The extent TV stations can share newsrooms and other functions without being considered commonly owned is at play in the FCC’s media ownership review. Some at the FCC are considering whether to seek changes to a draft notice of proposed rulemaking on the quadrennial review that would probe further into shared services agreements, local marketing agreements and other deals that let separately owned stations in the same market share some operations. SSAs and LMAs aren’t attributable for ownership reasons, so two Big Four broadcast network affiliates can share operations without running afoul of local ownership limits. That’s all according to agency and industry officials.

Major cable operators plan to deploy more energy-efficient set-top boxes than those widely in use now. The U.S.’s six biggest cable operators plan to have at least 90 percent of all new set-tops they buy and deploy by the end of 2013 be Energy Star 3.0-compliant, NCTA executives said Friday. The association and CableLabs are setting up an energy lab to develop electricity-efficient set-tops and other gear used by consumers, and equipment used by cable companies’ networks. A CEA executive said such efforts may reduce power usage and costs, the Environmental Protection Agency said it’s a good move, and environmental groups backed it while saying more must be done by cable operators to use less power.

Many broadcasters and all wireless companies are sitting out a plan (CD Oct 21 p2) by some stations to act as Internet backhaul providers for carriers, our survey of those industries found. No carrier has agreed to join the efforts of the Coalition for Free TV and Broadband, though several have expressed an interest in the technology, members said. They said the coalition has been adding some broadcasters, including the owner of five stations in North Carolina, and the operator of another 36 outlets is likely to join. Other executives and engineers who consult for the TV industry said the technology changes needed for stations to become ISPs of a sort would be expensive. They're skeptical that what they called an initiative undertaken at a late date will pick up enough momentum to either delay the auction of TV stations’ channels the FCC wants to hold or gain carrier backing.

There’s no reason to ban any cross ownership of daily newspapers and radio or TV stations in the same market, the new head of the Newspaper Association of America said after her first 65 days on the job. The NAA hopes the FCC in its ongoing review of all media ownership rules will entirely rescind the ban, Caroline Little said during Q-and-A at a Media Institute luncheon Tuesday. “We'd like to get no cross-ownership whatsoever,” Little told us about the current rules. Another NAA executive visited the commission last week to press the agency to change cross-ownership rules. A draft rulemaking notice on the quadrennial review proposes to allow waivers to be sought of the ban in the top 20 markets, restoring a rule remanded by an appeals court this summer (CD Nov 15 p5).

The FCC may eventually revisit a four-decade-old-rule barring multichannel video programming distributors from carrying games that are blacked out by sports leagues on TV stations in markets where the games haven’t sold out. The commission doesn’t seem poised to act right away on a Friday petition from several nonprofit entities and some groups saying they represent fans. Because the petition is styled as a way to cut outdated mandates out of FCC regulations, the commission may eventually start a proceeding on sports blackout rules. MVPDs and TV stations haven’t backed the petition yet, in part because they're scared of the leverage the leagues have over them in giving them rights to carry the games, said members of a coalition of five groups that filed the petition (http://xrl.us/bmimyk).

The FCC asks about deals among multiple TV stations under separate ownership in the same market, in a draft rulemaking notice. The Media Bureau draft NPRM that circulated Nov. 4 (CD Nov 7 p19) asks about shared services agreements and local marketing agreements. Such deals let multiple stations share news and other resources without having the commission consider them commonly owned, which would be barred in many instances. The NPRM asks about the impact of SSAs, LMAs and similar deals on the touchstone of FCC policy goals: Promoting localism, competition and diversity, according to agency officials.

The FCC began an inquiry on what TV stations should report to the agency on the types of local programming they air each quarter. A Media Bureau notice of inquiry on coming up with a replacement to the never-used Form 355 was approved 4-0 and released Monday afternoon. Commissioner Robert McDowell concurred, though saying his proposed changes to the draft NOI that were “substantive” in nature weren’t incorporated into the item. The agency’s approval of the NOI was expected (CD Oct 28 p7). McDowell dissented in 2007 when Form 355 was approved by the agency, and he approved with all other FCC members an order last month that permanently junked the form. “While we have vacated the 2007 Report and Order, we continue to believe that the creation and implementation of a standardized form is beneficial and worthy of pursuing,” the notice said.

Cablevision lost a challenge to program access decisions against the company and its former regional sports network unit. Thursday’s loss was the second defeat in as many days. The full FCC upheld twin Media Bureau orders from September. The cable operator and Madison Square Garden LP, Cablevision’s former regional sports network unit, were required to provide two New York RSNs in HD to the biggest two telcos. The full commission orders had been expected (CD Nov 7 p7), though they weren’t voted on in time for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear oral argument Wednesday on Cablevision and MSG’s challenge of the bureau’s orders. Later that day, the 2nd Circuit denied the stay request (CD Nov 10 p15).

An NPR satellite feed caused a systemic audio glitch with Wednesday’s first-ever nationwide test (CD Nov 10 p2) of the emergency alert system (EAS). The Squawk Channel feed was used by some commercial radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming providers to carry the test alert from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, executives said. The feed also was used for some noncommercial stations, which got the channel directly from NPR and who then passed it onto the other types of EAS participants. Broadcasters and MVPDs that relied on the feed for the test had the audio test message disrupted. The exercise nonetheless worked as intended, because the EAS participants got the simulated warning and passed it on, even though the announcement couldn’t be clearly heard, said executives who participated in the test.

The first-ever national emergency alert system test saw glitches at cable operators, DBS providers and commercial and nonprofit radio and TV broadcasters, our survey of those EAS participants and our own research found. The exercise was shortened last week to 30 seconds from three minutes, after the NCTA unsuccessfully sought a delay because many cable encoder-decoder units that pass the alert on couldn’t show video saying it was a test (CD Nov 7 p6). That prompted worries among government and industry officials that viewers would think an actual emergency occurred, but broadcast executives said that didn’t appear to have happened, based on initial reports. All EAS participants have a month and a half to report to the FCC how things went.