FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s endorsements of a la carte and variants at three events last week (CD April 10 p1, April 9 p1 and p8) drew mixed reactions from cable, programming and other executives. ESPN and cable lawyers said the FCC lacks power to issue any rules paving the way for a la carte, even on the limited basis Martin proposed at one event. NCTA still opposes a la carte rules in any form. The American Cable Association, site of one Martin speech, said his ideas have merit. A la carte proponent Parents TV Council said the FCC may have standing to intervene in the market for programming.

Broadcasters disagreed on whether the FCC should require full-service stations to give money and technical help to low-power FM broadcasters when the full-power stations seek to change the town where they are licensed. The NAB, National Public Radio and radio companies said the FCC shouldn’t require such assistance when full-power stations move their transmitters or other gear closer to low-power outlets. Prometheus Radio Project and others contended such help is necessary and warranted. The comments in filings this week were on an FCC notice that “tentatively” found full-power broadcasters should bear costs and reduce interference to LPFMs when moving (CD Nov 30 p5).

Commissioners have approved millions in fines against consumer electronics companies for improperly labeling analog TV sets, leaving full V-chip functionality out of digital TV sets or shipping analog sets with no digital tuners, agency officials said late Wednesday. The majority of 25 notices of liability circulated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin for a vote by the monthly meeting have been approved or will be by day’s end, they said. Commissioners had approved many fines 5-0 by early evening Wednesday, with unanimous approval of more expected, we're told (CD April 3 p6).

Oral arguments in Comcast’s lawsuit against the FCC for denying it a waiver (CD Sept 6 p3) to deploy cheap set-top boxes combining navigation and security functions focused on why the company didn’t try to get the agency to revoke other waivers. During a Tuesday hearing at the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Laurence Silberman asked Comcast lawyer David Murray why the cable operator didn’t oppose waivers of the July 1, 2007, set-top integration ban that were given to about 140 others. Judges Douglas Ginsburg and Thomas Griffith let Silberman ask most questions to Murray, FCC General Counsel Matthew Berry and CEA lawyer Robert Schwartz, who supported the commission.

Department of Justice lawsuits against Fox and affiliates for not paying a combined $91,000 in FCC indecency fines (CD Feb 22 p1) are both unusual and perhaps ill-fated, broadcast attorneys said. Friday, DoJ sued in four U.S. District Courts against eight stations for not paying FCC fines levied for airing an April 7, 2003, Married by America episode. The suits came because station owners didn’t pay within 30 days of the fines’ Feb. 22 issuance.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seems poised to circulate an order finding Verizon broke number porting rules. At issue are allegations that Verizon illegally used information from three cable operators to try to win back phone customers, agency and industry officials said. The impending order is believed to address a Feb. 11 complaint by Bright House, Comcast and Time Warner Cable that Verizon tried to woo back customers who asked to buy the cable operators’ voice services, leaving the Bell. Verizon denies any violation, but the cable operators say it breached Telecommunications Act provisions on porting.

A Comcast executive and others on a panel Thursday sought a broad revamp of FCC procedures to limit how long the agency has to consider a wide array of issues and to bring transparency to ex parte meetings. Comcast Senior Vice President Joe Waz said the text of orders should be made public within 30 days of approval by the commissioners, and orders shouldn’t be changed after last-minute lobbying. Some other speakers on the American Bar Association panel on FCC reform also sought changes, but two panelists said the commission does a good job. An FCC spokeswoman said Comcast’s complaints stem from the commission’s review of one of the company’s deals.

Many of more than 20 consumer electronics makers and retailers facing FCC fines (CD March 21 p2) for improperly labeling analog TV sets, leaving full V-chip functionality out of digital TV sets or shipping sets with no digital tuners are in settlement talks with the agency, FCC officials said. The companies are among those cited in 25 notices of apparent liability that Chairman Kevin Martin wants FCC members to vote on by the April 10 meeting, they said. Discussions on some fines, stemming from 2007 enforcement actions, have been going on awhile, an industry source said.

Cable operators and technology companies long have discussed how to handle peer-to-peer file transfers and other broadband network-management matters, NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow said. Those talks, mostly between single companies, predate by months, sometimes years, Thursday’s P2P settlement between BitTorrent and Comcast (CD March 28 p1), he said in an interview. Talks did “accelerate somewhat recently” amid an FCC inquiry into whether Comcast violated commission Internet openness principles by allegedly blocking P2P transfers using BitTorrent. Announcing their agreement, the companies said they were talking with unspecified other businesses that McSlarrow declined to identify.

Broadcasters and cable operators agree the FCC should exempt from attribution rules small stakes in media companies that are majority owned by another party. Commenting on an agency notice on cable ownership limits, NAB, NCTA and individual cable and broadcast companies urged reinstatement of the so-called single majority shareholder exemption. The provision was remanded in 2001 in Time Warner v. FCC by the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia when it tossed out cable ownership limits. By a 3-2 vote Dec. 18, the FCC again limited cable operators to serving no more than 30 percent of U.S. pay-TV subscribers, also remanded in the Time Warner case.