Cable operators support seven principles to let subscribers buy video devices from retailers that could connect to any pay-TV provider’s service, NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow said Friday. The plan could be the base for FCC inter-industry efforts on retail video devices, he wrote Chairman Julius Genachowski at http://xrl.us/bgyb38. The National Broadband Plan will recommend a move toward so-called gateway set-top boxes (CD Feb 22 p4). CEA said the principles are “good."

The children’s media and Internet agenda of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski ranges from connecting all kids to broadband, starting an interagency working group on Internet safety and combating texting while driving. Other priorities are reducing the number of ads for junk food during kids’ TV shows and establishing “a framework of online norms and values,” Genachowski said at the National Museum of American History. Friday’s event where Genachowski touched on traditional and new media was one of the last to disclose part of the National Broadband Plan before it’s released Tuesday. “A clear and non-negotiable goal [is] every child should be connected to broadband,” with a quarter lacking it now, he said: “As a country we're falling behind."

The two telecom entities that signed a retransmission consent petition asking the FCC to take more steps to resolve disputes with TV stations aren’t looking for heavy regulatory involvement on all deals, representatives told us. Cable executives made similar comments (CD March 11 p8). “No one really wants intrusive FCC involvement,” a Verizon spokesman said. “Hopefully the targeted reforms we've suggested … will encourage fair negotiations in lieu of other forms of FCC involvement.” The Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies isn’t “asking for the government to get involved in every negotiation,” said Business Development Director Steve Pastorkovich. “We are asking the rules to be updated to reflect today’s realities so that there is an even playing field and market forces can be injected into the process.” Representatives of petition signers Charter, DirecTV, Suddenlink and Time Warner Cable -- the organizer (CD March 10 p1) -- declined to comment on the regulatory implications of their request for cable operators.

Both broadcasters and subscription-video providers would see more FCC oversight of carriage deals if a petition from a variety of pay-TV companies (CD March 10 p1) is successful, executives from both industries said. Pay-TV executives who believe the retransmission consent system is broken and needs legislative or regulatory intervention see that as a good thing. Some broadcast officials are leery of more FCC involvement in what they say are privately negotiated deals and believe it could backfire on multichannel video programming distributors.

Several groups that didn’t sign a petition to the FCC on retransmission consent by a wide array of pay-TV providers told us they support changing the system and may take part in the resulting proceeding. (See separate story in this issue.) Consumers Union is concerned that cable customers will face higher costs as the operators and channel owners resolve disputes by paying more for the programming. It probably will file in the docket, analyst Joel Kelsey said, but it’s “far from definite.” The Media Access Project, which believes the system “is out of balance,” got the petition too late to decide whether to sign on, President Andrew Schwartzman said. “It was given to us at the 11th hour,” he said. “I still haven’t read it super-closely, but there are some statements in the petition with which MAP would not be in complete agreement. However, we agree with the fundamental arguments, and the remedies requested.” Cox Communications wasn’t among those filing the petition. A spokesman declined to say why. The NCTA didn’t sign the petition, “but we do support changes to the retransmission consent process,” a spokesman said, declining to say what those changes are.

Antitrust and public interest review of Comcast’s purchase of control of NBC Universal is gaining momentum. The Justice Department last week asked the companies for more information on their deal while the FCC Media Bureau is close to seeking public comment on it, government and industry officials said.

A wide array of subscription-video companies will seek changes in how the FCC handles disputes that the providers have with broadcasters, industry executives said. Cable operators, DBS providers and at least one major telco will file a petition for rulemaking this week asking for binding arbitration in carriage disputes, they said. Cablevision subscribers lost Disney’s WABC-TV New York for 20 hours Sunday before service was restored. Broadcast and cable executives expect additional disputes, though most deals are successfully negotiated (CD March 9 p2).

Additional retransmission fee disputes between TV stations and cable operators are likely as broadcasters and the networks they're affiliated with each seek more money, executives from the industries predicted. TV stations want cable operators to pay them by the viewer more in line with what cable programmers get, and networks want additional money from the stations they own and their affiliates, they said. The deals that get public attention or cause short blackouts probably will remain few, agreed cable and broadcast executives and lawyers we surveyed.

The FCC made it clear recently it’s considering the reuse of TV spectrum mainly for the largest markets, because there seem to be plenty of unoccupied radio waves in smaller cities, said broadcast executives and lawyers we surveyed. Executives at companies that run 121 stations total -- 8.7 percent of U.S. commercial broadcasters -- remain skeptical of some parts of spectrum reallocation expected to be in the National Broadband Plan. They say the commission has at times seemed fixated on a spectrum crisis when it’s unclear there is one.

The FCC allowed all types of subscription-video providers to enter into exclusive deals to market their services to apartments and other multiple dwelling units and to bill MDUs on behalf of residents. The order drafted by the Media Bureau and approved 5-0 this week sidestepped the question of whether pay-TV companies besides cable operators and certain telcos can exclusively serve an entire building. The expanded exclusives would have been allowed by the bureau draft circulated in late December (CD Jan 12 p3). They were excised from the final order, agency officials said.