Comcast’s deal to buy control of NBC Universal has been discussed by the Department of Justice with some of those likely to be affected, at this early stage of antitrust review (CD March 10 p2), said some following the transaction and an opponent. An Asian American group that wants Comcast to pay $1 billion into a media diversity fund to be run by the FCC was the first to say in a commission filing that it has met with Justice. Others probably have discussed the deal with the department or will, analysts and a deal opponent said.

The FCC is likely to stick close to its comment deadlines for Comcast’s purchase of control of NBC Universal after a request for a 45-day delay backed by a many advocacy and industry groups, agency and industry officials predicted. That the groups cite no reasons specific to the deal structure to extend a May 3 deadline to file oppositions make it unlikely that the Media Access Project (MAP) and supporters will succeed in getting approval to have final comments due Aug. 1, they said. The Media Bureau built in extra time for comments (CD March 19 p2) in part to rebut time-constraint criticisms, an agency official said. Initial work among staffers reviewing the deal continues, commission officials said.

Initial items in the National Broadband Plan that may get FCC proceedings include recommendations that the agency take steps to make all cable, DBS and telco-TV providers offer gateway devices and that CableCARDs be easier to install, numerous agency and industry officials said. Commissioners may vote as soon as next month on two related and forthcoming items, they said. One would likely begin an inquiry on how to mandate all subscription-video systems be able to be accessed by a simple gateway device that could also get online content. Another would resolve some CableCARD problems.

Consumer demand for the gateway devices sought last week by the FCC as part of the National Broadband Plan is untested because no product has been developed, agreed cable, satellite and consumer electronics executives we surveyed. Assessing manufacturing costs for a simple device to connect set-top boxes to cable systems, direct broadcast satellite, telco-TV and Internet content can’t readily be done because there’s no set specification, the eight executives agreed. The plan called for all pay-TV providers to offer gateway devices by 2013 (CD March 17 p9) .

Atlantic City, N.J., will get a new DTV station (CD Feb 5 p12) because of an FCC ruling issued Wednesday. Channel 4 is being added to the Post-Transition Table of DTV Allotments, a Media Bureau order said. This is the first time the commission has authorized a new TV station in at least several years, said broadcast lawyers and an FCC official. Before last year’s analog cutoff, the commission had put a freeze on accepting applications for new DTV stations, they said.

FCC meetings need better production values, a Democratic member in the 1960s and ‘70s told us. “Since they regulate television, surely they” could get some guidance from “Hollywood,” said Professor Nicholas Johnson of the University of Iowa. “What they most need is a producer.” The National Broadband Plan “is very impressive” but doesn’t much address pricing of fast-Web service, only availability, he said. Johnson couldn’t remember a proceeding during his time at the FCC whose scope compared to that of the plan, like the other members we surveyed (CD March 16 p6) who served in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and past decade. The computer inquiry during his time came closest, Johnson said. Richard Wiley, Republican chairman then, agreed. While Gloria Tristani was a commissioner 1997-2001, “we never dealt with producing a plan of this magnitude,” she said. Henry Rivera, who served in the 1980s, said he could recall no report by the regulator to Congress “that equals this report in scope and scale or in the amount of commission resources utilized to give birth to it.”

FCC members of both parties had words of caution about parts of the National Broadband Plan concerning media. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said at Tuesday’s commission meeting that she has qualms about the reallotment of spectrum used by TV stations that the plan envisions. Commissioner Robert McDowell asked the commission to “tread gingerly” regarding set-top boxes. Blair Levin, who’s leaving the commission as the executive director of the broadband-plan work now that the document is complete, said his staff had taken concerns like Clyburn’s into account.

The significant time devoted by many FCC staffers to work on the National Broadband Plan the past year, and the commission’s attention to the subject, cut into the time and energy available for more routine matters, said broadcast and cable lawyers. That leaves some items languishing, causing some licensees regulatory confusion and leaving complaints unresolved, they said. “While the task Congress assigned to the FCC was enormous, all of the effort and energy the commission put into creating the plan will reap many benefits in the years to come,” said an agency spokesman.