A finding that Comcast violated FCC net neutrality principles in a proposed order circulated Friday by Chairman Kevin Martin (CD July 11 p3) seems headed for a mixed reception among commissioners, said commission and industry officials. Of Martin’s four colleagues, Commissioner Michael Copps is considered the most likely to support a finding that the agency has authority to find the cable operator flouted a 2005 FCC Internet policy statement by blocking peer-to-peer file transfers, they said. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein endorses net neutrality rules, but may prefer a settlement between Comcast and the Enforcement Bureau.

The FCC’s diversity committee must vote again on a recommendation to Chairman Kevin Martin that the agency examine whether Arbitron’s electronic audience measuring devices undercount minorities, said participants. Arbitron said the July 2 vote was flawed by lack of sufficient public notice, and CBS said an inquiry would overstep commission authority. The FCC should conduct a “fact finding inquiry” on the meters, as it does on notices of inquiry, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council Executive Director David Honig said. Because no announcement of the meeting at which the recommendation would be considered ran in the Federal Register, the vote must be redone, Honig said Thursday in an interview. He and Henry Rivera, committee chairman, said the failure to publish the agenda was an oversight. Arbitron said the committee made “no effort” to allow the company to “present its views” at the meeting. Honig said Arbitron didn’t get “a formal invitation.” Rivera said the committee assumed, perhaps wrongly, that Arbitron knew of the meeting. “It’s unfortunate, but certainly nothing intentional, and they'll get another shot here, so I don’t think there’s any harm done,” he said. The re-vote may occur at the committee’s next meeting, on July 28, said Honig and Rivera. CBS voted no at the meeting, but the committee was “very substantially supportive” of the inquiry on the meter’s methodology, said Honig. CBS said the resolution got no “vetting” by a subcommittee, “a stark deviation” from usual committee process: “The resolution urges the FCC to launch an investigation of an entity that holds no FCC license and is clearly not regulated by the agency. We view such expanded Commission jurisdiction inappropriate.” Honig said the commission has both precedent and authority to examine areas impacting diversity, citing FCC payola investigations and section 403 of the Communications Act.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has asked colleagues if they can convene in late August for the month’s FCC meeting, rather than Aug. 1 as planned (CD June 17 p2), said agency officials. Industry speculation mounted that Martin will ask colleagues to vote at the gathering on a coming order to bar programmers from tying carriage of cable networks they own to granting the cable operators permission to distribute TV stations. Votes on other media items Martin may seek at the August meeting include two related to the DTV transition, said cable and other lawyers.

Broadcasters and advocates for U.S. inhabitants who don’t speak English are likely to get more time from the FCC to work out a way to send emergency alerts and information in multiple languages, said industry and agency officials. In June both sides asked the FCC to put off a promised order on the alerts while they start an alert test and continue talks begun more than a year ago. Last year, commissioners delayed action on a Minority Media and Telecommunications Council request that they order broadcasters to provide emergency information in varied languages if non-English language broadcasters stop transmitting. Commissioners were prepared to issue an order in six months, during which time the council, its allies and broadcasters were to devise a solution (CD July 13 p5). That period ended June 17, six months after the order ran in the Federal Register, but the FCC faces no statutory deadline to act, said a commission spokesman.

Dish Network customers can keep getting TV stations’ distant signals (CD Dec 1/06 p1), a three-judge appeals court panel ruled Monday. The decision of the 11th U.S. Appeals Court in Atlanta, written by Judge Charles Wilson, dismissed broadcasters’ challenge to a deal between the direct broadcast satellite company and program provider National Programming Service. Dish Network isn’t violating the 1998 Satellite Home Viewer Act by getting $150,000 monthly under a two-year agreement for NPS to provide the signals of network affiliates to satellite subscribers in other markets, Wilson wrote in CBS v. EchoStar.

An FCC network management inquiry on Comcast (CD June 17 p2) seems to be ending. Staffers appear to have nearly all information they're thought to deem needed for FCC action, said agency and industry officials. The inquiry into whether Comcast violated any of four agency Internet freedom principles by slowing peer-to-peer file transfers has taken longer than FCC Chairman Kevin Martin expected, as lawmakers accused him of singling out Comcast and other matters captured his attention, they said. Martin said in March that the FCC would release a network management order by June 30, but no order has circulated among commissioners, said agency and industry officials.

The Copyright Office told Congress AT&T and Verizon can take advantage of compulsory licenses to carry out-of-market TV stations without the approval of every copyright holder. But the late Monday report (CD July 1 p1) said Web sites shouldn’t get compulsory licenses, nor should a broadcaster planning to stream video to viewers in its market qualify for statutory licenses. As expected, the report devoted a chapter to streaming and mobile video and other new technologies (WID June 27 p7). It said deals between copyright owners and Web sites are preferable to compulsory licenses for content, which it said should be phased out by Congress and perhaps done away with in 2015.

Major wireless and wireline associations and their carrier members asked the FCC to back off imposing a requirement that eligible telecommunications carriers send billing inserts or postcards to all subscribers explaining the DTV transition. The CTIA said there’s no “cognizable connection” between a consumer’s wireless service and TV service. A notice asking whether the FCC should expand digital TV consumer-education mandates (CD April 24 p6) faced by cable and satellite-TV providers and telcos getting government money drew no support. In comments on the rulemaking notice filed with the agency Friday, no one supported requiring eligible telecommunications carriers to include information on monthly customer bills or send postcards on the transition to all subscribers.

The FCC didn’t overreach its congressional authority in ordering municipalities to expeditiously award franchises to telcos and other new video entrants, the 6th U.S. Appeals Court in Cincinnati ruled Friday. Writing in Alliance for Community Media vs. FCC for a panel of three justices, Judge Guy Cole said the commission “acted well within its statutorily delineated authority in enacting the order,” approved 3-2 by commissioners in December 2006. “There exists sufficient evidence to indicate that the FCC did not engage in arbitrary and capricious rulemaking activity.”

The FCC faces a tight time frame to wrap up a just- started product placement inquiry and resolve questions in a related rulemaking notice before the end of the current presidential administration, said three broadcast and advertising industry officials. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin can’t circulate an order until the end of a 90-day comment period, which begins when the notices of inquiry and rulemaking are published in the Federal Register, they said. Publication generally happens a few weeks after the FCC releases items, so Martin may not be able to seek a vote until October at the earliest, said a broadcast lawyer. “We're coming up against a pretty short time frame,” said American Association of Advertising Agencies Senior Vice President Adonis Hoffman. “If they move quickly, they could get it done during this period, but it could easily go into the next administration.”