, our research found. The bureau granted 31 orders May 7-28, after having granted none during the corresponding three weeks in April.

An inflection point has been reached in the cable and consumer electronics industries as companies ramp up efforts to provide more online content to video subscribers through their cable connections and via more devices, our survey of executives found. The backdrop is the introduction by Apple of the iPad, increased availability online of content from cable channels, broadcast networks and other programmers, and increasing viewing of video on devices besides TVs. Those factors and cable’s tru2way CE platform mean there likely will be more ways for cable subscribers to view over-the-top content, executives said.

The report from the FCC Future of Media Project, parts of which are just starting to be drafted, may include reference to additional studies that are ongoing now, initiative head Steve Waldman said Thursday. Officials at the New America Foundation and Michigan State University said they hope to finish research in time for it to be used for the report, which Waldman said he continues to expect to finish this year. Other FCC and industry officials said the report may be unveiled in late 2010, not the fall time frame that some aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski had been anticipating (CD May 13 p17).

The FCC wants to know if consumers are satisfied with media they use, and how to measure that satisfaction. Those are among the more than 100 questions on online, print, radio and TV media asked in a notice of inquiry on the 2010 quadrennial review. It was released Tuesday afternoon, with questions largely along the lines of what had been anticipated (CD May 18 p4). Some questions about measuring the extent to which broadcasters serve their community raised the hackles of Commissioner Robert McDowell, who, like some industry and public interest officials (CD April 2 p1), suggested a rulemaking would have been possible without an inquiry.

Many of the 122 questions total the FCC posed to Comcast and NBC Universal on their deal to combine broadcast, cable and online programming assets signal a keen interest by the agency and Chairman Julius Genachowski in Internet video, experts observing the review said. The queries, many with sub-questions, were released by the commission Friday afternoon (CD May 24 p13). They cover VOD, online video distribution, set-top boxes and Internet video that can be seen using the devices. Queries on carriage deals show an interest in program access, industry lawyers who reviewed the data requests said.

Ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., is expected to be named MPAA head and to begin the job as soon as next week, an industry executive confirmed. Kerrey would replace Bob Pisano, named in January as interim head of the group after Dan Glickman stepped down as chairman and CEO (CD Jan 25 p13). Although the MPAA board may be near naming a new chief, a deal to bring on Kerrey may not be final, another industry official said. Kerrey has been president of the New School, where a spokesman didn’t reply to a message seeking comment. He was a senator 1989-2001 and previously governor of Nebraska. An MPAA spokesman declined to comment.