A draft notice of inquiry on Arbitron portable radio audience measurement devices, now on circulation at the FCC, asks questions about their methodology, agency officials said. The draft was circulated April 20, according to the commission’s Web site. It’s been approved by two commissioners, said an agency official. The notice may be released in the coming weeks, although acting Chairman Michael Copps hasn’t set a deadline for the item to be finalized, said agency and industry officials.
The three judges considering FCC cable ownership limits (CD April 24 p11) voiced some skepticism about their constitutionality, methodology or utility, given competition from direct broadcast satellite services. Friday in Comcast vs. FCC, the members of the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit asked the commission’s lawyer many pointed questions. They asked Comcast’s attorney questions on how the regulator in 2007 arrived at the limit of 30 percent of the number of pay-TV subscribers any cable operator can serve, but voiced some deeper concerns. Analysts who watched the oral arguments told us Comcast appeared likely to win.
Consumer demand for DTV converter boxes is likely to continue at least through this year as consumers redeem government coupons and make their own transition well after June 12, FCC and NTIA officials said. Speaking at the CEA’s Washington conference Thursday, they voiced hope that the industry will continue to have boxes available.
A Comcast executive told WealthTV it wouldn’t be carried unless the cable operator owned a stake in the independent programmer, WealthTV President Charles Herring testified at a hearing before an FCC administrative law judge. Herring said the comments by Alan Dannenbaum, Comcast’s vice president of programming, were unambiguous. About the same time, Adelphia, a cable operator that Comcast was buying part of, reversed course and refused to carry WealthTV as Dannenbaum helped scotch that distribution, Herring said.
LAS VEGAS -- Retransmission consent deals between broadcasters and pay-TV companies work well and the system that created them shouldn’t be changed through renewal of satellite legislation, executives said at the NAB show. Most speakers on a Tuesday panel said they saw attempts to change market definitions through the reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act as a way for pay-TV companies to gain “leverage” over stations. Broadcasters must better explain to the public and members of Congress that the industry could be hurt if changes are made to SHVERA, some panelists said. But the head of the American Cable Association said retransmission consent isn’t working.
Most filings in an FCC parental-control technology inquiry opposed rules and instead backed letting a wide array of industry and other groups continue to educate cable, wireless and other subscribers. A total of 19 companies, advocacy groups and coalitions opposed content blocking and filtering mandates in filings late last week to the FCC. Four filings sought task forces, changes to the V-chip system or other remedies. And 12 promoted parental-education efforts or products those making the filings are trying to sell.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was agreeable to giving the NFL some of what it seeks in an FCC program carriage complaint case (CD April 17 p6) that ended Friday, if the league sells its cable channel for a lower price. Speaking as the last witness for Comcast, Roberts agreed with Michael Carroll, the company’s lawyer, that he'd be willing to give the NFL Network broad distribution if it lowered the price. He also discussed some details of Comcast’s multibillion- dollar offer in early 2006 to carry the eight games that ultimately ended up on the NFL Network instead of the cable company’s own sports network, Versus.
Wrapping up testimony for the NFL in its program- carriage case against Comcast (CD April 16 p5) at the FCC, the league’s highest-profile witness homed in Thursday on what he had taken as threats from Comcast’s CEO. Paul Tagliabue was the NFL commissioner when it negotiated with Comcast over rights to eight games the league later decided to distribute on its own network. He said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts took the news hard, issuing “not-so thinly-veiled threats” that underlie the league’s concern that Comcast favors its sports channels over the NFL Network, which now has the games. Roberts said no threats were made.
President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the NTIA, Larry Strickling, has investments in 17 telecom, technology and media companies, according to his financial disclosure documents. The former Level 3 executive has $15,001 to $50,000 of stock in that company. His investments total at least $3 million and include many familiar technology and telecom names. Among them are AT&T, Cisco, Clearwire, Comcast, Disney, Intel, Microsoft and Verizon, according to the report we obtained from the Office of Government Ethics. The office received it March 31. Strickling’s biggest technology investments were Hewlett Packard and IBM, each valued at $100,001-$250,000. Part of the IBM stake was held in a trust, as were some of his other investments. Many of his investments may go into a blind trust if he’s confirmed as NTIA administrator and assistant Commerce secretary, said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center. In such cases, the department and Office of Government Ethics likely would conduct a “very close ethics scrub” of the investments, she said. “This is a position that potentially has far-reaching impact in the information technology field, and therefore it does deserve close scrutiny.” Strickling’s financial disclosure form, as is typical, lists ranges for valuations and our analysis used the lowest figures. Strickling held $50,001-$100,000 of common stock in General Electric, owner of NBC Universal, and less than $15,000 in shares of McGraw-Hill, owner of TV stations, we found. He also invested in communications companies based outside the U.S., with holdings in France Telecom and Telecom New Zealand. Strickling’s 2008 income was at least $288,000. That included $125,000 in severance from Level 3, salary from the Obama campaign and the Office of the President Elect. Julius Genachowski, Obama’s nominee to head the FCC, also has many technology investments, some of which he may need to divest or put in trusts (CD April 8 p4).
Saying he mistakenly closed most of the first day of an FCC hearing (CD April 15 p3) pitting Comcast against the NFL, the presiding judge reversed course and opened more of the case to the public. Chief FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel said he erred in keeping out reporters and members of the public. “I have a very strong leaning towards openness,” Sippel said Wednesday. “I made a mistake.”