The FCC shouldn’t fix what’s isn’t broken by redefining more narrowly which deals can be offered by TV stations and cable networks for carriage on multichannel video programming distributors, said broadcasters, large cable operators and programmers. Disputing claims by the American Cable Association and others, the NAB’s reply to an FCC rulemaking notice said TV stations never require pay-TV companies to carry affiliated channels so they can show the broadcast signals.

Retailers want to ensure that viewers of low-power TV stations can keep getting the signals after the full-power digital transition (CD Feb 12 p2), said Marc Pearl, executive director of the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition. Electronics stores will sell DTV converter boxes that pass- through analog signals as well as digital broadcasts and will also market splitters, Pearl told us late Monday. Both options will let over-the-air viewers keep getting low-power signals, which aren’t covered by an FCC-imposed transition deadline, after Feb. 17, 2009, he said. The most recent version of the retail coalition’s consumer guide, posted online last week, tells consumers about the low-power broadcasters, said Pearl. “Everyone -- retailers, manufacturers, broadcasters (both full and low power), the FCC and the NTIA -- have an interest in making sure the public is fully informed of their options to help them get through the transition,” he said. But an ad run by low-power stations telling viewers that they must buy a device with an ATSC and NTSC tuner is “misleading,” said Pearl. Those devices can’t be bought with the $40 converter box coupons that the NTIA will send out starting next week and may cost more than $150 or require a new set, he added.

The FCC must in less than two weeks issue a forfeiture order formalizing $1.5 million in fines against 52 ABC stations because it’s racing against a statute of limitations deadline, a commission official and industry executives said. To beat the deadline, the commissioners must vote on the order by Feb. 25, they said. That’s only two weeks after replies to the FCC about its Jan. 25 notice of apparent liability over an episode of NYPD Blue were due. The notice concerned the agency’s second-largest indecency fine and sat on the eighth floor for almost two years between the time Chairman Kevin Martin circulated it and he and three other commissioners voted for it (CD Jan 28 p1). Commissioner Deborah Tate voted for the order when it came to the eighth floor in March 2006, agency officials have said.

The FCC wants comments on how many channels a cable operator should be able to carry if they are corporate affiliates, the agency said in a further rulemaking notice on vertical ownership limits Monday. It was released with the text of an order that commissioners approved 3-2 in December limiting to 30 percent the proportion of pay-TV subscribers a cable operator can serve (CD Dec 20 p1). The notice “tentatively” found that a 75 channel cap should be excluded. It seeks comments on the possible benefits and harms of vertical integration between cable systems and channels. “We also seek further comment on the extent to which vertically integrated cable operators have an incentive to engage in strategic, anticompetitive behavior, leading to foreclosure of entry by unaffiliated programmers,” the commission said. Cable operators have criticized the 30 percent limit. Comcast said Monday that the agency has no evidence to support it. “The case for a 30 percent cap is even weaker than when the courts rejected it six years ago, and we plan to challenge this commission decision in the courts at the earliest opportunity,” Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said in a news release. NCTA also cited a 2001 appeals court rejection of the FCC’s previous horizontal cable cap of 30 percent. “In the intervening years, competition among satellite, telephone and cable companies and the variety and amount of independent programming has only increased,” an NCTA spokesman said late Monday. “We are confident that a court will again reject conclusions that are completely at odds with the realities of a dynamic and competitive marketplace that is providing greater consumer choice and value.”

Government and industry officials have gathered twice at the FCC this month to discuss how they can ensure that people who watch low-power TV stations keep getting their signals after the digital transition, said a half-dozen participants. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin requested the meeting so a wide range of those involved in the transition could discuss how to publicize NTIA-certified converter boxes that pass through analog signals, they said. The NTIA already has certified three boxes that can do this as eligible for $40 coupons that it will start sending to consumers Feb. 18, and it expects to certify others (CD Feb 11 p4) OR (CED Feb 11 p4). But low- power broadcasters are concerned that most of the more than 30 NTIA-certified boxes can’t do pass-through, and they filed a complaint on the matter with the FCC Dec. 7.

Transfer of a $13 billion controlling stake in DirecTV to Liberty Media from News Corp. is conditionally approved in a draft order FCC Chairman Kevin Martin circulated to all other commissioners for a vote by Feb. 26. The chairman told reporters Friday he'll put the order on that day’s meeting agenda if it’s not voted on earlier. For the deal to go through, Martin said, Liberty Chairman John Malone would have to divest a stake he has in a cable operator in Puerto Rico, since DirecTV also serves the island. Liberty would also have to continue to abide by programming-related conditions imposed as part of the commission’s approval of the DBS provider’s transfer in 2004 from General Motors to News Corp.

All FCC commissioners back Chairman Kevin Martin on an unprecedented move to give three weeks public notice of items the chairman wants voted on at a meeting. Under the plan, around the time Martin circulates so-called white paper copies of proposed orders, rulemaking notices and the like for meeting votes, he'll publicly list them, he told reporters Friday. This is a deviation from long- standing agency pattern, he and others familiar with agency history said. Meanwhile, Martin defended his leadership style Friday saying he is not to blame for long delays in meeting start times or procedural breakdowns at the agency.

Challenges for retailers selling DTV converter boxes were highlighted at a Thursday event where government and industry officials touted their efforts to educate consumers about the digital transition. Consumer electronics stores will start selling the boxes at different times and the demand is difficult to predict, CE executives said in interviews. Some chains are further along than others in gearing up for Feb. 17, when NTIA starts mailing $40 coupons for the devices (CD Feb 1 p17).

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin delayed for at least a third time a deadline for commissioners to vote on an order that would require broadcasters to air digital transition public service ads, as his colleagues consider whether to exempt a wide swath of stations from the mandates, said agency and industry sources. The latest extension runs through Thursday, said an agency source. The last extension gave Commissioners Robert McDowell and Deborah Tate until last week to vote (CD Jan 28 p2). FCC Chairman Kevin Martin voted for the order Oct. 16 when he circulated it. It quickly got the support of Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps as well.

The FCC likely will require low-power broadcasters to switch to all-digital transmissions, Chairman Kevin Martin said. Those broadcasters won’t have to make the DTV transition before full-power broadcasters, on Feb. 17, 2009, he told a press briefing Thursday. Their analog cutoff won’t likely be set until after the stations can start getting $65 million in 2010 set aside by Congress for them to buy and install digital equipment, he said. That means the transition date likely wouldn’t be before 2011 or 2012, he added.