An FCC task force on the digital TV transition was rechartered this month by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, agency officials said. The body, largely dormant for years, is being reanimated amid Capitol Hill scrutiny on what some legislators call laggard efforts to coordinate industry and government efforts to educate Americans on how to get over- the-air TV after Feb. 17, 2009 (CD Feb 14 p1).

FCC commissioners unanimously approved the transfer of a $11 billion stake in DirecTV to Liberty Media from News Corp., agency officials said late Monday. They said the deal was cleared late last week after Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps voted to support it, despite the Democrats’ concerns that the deal doesn’t mandate the distribution of broadcast stations to subscribers of the satellite TV company in small cities. The Republican commissioners voted earlier to clear the deal and subject it to no more conditions than the two in FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s order, circulated Feb. 6. Martin had asked Adelstein and Copps to vote by Friday (CD Feb 21 p3).

The Federal Register’s publication of the FCC cross- ownership order Thursday paves the way for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to review it, said a lawyer who plans to challenge the order. It lifts a ban, in some cases, on common ownership of a newspaper and radio or TV station in large cities. Commissioners approved it 3-2 (CD Dec 19 p1). Publication means “the order is now officially ‘final’ for purposes of reconsideration and appeal,” said Andrew Schwartzman, the president of the Media Access Project. Petitions for reconsideration of the order are due in 30 days. The 3rd Circuit had remanded a media ownership order back to the FCC, spurring the just-concluded review.

Commissioners unanimously approved a long-awaited digital TV consumer education order (CD Feb 19 p1) to require broadcasters run public service announcements on the transition and pay-TV companies to include information on the switch over in monthly bills, said three agency officials. Although the order was approved 5-0, it’s unclear when the document will be released. It includes several last-minute changes favored by broadcasters and pay-TV companies, said the officials. An FCC spokeswoman declined to comment. The order was circulated in October by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

The FCC fined 45 ABC affiliates$1.24 million total for airing a Feb. 25, 2003, episode of NYPD Blue that showed a woman’s buttocks, said a forfeiture order approved 5-0 and released late Tuesday. The stations have until Thursday to pay the fine, an unusually short time. Stations usually get 30 days to pay indecency penalties. FCC and industry officials attributed the deadline to a five-year statute of limitations. Commissioners approved the forfeiture order quickly also to get in under the wire, commission officials said. The order was circulated late Friday by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, they said. The FCC has until Feb. 25 to find a U.S. Attorney to sue any stations that don’t pay the fine, industry lawyers have said (CD Jan 29 p1).

The FCC will approve the $11 billion transfer of a controlling stake in DirecTV to Liberty Media from News Corp. this week, commission officials said. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s draft order to clear the deal (CD Feb 11 p4) has three “yes” votes including his, sources said. The order he circulated Feb. 6 would approve the deal subject to two conditions. The other two commissioners agreed to vote on it Friday at the latest, the sources said, but the final order may not be released immediately if the commissioners agree on last-minute changes.

The monthly FCC agenda meeting was rescheduled to Monday to coincide with a net neutrality hearing in Cambridge, Mass., said agency officials. The decision late Tuesday to cancel the Feb. 26 meeting in Washington and combine it with the Feb. 25 field hearing caps a week of confusion among commission staff, and last-minute changes in details of both events (CD Feb 15 p1). FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s plan for commissioners to vote on six media and wireless items at the meeting was scotched by the latest change in plans, commission sources said. No items will be voted on at the field hearing, they said, and commissioners once again were asked to vote on three of the six items before the meeting.

Comments are due March 14 to the FCC on whether radio and TV stations should have to meet with community leaders and cover local issues, as tentatively endorsed by a rulemaking notice (CD Dec 19 p1). The reply deadline is April 14, a Media Bureau public notice said Friday. The comment period began last week when the notice ran in the Federal Register. Many at the commission and in industry expect the localism proceeding to rank among the most controversial areas of broadcast regulation the agency considers in 2008. Not all commissioners believe stations should face more rules, said FCC officials. The vote may be split on the final localism order if Chairman Kevin Martin decides to adopt all of the notice’s tentative conclusions, said a source. But it’s too soon to predict, because it’s unclear how Martin will proceed with a variety of potentially fractious issues brought up by the notice, said sources. Commissioner Robert McDowell in part concurred with the Dec. 18 decision to issue the notice, saying the tentative findings were a step “back in time.”

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin overhauled a proposed digital- TV consumer-education order, circulating for a vote since October, to reflect proposals by two broadcaster organizations, commission officials said. The revised document would allow commercial stations to fulfill FCC education requirements if they meet requirements proposed by the NAB for a safe harbor, they said. Noncommercial stations could comply by following a plan from the Association of Public TV Stations for noncommercial stations, sources said.

A wide range of industries should ensure TV viewers can keep watching low-power broadcasters after the digital transition for full-power stations, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wrote five lobbying groups. He outlined steps that consumer electronics retailers and manufacturers, satellite providers, cable operators and broadcasters should take for the signals of the more than 7,300 low-power stations to be widely seen after Feb. 17, 2009. The FCC late Wednesday released his letter to the heads of the CEA, Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition, NAB, NCTA and Satellite Industry Association.