Targeted ads and the ability to watch video on demand using a wide array of devices for cable subscribers (CD March 24 p12) is nearer to reality as operators settle on non- proprietary standards and vendors work together on new products, executives told us. Interactive TV for the sake of keeping cable subscribers has partly been supplanted by using addressable advertising to underwrite the costs of providing increasing amounts of VoD content for free, they said. Analysts and executives expect targeted ads, and especially the Canoe venture of six operators, to be a focus of the NCTA show Wednesday through Friday in Washington.

Six FCC DTV contract requests stand to help those unaware of the transition because they'll get visits at home from volunteers who'll walk them through steps to switch to digital, said panelists advising the agency on the transition. As expected (CD March 27 p11), the commission late Thursday released requests for quotations for the six regions of the country. Responses are due April 9.

To catch up on reports to Congress on pay-TV competition, a draft FCC notice of inquiry asks for several years of subscriber data, agency and industry officials said. The NOI for annual reports on the video programming market will likely cover 2008 and 2009, they said. It will supplement a notice released in the waning days of the chairmanship of Kevin Martin seeking data for 2007, they said. Commissioners will vote on the new item by the April 8 meeting (CD March 10 p10).

The FCC again is seeking help running its DTV-switch call center (CD March 12 p1) as the deadline approaches for full-power broadcasters to cut off analog signals. In a request for quotation updated Monday, the commission sought a vendor to help answer calls to 888-CALL-FCC from April 15 through June and possibly beyond. The commission will spend some of the $86.5 million in economic stimulus money it’s getting for DTV education to pay a contractor. The request didn’t state the amount.

A draft FCC order would expand the types of broadcast investors that must be disclosed annually to the agency and require more stations to file the paperwork, said commission and industry officials. Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps is circulating the Media Bureau proposal concerning form 323, they said. A related rulemaking notice would ask about further expanding the ranks of those who must complete the documents, commission officials said. The commissioners will vote on the item at or before their next monthly meeting, April 8 (CD March 10 p10).

Chairman Dan Glickman of the Motion Picture Association of America probably will get a new contract shorter than he has now, said several industry executives. His five-year contract expires this fall and may be replaced with one covering less than two years, they said. Some executives speculated that the change may result from tension between Glickman and movie studios in the group. An MPAA spokeswoman declined to comment.

Concurrent aims to reach mobile devices and PCs, as well as pay TV subscribers, with video-on-demand products, the cable vendor said Monday. The MediaHawk Converged Video Solution will support VoD over multiple platforms, Concurrent said. The company hopes to get wireless and Internet companies to use its products, executives told us. Concurrent also wants to help advertisers target VoD viewers better, they said.

Industry gripes on expanded DTV education rules for many affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC that are stopping analog service between April 16 and June 11 (CD March 19 p8) are belied because few sought FCC exemptions, said agency officials and public interest groups. Broadcast lawyers and officials called onerous mandates that the affiliates open help centers, staff phone lines and take other steps if they want to stop analog early and no other Big Four affiliate will serve 90 percent of their analog viewers. Seeking approval for early termination because of “exigent circumstances” are KXMB-TV Bismarck, N.D., KTVE El Dorado, Ark., KARD West Monroe, La., and KAUZ-TV Wichita Falls, Texas, said an FCC spokesman.

There’s a silver lining for viewers, broadcasters and the FCC in DTV rules that made it harder for many stations to stop analog service before June 12 (CD March 17 p8), industry lawyers and officials said. Only 158 full-power outlets, 15 percent of those still transmitting in analog, will stop the service before the nationwide deadline, according to FCC figures. Despite the previous concerns of some commissioners and others, there won’t be many minitransitions like the one Feb. 17, our research found. That should reduce viewer confusion and make it easier for the FCC and stations to educate viewers, said industry and agency officials.

New DTV rules requiring an array of extra steps for many of those switching off analog early probably will deter some ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates from going all-digital early, many broadcast-industry lawyers said. The FCC on Friday required that an affiliate ending analog transmissions before June 12 open a help center and staff call centers if another Big Four affiliate in the market won’t reach 90 percent of analog viewers in the station’s Grade B contour (CD March 16 p4). The conditions are so heavy that many stations may broadcast in both analog and digital until June 12, when all full-power stations must switch to DTV, industry lawyers said.