Relationships between TV stations and the networks they're affiliated with have grown increasingly tense in some cases as both sides seek more money for carriage of the local signals by pay-TV companies, some executives said. As local and national TV advertising sales had slumped during the recession, the need for retransmission consent payments appears to be increasing, our survey of industry executives and lawyers found. Efforts by networks including Fox to share in the money that stations get from cable and other pay-TV providers to carry affiliates and to encourage affiliates to get higher fees have heightened tensions, some said.

The chain of 270 truck stops seeking FCC approval to run a microwave digital TV service wants a fresh look at its waiver request, it told commissioners late Monday. Clarity Media wants action on its request to start the service at its Flying J truck stops and shared with FCC members comments from hundreds of truck drivers supporting it. On his last day as chairman, Kevin Martin circulated a Media Bureau order to allow the service (CD Jan 27 p4). But FCC members never voted on it despite the interest of some (CD May 21 p2). The item remains on circulation without prospects for quick approval, commission officials said.

The FCC is continuing to hold off deciding on three petitions against AT&T and Comcast over the companies’ digital carriage of public, education and government (PEG) channels, several commission and industry officials said. The petitions from December and January by towns and municipal groups ask the commission to require pay-TV providers to treat PEG channels the same as others. The petitions are among the media items that could get FCC approval this or next quarter, and in the past some officials there have sought action, but the regulator for now is taking a wait-and-see approach, said commission officials and communications lawyers.

The FCC is continuing to hold off deciding on three petitions against AT&T and Comcast over the companies’ digital carriage of public, education and government (PEG) channels, several commission and industry officials said. The petitions from December and January by towns and municipal groups ask the commission to require pay-TV providers to treat PEG channels the same as others. The petitions are among the media items that could get FCC approval this or next quarter, and in the past some officials there have sought action, but the regulator for now is taking a wait-and-see approach, said commission officials and communications lawyers.

The Media Bureau is working on an order addressing the FCC terrestrial video exemption that lets cable operators withhold from subscription-TV rivals programming they own but don’t distribute using satellites, several commission and industry officials said Friday. The bureau hasn’t circulated an item yet, but it appears to be close to finalizing an item that may address a commission rulemaking on program access, said several FCC and industry officials.

The law cited by the consumer electronic and wireless industries in seeking an FCC review of TV spectrum allocation is both obscure and moot, said broadcast and communications lawyers. Section 336(g) of the 1996 Telecom Act, the cornerstone of the request by the CTIA and the CEA (CD Nov 18 p1), was superseded by 1997 and 2005 legislation dealing with the DTV transition, they said. The completion of the transition and the auction of what were the analog-TV airwaves to wireless companies also make the provision moot, they said.

FCC staffers are changing a new media ownership form that has continued to draw criticism from broadcasters and others as violating investors’ privacy (CD Sept 22 p7), commission and industry officials said. They said Media Bureau officials seem to be working on a way to allow investors in radio and TV stations to complete Form 323 without having to provide Social Security numbers in a limited category of cases. The Social Security information is now needed to register for the commission’s online database used to collect the forms, they said.

Initial discussions by some at the FCC of moving TV stations off HD signals to standard definition in order to reallocate spectrum for wireless broadband are a “non- starter,” NAB President Gordon Smith said. “We will fight that fiercely,” he told a Media Institute lunch in Washington Tuesday. Stopping HD would be like going back to analog over-the-air TV, he said. “Stay tuned” for the NAB’s position on the issue, since the commission has yet to publicly promulgate a radio wave reuse proposal, Smith said.

Representatives of broadcasters and music labels were to have met Tuesday afternoon with members of Congress to discuss performance royalties. The meeting was requested by the chairman and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees. NAB President Gordon Smith failed to get the ethics waiver he'd sought to attend (CD Nov 9 p12), a spokesman for the group said. Executive Committee Chairman Steven Newberry and Radio Board Chairman Charles Warfield will represent NAB, he said. Representing labels were to be Recording Industry Association of America Chairman Mitch Bainwol, a RIAA spokesman said. Representing the MusicFirst coalition that’s pushed for performance royalties was to be Kim Roberts Hedgpeth of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Kendall Minter of the R&B Foundation, Tom Lee of the American Federation of Musicians and Rich Bengloff of the American Association of Independent Music, he said. Executive Director Jim Winston of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters also was to attend, he said. Francisco Montero said he would represent the Spanish Broadcasters Association, which requested last week to join the meeting along with the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. But the council wasn’t going to have someone there, said Executive Director David Honig. Opposing legislation for radio stations to pay the royalties, NAB isn’t “characterizing this meeting as a ‘negotiation’,” its spokesman said.

Coming steps in the FCC’s media-ownership review probably will include a notice of inquiry and hearings outside Washington, said commission, industry and public- interest group officials we surveyed. The commissioners probably will approve a notice formally starting the review, done every four years, in the first quarter, FCC officials said. The office of Chairman Julius Genachowski has given little indication about timing, because the National Broadband Plan is due Feb. 17 and takes priority, officials said.