Lifetime Networks and DirecTV withdrew lawsuits against one another arising from the satellite provider’s charges that the cable channel broke a contract. Neither company would reveal financial or other details of the settlement or provide a copy of a filing last week with U.S. District Court, Los Angeles, to dismiss one another’s claims. The dispute erupted when DirecTV claimed Lifetime failed to pay subscribers of rival satellite TV provider EchoStar $200 each for switching to DirecTV (CD Jan 17/06 p13), said a press report. “The dispute has been amicably resolved and the parties look forward to building upon their very productive business relationship,” a Lifetime spokesman told us.

Lack of two-way plug-and-play cable devices may keep consumers from buying digital TVs, the FCC said late Friday. This makes it crucial for there to be standards for the cable and consumer electronics industries, the agency said. This analysis appeared in a notice of proposed rulemaking with a twist, as the regulator asked if plug-and-play standards should apply to gear used not only with cable but also with satellite TV, IPTV networks and Bell pay-TV services. The cable and consumer electronics industries have made dueling proposals on such standards. Now, the FCC wants comment on them.

More than 100 pay-TV providers got a last-minute reprieve from an FCC ban on combining security and navigation functions in inexpensive set top boxes after July 1, 2007. At about 8 p.m. ET Friday, the Media Bureau unveiled a conditional order granting the petitions of Bells including Qwest and Verizon, telecommunications companies including CenturyTel and small municipal and privately owned cable operators. Several other small cable operators got full waivers from the bureau, while 9 companies got a brief reprieve from the integration ban. As FCC Chairman Kevin Martin had publicly suggested, a waiver for the entire cable industry sought by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) was denied. Consistent with Martin’s comments, many video providers must start all- digital networks before the broadcast digital TV transition to get the exemptions.

FCC commissioners used opening remarks at a broadcast localism hearing late Thursday in Portland, Maine, to revisit pet media issues, ranging from ownership diversity to junk food ads. Commissioner Michael Copps took aim at the agency’s broadcast license renewal process, noting stations once reapplied every three years, compared with eight years now. Copps convened the hearing in the absence of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who stayed in Washington to be with his one-week old son, William, who remains in an intensive care unit. The newborn’s condition is improving, said Copps, adding that he will brief Kevin Martin on the hearing once both are back on the 8th floor. “Although we don’t always agree on all of the issues, he reads the record,” Democrat Copps said of Martin, a Republican. “We don’t usually get a gavel to wield. It feels pretty nice now,” Copps said. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein lashed out at broadcasters for airing news of Paris Hilton’s time in jail instead of focusing on more substantive events. “The problem is in recent years breaking news has been replaced with breaking gossip,” said Adelstein. Commissioner Deborah Tate asked broadcasters in the audience to cut the number of junk food ads targeting kids, saying ensuring high-quality children’s programs are aired is a top priority. She said she hopes executives will “not only meet your legal obligations regarding children’s core programming, but more importantly you will provide more balance” for healthy foods “to help all of us solve what has become a national epidemic.” Commissioner Robert McDowell asked the audience to opine on whether online news competes with broadcast programming.

FCC commissioners approved a rulemaking on cable- consumer electronics plug and play devices late Wednesday, said the Consumer Electronics Association. The agency did not publicize the notice of proposed rulemaking, and an FCC spokesman declined comment. The notice is expected to solicit comment on dueling proposals from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the CEA on speeding retail availability of interactive program guides and other products for cable subscribers (CD June 28 p4). CEA lauded the rulemaking, with President Gary Shapiro saying it “promises to bring competition to the market by giving consumers the widest choices in both equipment and services. A competitive cable equipment market is still elusive 11 years after Congress required it.” An NCTA official declined to comment because the rulemaking was not publicly released. The notice had been expected to get a vote on circulation this week, after it was yanked from the agenda of Thursday’s FCC meeting less than 24 hours before the gathering convened. The FCC meeting was combined with a field hearing on broadcast localism. (See separate report in this issue.)

Commissioners are unlikely to vote anytime soon on Comcast’s CableCARD petition for full FCC review of a Media Bureau order denying the company’s request to combine security and navigation functions in inexpensive set top boxes after July 1, according to several agency and industry officials. It’s all but certain there will be no vote on an order circulated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to deny Comcast’s petition and uphold the bureau before the integration ban for all cable operators takes effect Sunday, said several FCC officials in other offices. Martin circulated the order earlier this month (CD Jun 11 p1), in time for a vote at today’s (Thursday) FCC meeting in Portland, Maine. But the agenda for the meeting did not include consideration of the CableCARD petition, which was opposed by the Consumer Electronics Association. Meanwhile, another 53 cable operators and Bells including Qwest and Verizon are awaiting bureau action on their petitions.

Cable operators are taking a page from the wireless industry’s playbook, encouraging use of Sun Microsystems’ Java product to move toward industry-wide software specifications for a wide range of services. Cable executives Monday touted new agreements under which Intel and Microsoft will develop products with the industry’s OpenCable system, which CableLabs is developing. Comcast and Time Warner Cable executives told a Monday briefing of aides to FCC commissioners and members of Congress that cable operators use OpenCable to help high-tech companies develop new products for video on demand and interactive set-top box functions. National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow said talks between the cable and consumer electronics industries (CD Nov 9 p12) on two-way plug and play devices, which OpenCable aims to address, have gained steam.

Cable networks opposed legislation that would make cable and satellite operators sell channels individually, instead of in packages. In a Monday letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, A&E, CNN, C-SPAN, Discovery, Lifetime and about 100 other networks said a la carte would boost marketing costs to the detriment of new programming. They called a la carte a “simple sounding solution” that is “misguided and would not result in the benefits portrayed by its supporters.” At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on violence today (Tuesday), FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is expected to tout a la carte as a way to reduce childhood exposure to TV violence. Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, also testifying, is expected to say a la carte legislation would violate the First Amendment.

Government-mandated a la carte was panned by a handful of House members who used a hearing by the Telecommunications Subcommittee on child obesity to attack recent proposals by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, the ranking Republican member, said forcing individual channel sales by cable, satellite and other pay-TV providers will not improve children’s programming quality. Reps. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.) panned a la carte, which got no support during a three-hour hearing often interrupted as members left to vote.

FCC commissioners are unlikely to vote on any items at this month’s meeting (CD June 11 p1)), said agency and industry officials. A June 28 agenda meeting in Portland, Maine, is being combined with a field hearing on broadcaster diligence in meeting license obligations to carry local news and other programming. The June event likely will resemble one in February in Harrisburg, Pa. That meeting was combined with a media ownership field hearing. FCC members did not vote but listened to 3-1/2 hours of testimony and heard from a panel of local TV and radio executives. The FCC hasn’t released a list of speakers for the June meeting.