Movement increased toward an open technical standard for interactive cable devices as five large consumer electronics companies signed a memorandum of understanding on the tru2way technology (CD May 27 p2). Panasonic and Samsung, chip maker Intel and set-top box makers Advanced Digital Broadcast Holdings and Digeo signed on, CableLabs said Monday. NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow said the agreement, ending years of battle between cable and CE on two-way plug and play standards, is a model for technology deals between the cable industry and others. He invited satellite- and telco-TV providers to work on interactive technology for the entire pay-TV industry. Cable must improve customer service and pay more attention to subscribers, McSlarrow said.

Large cable operators have made much progress installing and upgrading software and hardware so their systems will work with set-top boxes, TV sets and other interactive devices operating under the tru2way standard in subscribers’ homes, said executives and analysts. Implementing a deal with Sony made May 27, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable agreed to upgrade headends (CD June 2 p6) so they can have two-way devices adhering to open standards in use by July 2009. Even before the deal, many were upgrading, said several of the companies, a vendor and analysts.

A draft FCC order denies a challenge to its 3-2 approval of Tribune’s sale (CD Dec 4 p6) by media consolidation foes, said agency officials. The order dismisses a petition for reconsideration of the $8.2 billion deal by Benton Foundation Chairman Charles Benton, the Media Alliance and United Church of Christ, they said. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin circulated the order May 1, when he voted for it, but it may be a while before it’s voted on by all members and publicized, they said.

Cable operators lost a bid to escape paying royalties for distributing out-of-town stations to residents of the broadcaster’s market (CD Aug 24 p6/05). A little-noticed Copyright Office decision last month ended the so-called phantom signal proceeding, in which NCTA sought to avoid royalty payments to out-of-town stations in portions of cable headends in the same market as the broadcaster. In a separate rulemaking notice this week, the office proposed that cable systems be required to pay royalties for the multicast signals of so-called distant stations.

The largest-ever internal FCC probe might have been less vulnerable to complaints of inadequacy had investigators spoken with more current and former agency leaders, the Office of Inspector General said Monday. In its twice yearly review of its efforts, the office addressed criticism by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps. All three termed the report a whitewash (CD Oct 9 p2). Besides describing efforts to interview two former Media Bureau officials who claimed their bosses discouraged the reports’ release, the IG’s analysis said it might have been a good idea to talk to FCC members and former Chairman Michael Powell about complaints that media-ownership reports were quashed.

Many cable operators and consumer electronics companies are reviewing a deal reached last week by the NCTA and Sony (CD May 28 p2), said executives from the industries. The memorandum of understanding, years in the works, is meant to spur distribution of interactive set-top boxes and other plug and play devices on cable systems, they said. Discussions between larger groups of companies broke down twice but paved the way for more recent conversations involving Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Sony, the driving forces behind the deal, they said.

Opposition rose this week to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s proposal to let pay-TV providers sell channels separately when they cost distributors more than 75 cents a month per subscriber (CD April 9 p8). In a stream of letters and meetings, sports leagues, networks and minority organizations asked the FCC not to regulate deals between programmers and pay-TV companies. Six leagues attacked the April 8 proposal. No a la carte order is before commissioners, but cable and other executives fear Martin may circulate one, they said. An FCC spokesman said the agency is study channel tying’s impact.

Settlement negotiations between the FCC and five retail chains prompted two commissioners to put off completing work on notices of apparent liability totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, commission officials said. Big Lots, BJ’s, Conns, Rent-A-Center and a company whose name we couldn’t learn are talking with the Enforcement Bureau about consent decrees to end investigations into charges that they broke FCC digital TV rules by selling analog sets not labeled as such, they said.

FCC members seem likely to approve a digital TV order circulated Friday exempting broadcasters from mandatory immediate updates of on-screen programming guides when shows are preempted or run long, agency and industry officials said. Chairman Kevin Martin said he had asked colleagues to vote on the proposed order, clarifying the Dec. 31 third periodic DTV review (CD Jan 2 p12) by the commission’s June 12 meeting. The order finds that TV stations need not pass along real-time updates to program guides, he said.

FCC commissioners are considering expanding exemptions to low-capacity cable systems for the versions of broadcast programming they need not distribute after the Feb. 17 analog cutoff (CD April 30 p4), agency and industry officials said. Under consideration are a May 6 revision to a Media Bureau order from Chairman Kevin Martin and a proposal from Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, they said. But a vote may not occur soon because commissioners deem the exemptions to be complex, they said. No FCC member besides Martin has voted on the order, first circulated April 9, said agency officials.