Commissioners seem likely to soon approve an FCC notice on a so-called digital TV nightlight plan for stations to broadcast emergency programming and educational material about the transition for 30 days after the nationwide switch- off of analog signals, several agency officials said. They expect a rulemaking notice drafted by the Media Bureau to circulate among members because President George W. Bush on Tuesday approved legislation allowing the plan (S-3663), as expected (CD Dec 12 p10).
It’s unclear whether the FCC commissioners will approve an order on program carriage complaints and a further notice on making it easier for pay-TV companies to sell smaller packages of channels, commission officials said. Advocates for and opponents of the order and notice, which FCC officials have said are combined into one document (CD Dec 11 p2), agree that the item is stirring controversy among commissioners.
Pay-TV companies -- seeking a ban on broadcasters’ pulling signals just before the switch to digital TV -- are unlikely to see a rulemaking notice issued in time for an order to be circulated in 2008, because of an impasse among the commissioners (CD Nov 17 p5). With FCC Chairman Kevin Martin yet to vote on a rulemaking he circulated in September, there’s almost certainly too little time for one to be issued, comments to be collected and an order to be drafted before Dec. 31, commission and industry officials said. That’s when the American Cable Association, the NCTA, Dish Network and others want the so-called quiet period to begin. Broadcasters say FCC action isn’t needed, because they have their own plan.
Under a proposal by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, independent cable operators would be exempted from an expanded definition of what constitutes affiliated channels in complaints filed by independent programmers, said agency and industry officials. Tuesday afternoon, Martin’s office circulated a revision to a program carriage order he seeks a vote on by the Dec. 18 public meeting (CD Dec 4 p3), they said. An FCC spokeswoman confirmed that Martin made a proposal, but couldn’t provide details.
Most of the FCC commissioners are holding back votes on a batch of notices of apparent liability totaling about $11 million against seven cable operators and telcos accused of violating consumer education rules, agency officials said. They said commissioners aren’t voting on an omnibus liability notice (CD Dec 4 p3) because they're waiting to see whether some of the companies settle with the Enforcement Bureau, requiring a rewrite of the document. Chairman Kevin Martin was the only FCC member who had voted as of Monday, a commission official said.
The FCC is boosting digital-TV outreach as the DTV transition nears and representatives of President-elect Barack Obama seem to have homed in on the switch as a significant area for the agency, commission and industry officials said. A top official at the Media Bureau is asking state broadcaster associations to agree to simulate analog signal cutoffs at the same time one month and two months before Feb. 17, they said. And FCC officials from all bureaus are working with TV stations to coordinate the switch, said an agency spokesman.
The outlook for the U.S. terrestrial radio industry is bleak through next year, with no letup in a decline in ad sales that has led to devaluations of stations, plunging stock prices and write-downs, said executives, analysts and lawyers who arrange deals. They said the upshot is that few radio stations are being sold, although many are on the market, and sellers may increasingly serve as lenders to buyers. The industry continues to face competition for ad dollars from Web sites and other new media, but radio audiences haven’t declined much, they said.
The switch to DTV will be a major challenge for whoever takes over the FCC after President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated, current Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters Wednesday. He declined to discuss details of conversations with members of Obama’s transition team.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin hasn’t decided whether to seek an investigation of Arbitron devices for measuring radio audiences, he told reporters Wednesday. He made similar comments in October about the request by minority organizations and some minority broadcasters for an FCC inquiry about Arbitron’s Portable People Meters (CD Oct 17 p10). Martin has met with some of the groups and with broadcasters who don’t think the commission should get involved, he said Wednesday.
An FCC order set for a Dec. 18 vote (CD Dec 1 p1) would vastly expand the type of channels deemed to be affiliated with a cable company that has received a program carriage complaint from an independent programmer, said FCC and industry officials. The order circulated last week would define as an affiliated network for purposes of such complaints one that’s owned by any multichannel video programming distributor, they said. That expands what’s considered to be the current definition from channels owned only by the company that’s alleged to have discriminated in favor of an affiliated network over an independent one, the officials said.