Joint services, marketing and other deals between TV stations probably will keep spreading as an important way to deal with plunging advertising revenue by reducing costs, said veteran executives we surveyed. The pacts will continue to make financial sense, even as the industry recovers from the recession, by spreading costs for news gathering, running equipment and paying electric bills across stations in a market, five executives said. An opponent of a recent deal by three stations in Honolulu (CD Oct 26 p11) agreed that there seem to financial benefits to the arrangement. But opponents warned of regulatory risks.
The FCC shouldn’t begin a process that could kick DTV stations off channels 5 and 6 by forming a committee to examine the best use for 76-88 MHz (CD July 29 p6), several broadcast lobbying groups said. With the digital transition, reallocating TV channels for use by new FM stations makes no sense, the Association for Maximum Service Television and NAB said about what’s called the radio-rescue petition (RM- 11565). The Educational Media Foundation and National Public Radio were among those that supported a reallocation process proposed by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council.
The FCC sought information on an array of subjects about children’s use of online and older media. In a notice of inquiry released Friday, questions about online video, the extent to which kids have access to new media, the risks and benefits of all kinds of media, and parents’ awareness of filtering options sought responses concerning which studies are reliable. As expected (CD Oct 1 p6), many of the questions were set up in a summer report to Congress about parental controls.
A waiver requested by Cablevision to encrypt channels on its all-digital systems in New York City (CD Sept 24 p12) - the first request of its kind -- should be limited in time or have other conditions, several commenters said. Others, including the CEA and Association for Maximum Service Television, opposed a waiver outright because it would require subscribers to use set-top boxes or CableCARDs to receive TV channels. Commenters, and communications lawyers not involved in the proceeding, called Cablevision’s request unique, though others could follow as the cable industry goes all-digital.
Members of both parties were skeptical about the need for congressional intervention in the wholesale market for pay-TV programming during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on video competition Thursday. Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., asked whether program-access rules need to change to allow new providers, including Verizon, to compete better with cable incumbents such as Cablevision. “We should act as a last resort,” said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.
A public notice on the FCC’s quadrennial media ownership review asked more than two dozen questions in what officials inside and outside the commission said was another step toward opening a formal proceeding (CD Oct 7 p6). The notice was issued by the Media Bureau Wednesday in advance of workshops with academics, broadcasters and public interest groups it will hold Nov. 2-4 on the subject. Comments on the notice, due Nov. 20 (Docket No. 09-182), and discussion during the meetings should focus on the questions listed in the document, it said.
The prices of HD Radio devices, already dropping, probably will fall further if stations get FCC permission to increase power levels to as much as 10 times the current limit, broadcast and consumer electronics executives said in interviews. National Public Radio and iBiquity Digital, which licenses technology for HD Radio broadcast equipment and consumer devices, agreed to ask the commission for an interim power increase to four times the current limit (CD Oct 15 p7). Executives from those organizations, the CEA and elsewhere predicted that higher power would increase consumers’ interest in digital radio and the sales of devices by letting a station serve its entire market with digital radio.
The FCC reversed recent mandates that two types of investors in all radio and TV stations report on their stakes in biennial forms, returning to past policy of exempting some from filing Form 323. The commission on Friday acceded to the part of the NAB’s petition for reconsideration that sought to again deem as non-attributable shareholders those who own a minority share of a company with a single owner of at least 50 percent. It also agreed that investors whose stakes would only be deemed attributable to them because of investments in other media properties won’t have to file the documents, which track race and gender of broadcast asset owners.
An FCC administrative law judge said an independent HD video programmer hadn’t made a case that four major cable operators had favored their own programming over the complainant’s. Richard Sippel, the FCC’s chief ALJ, said executives of the cable companies had maintained convincingly at April hearings and in documents that the operators’ decision to carry HD programming from a company that the operators controlled instead of from complainant WealthTV wasn’t related to ownership. Sippel’s recommended decision was released Thursday with confidential information blacked out. Some participants in the case received the full document last week (CD Oct 9 p17).
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn believes the development of broadband and energy policies have similarities, since both involve technology and communicating with consumers, she told us. The convergence of different types of technology in the communications sector is similar to what has happened in energy -- an industry she oversaw as a South Carolina regulator for 11 years -- Clyburn said in one of her first interviews since joining the FCC Aug. 3: “The common denominator oftentimes is technology, and in this case broadband technology.”