Intel’s proposal that all HD set-top boxes have Internet Protocol connections to spur home networking and use of interactive applications (CD July 25 p5) is gaining industry support. Executives believe consumer electronics makers, cable companies, telcos selling TV and others can reach agreement on interoperability standards for Ethernet jacks at set tops’ backs. The FCC is “encouraged” by industry support, said an agency spokesman.

Momentum is gaining behind an NAB campaign to get broadcasters to agree not to cut off signals to cable operators and other pay-TV providers for a month before and a month after the analog cutoff (CD Aug 13 p1). As of Wednesday companies that own and run more than 600 stations had agreed to a so-called DTV quiet period running Feb. 4 to March 4, said an NAB spokesman. That’s “easily” most of the U.S. stations not guaranteed cable carriage, he said. As of Dec. 31 there were 1,379 commercial broadcasters in the U.S., FCC data show. Some broadcasters have doubts about the quiet period or simply won’t sign on.

Hundreds of TV stations agreed not to withhold signals from pay-TV companies in the weeks before and after they cut off analog broadcasts, to avoid confusing viewers about the digital transition. The NAB said Tuesday that 25 companies represented on its TV board had voted for a so-called DTV quiet period Feb. 4 to March 4. The plan got a good reception from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, said NAB Joint Board Chairman Jack Sander, who spoke Monday with Martin. The proposal is gaining support from more companies and affiliate groups, NAB officials said.

A 20-market test of a way to send multilingual emergency alerts is off after broadcasters and advocates for non- English speakers couldn’t agree, said discussion participants. In June, the sides asked the FCC to delay issuing rules telling stations how to tell non-English speakers about hurricanes and natural disasters (CD July 9 p6). They proposed to test the so-called designated hitter approach: When a radio station broadcasting other than in English goes off the air in a storm or the like, another station in the market agrees to carry alerts in the station’s language. But broadcasters didn’t get behind the approach.

An FCC committee voted to ask the commission to look into whether Arbitron’s Portable People Meters undercount minorities. The committee voted 7-3 with three abstentions July 28, said Henry Rivera, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age. The action had been expected (CD July 11 p11). A resolution posted on the committee’s Web site said the FCC should end the review and publish its results by Aug. 29, because Arbitron plans to introduce the radio audience measurement devices as soon as September in New York and Los Angeles. The ratings company said it doesn’t think the company has jurisdiction over it but will work with “the FCC and with minority broadcasters in a collaborative and supportive manner.”

More TV stations plan simulated cutoffs of analog signals to alert viewers to the shift to digital-only broadcasting. But technical worries are keeping some stations from doing so, executives said. Gray TV has joined other broadcasters that plan so-called soft analog cutoffs (CD July 21 p9) to alert viewers to buy converters, new sets or pay-TV. Most stations going digital early in Wilmington, N.C., will run a soft cutoff this month, executives said. The simulations generally feature 10 to 60 seconds of static or snow, followed by a message to buy what’s needed to get DTV. Simulations will be preceded by preliminary announcements.

A draft FCC order being considered would bar shutting off TV station signals to pay-TV subscribers around the time of full-power broadcasters’ analog cutoff (CD Aug 6 p12), said agency and industry officials. The draft circulated to commissioners by Chairman Kevin Martin proposed that the FCC prevent carriage disputes between TV stations and cable operators from leading to signal cutoffs during a chunk of time around Feb. 17, 2009, they said. The order was circulated about a month ago, but Martin hasn’t set a deadline for a commission vote, said agency officials. Meanwhile, commissioners are poised to hit the road to discuss the transition in dozens of markets, said agency officials.

Lawmakers’ interest in legislation to enforce network neutrality won’t decrease because of Friday’s FCC order against Comcast’s network management, agreed supporters and opponents of enacting a law. Net neutrality advocates said they will keep pressing for the FCC’s Internet principles to be expanded and enshrined in law, while broadband providers will keep making the case on Capitol Hill that the market is competitive and rules aren’t required. ISPs may cap subscribers’ bandwidth because the FCC found Comcast can’t single out Web applications by slowing them down (CD Aug 5 p3), but the effect of the order on lobbying strategy may not be clear for a while, industry officials said.

The FCC finding against Comcast network management may prompt other ISPs to limit the amount of bandwidth broadband customers can use or at least test such caps, said cable and telco officials. The FCC order against Comcast’s blocking of peer-to-peer file transfers deals only with that company, but it may spur a variety of ISPs to change their broadband policies, such as by improving disclosure to customers of network management, said executives and analysts. The order, approved 3-2, said Comcast must fully disclose its network management and stop treating P2P traffic differently than other Web usage (CD Aug 4 p1).

By 3-2, FCC commissioners found that Comcast discriminated against peer-to-peer applications by interfering with them but not other broadband traffic. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s Republican colleagues dissented, as expected (CD Aug 1 p1). Martin and Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein criticized Comcast for not being candid with consumers and the FCC about its network management. They and Commissioner Michael Copps called the practices discriminatory and in violation of 2005 FCC net neutrality principles. Commissioner Robert McDowell criticized consideration of the order because major changes were shared with other commissioners but not him the evening of the vote. He disagreed with acting against Comcast after it had agreed not to discriminate and for enforcing principles that aren’t rules.