The FCC hopes more operators agree to use a yet-to-be-deployed type of stripped-down set-top box lacking a DVR for subscribers whose cable-connected consumer electronics lack CableCARDs, industry officials said. That would let the CE devices get scrambled broadcast and basic-cable channels, and the commission hopes that happens before an encryption order circulates, the officials said. They said some at the agency have signaled to the cable industry that the Media Bureau and Chairman Julius Genachowski’s office would like additional operators to agree to a hardware workaround for clear QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) products from CE companies including Boxee to get encrypted content.

A report on the state of pay-TV competition is among the several media items FCC members may soon vote on, agency officials said. They said the report will put an end to the agency’s attempt with a past multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) competition report to Congress to see if the so-called 70/70 threshold was reached where cable operators passed 70 percent of U.S. households with at least 36 channels and 70 percent of residences subscribed. An order on the Tennis Channel’s program carriage complaint against Comcast is among other media-related items that may be acted on soon, agency officials said. Not on the eighth floor’s front burner is a further rulemaking notice on a radio and TV station biennial ownership form and an order on TV captioning waiver standards, commission officials said.

Broadcasters worry about a repeat of problems with an ownership form when the FCC starts a system for all TV stations to upload to fcc.gov documents on paper in public files at main studios, their lawyers told us Thursday. They said the absence of a system to accept documents listing how much campaign ads sell for to politicians around the time of elections, quarterly lists of informational and educational programs, and other paperwork -- less than a month before online public files must start being created -- is causing some angst. The Media Bureau seems to be rushing to complete work on the forthcoming system, which could lead to another instance of glitches with a new paperwork collection system, as occurred for Form 323 biennial ownership reports, broadcast lawyers said.

A U.S. regulator gave more time to agree on set-top box energy efficiency standards among advocates at nonprofits seeking reduced energy use, and executives of consumer electronics companies and multichannel video programming distributors hoping to avoid rules. The executives said the talks on standards for set-tops have been fruitful, and they're hopeful conversations will pick up steam. The Department of Energy said Thursday it’s delaying a rulemaking schedule until after Oct. 1 to give the talks time to progress, and executives told us a fall time frame for a deal is reasonable.

The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a case on whether an unscripted broadcast of Janet Jackson’s breast for 9/16 of a second during CBS’s 2004 Super Bowl halftime show is indecent contained some surprises for experienced court watchers. Departing from what the high court usually does when denying a grant of certiorari, not one but two justices issued concurring statements in FCC v. CBS. That came eight days after the court found against the commission on Fifth Amendment grounds for not giving broadcasters sufficient notice they could be penalized for fleeting instances of nudity and swearing in a case involving Disney’s ABC and News Corp.’s Fox (CD June 22 p1). Constitutional scholars and First Amendment lawyers said Friday’s rare departure from usually denying cert without comment shows where an additional jurist stands on the issue of the commission’s general ability to regulate nudity and cursing on broadcast TV.

Comcast agreed to sell unbundled broadband service for a fourth year because it faced allegations it violated conditions of the FCC’s OK of the cable ISP’s purchase of control in NBCUniversal by not telling customers widely enough about the naked cable modem service. The naked broadband condition was extended to Feb. 21, 2015, in an Enforcement Bureau consent decree where Comcast also agreed to voluntarily pay $800,000 to the U.S. Treasury and train employees so they know about the product that costs almost $50 monthly. It’s a “historic settlement,” said Bureau Chief Michele Ellison, who signed the decree (http://xrl.us/bnc4p3) that was released late Wednesday.

Those seeking guidance on what’s not acceptable on broadcast TV and radio are unlikely to get it anytime soon from the FCC, commission and industry officials predicted. They said agency staff from multiple offices are just starting to evaluate the agency’s options on indecency enforcement after Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling striking down actions against fleeting nudity and cursing (CD June 22 p1). Even when the review by career commission staff is over, the agency is unlikely to issue broad guidance on indecency and instead probably would begin disposing of the 1.5 million complaints against programs, broadcast lawyers said. A group that backs indecency enforcement said such guidance isn’t necessary for the backlog to be reduced.

FCC options of scaling back program access rules drew no support from telcos, DBS providers and small cable operators, while operators that also own programming want the ban on exclusive deals for such content fully sunset. That’s according to initial comments on a rulemaking notice (CD March 22 p8). The document sought comment on whether to sunset the rules -- last extended for five years and expiring Oct. 5. Options the commission sought comment on other than keeping the rules or removing them in their entirety drew no support in docket 12-68. USTelecom and some others linked broadband service to keeping the rules, as cable rivals have in the past on video competition, saying subscription-video provider access to channels affiliated with operators helps them sell video and broadband.

The onus returns to the FCC to decide how to deal with brief instances of nudity or unscripted cursing broadcast on TV. A unanimous Supreme Court ruled as some expected (CD Jan 11 p1) that the commission violated the due process rights of Disney’s ABC network and some affiliates and News Corp.’s Fox by not giving them notice that fleeting indecency could be censured or result in fines.

Many parts of the wireline Internet business are working together more to better use bandwidth and deliver streaming video with fewer interruptions to broadband subscribers, executives from the array of industries said. They said the nascent efforts to link together websites, content delivery networks (CDNs) that more efficiently distribute video to broadband networks, and ISPs in loose federations of companies are slowly picking up steam. CDNs and major websites also increasingly offer to pay major U.S. ISPs for access to their central offices and headends, so the Web companies’ servers are placed in cable operator and telco facilities to streamline delivery of content to end-users, executives said.