Some cable and satellite rivals want program access restrictions put on DirecTV in its deal to shift control to Liberty Media (CD Dec 26 p1), they said in comments to the FCC on the $11 billion asset swap. The American Cable Assn. (ACA), the National Cable TV Cooperative (NCTC), RCN and EchoStar want curbs on anticompetitive behavior, especially in exclusive deals for sports. A history of more than a decade of cooperation between Liberty Chmn. John Malone and News Corp. Chmn. Rupert Murdoch, “undercuts their claim that transitioning DirecTV from one partner (News Corp.) to the other (Liberty Media) ends this relationship in any real matter,” said EchoStar, perhaps the harshest of commenters to file by late Fri. with the Commission.

The FCC approved HD Radio multicasting in a long-awaited order (CD March 22 p15) formalizing a policy that let hundreds of stations each broadcast multiple streams on an experimental basis. Under new rules approved Thurs. at the FCC meeting, a single HD Radio FM station can transmit multiple in-band on-channel (IBOC) streams. After years of delay, nighttime AM HD Radio is authorized.

Final details of an FCC digital radio multicasting order were uncertain late Wed., as 8th floor negotiations continued, said agency and industry sources. The order and a related further notice of proposed rulemaking are set for a vote today (Thurs.). The order authorizing FM multicasting and nighttime AM digital broadcasts has the votes of the 3 Republican commissioners. It’s uncertain whether Comrs. Adelstein or Copps will support the order, we're told. They want public interest obligations placed on radio multicasters, while some Republicans don’t, FCC sources have said. Last minute negotiations may involve what questions the rulemaking asks about public interest rules, said an FCC source.

FCC Chmn. Martin urged media companies to deal with a “crisis” of surging obesity among children as he kickedoff the first meeting of a task force comprising industry and advocacy groups. Efforts by Disney and other broadcasters to encourage healthy eating are a good first step, Martin said, but “more must be done, and that’s why we have this group.” Martin and Comrs. Copps and Tate offered few solutions at the Capitol Hill meeting, but agreed media have a significant role in getting kids to stop gorging. Sen. Brownback (R- Kan.) joined commissioners and advocates in lamenting a shortening of life spans in the U.S. obesity keeps growing.

Several dozen broadcasters and investors are examining ways to boost minority engagement in the industry by boosting funding for small station deals, said Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC) Exec. Dir. David Honig. MMTC’s Broadcast Finance Working Group met Tues. to discuss how to teach would-be broadcasters to raise money and close deals, he said. Hundreds of broadcasters, mostly small-city radio stations, may be sold by ABC-Citadel, Clear Channel, Univision and others as companies confront FCC ownership caps. “There’s a lot of equity for big deals, but not a lot of equity for small deals,” Honig said, declining to identify task force members. Broadcasters seem to support congressional reinstatement of tax breaks for stations sold to minorities, he said: “We've gotten very enthusiastic and broad-based support throughout the communications industry, the communications bar and financiers for this effort.” Rep. Rush (D-Ill.) introduced HR-600 to restore minority tax certificates. The bill has been referred to the House Ways & Means Committee, Honig said.

NCTA comments on cable ownership caps were criticized by telcos. Late Fri., NCTA said FCC Chmn. Martin’s plan for a 30% cable ownership cap is unneeded since there’s ample video competition, and Bells, including AT&T, don’t face limits in the number of landline subscribers they serve (CD March 19 p11). TV4Us, whose members include AT&T, called NCTA’s FCC filing “the cable industry’s latest mudslinging,” a spokeswoman said: “Unlike the cable industry’s yearly rate hikes and lack of competitive choices, consumers have real choices for their voice services” from phone companies. USTelecom made similar comments. “Fierce competition in the voice market has resulted in more choices and lower prices for consumers,” a spokesman said: “The telecom industry wants to bring that same level of competition to video services. We believe that the free market, not more government regulation, is the best way to accomplish that goal.”

Commissioners are poised to approve a $2.7 billion merger of Citadel and ABC Radio (CD Feb 7/06 p10) provided the companies divest 11 stations in as little as 6 months, agency and industry sources said late Mon. The divestitures will keep the new company inside FCC broadcast ownership limits, they said. Commissioners are expected to approve creation of an independent trust to divest the stations. The trust, to be run independently of Citadel, will seek to gauge interest in the stations and sell them, Media Venture Partners Managing Dir. Elliot Evers said. He'll be the trustee, said company documents filed with the FCC. Commissioners are set to vote on the deal at the Thurs. agenda meeting.

An order approving Univision’s $13.7 billion takeover by private equity firms had received at least 4 votes from FCC Commissioners by late Thurs., multiple FCC sources said. Comr. McDowell hadn’t voted, said an FCC and an industry official. Other sources, however, disagreed and said that all 5 commissioners voted to approve the merger. McDowell’s office declined comment.

Companies seeking CableCARD waivers should explain how it would help consumers if they get a break, said aides to FCC Comrs. Adelstein and McDowell. Cable operators may have to show that unless they get waivers they'll have to charge more or explain why private solutions won’t work. McDowell thinks companies’ agreements, not an FCC rulemaking, are the way to address concerns over a July 2007 deadline for banning integration of set-top box navigation and security, said media adviser Cristina Pauze. Pauze’s counterpart in Adelstein’s office, Rudy Brioche, said cable should focus on the ban’s consumer implications. The officials spoke Tues. at a Cable TV Public Affairs Assn. (CTPAA) conference.

The FCC relieved cable operators of local rate regulation in 17 municipalities under Media Bureau orders finding effective competition. The bureau granted petitions filed by Adelphia, Bright House, Cox and Time Warner Entertainment in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, Cal., Indianapolis, Va.’s Fairfax County and other localities. They had almost 850,000 homes in the 2000 census. Cable systems in an additional 81 communities with over 900,000 households got similar rate exemptions earlier last week (CD March 5 p14). Together with last week’s decisions, the rate exemptions are the largest batch of approvals in at least 1- 1/2 years. Industry gripes about slow processing seem to be one reason that the bureau acted on so many petitions, said industry officials; NCTA had asked for faster approval. Mon.’s release of an eagerly awaited video franchise order making it easier for Bells to get municipal approval to sell TV (see separate story this issue) also may have prompted the issue of effective competition orders, said cable lawyer Howard Barr. Some cable officials believe the franchise order is unfair to their industry. “If you're going to take away something on one side of the equation, you've got to reflect it on the other side,” Barr said: “It’s unfair to subject these operators to rate regulation when they're subject to effective competition.”