Comcast stepped up lobbying against a draft program carriage rule to make cable operators keep distributing independent channels while indies’ complaints are pending at the FCC. Lobbying last week at the offices of Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell came as the Republican is the only FCC member not to have voted on a draft Media Bureau order and further rulemaking notice. He’s concerned that the agency may violate the Administrative Procedure Act by issuing standstill rules before seeking specific comment on them (CD July 25 p8). The agency’s approach to the standstill requirement “is out of step with its general interest in engaging in predictable and orderly rulemaking,” Comcast Senior Vice President Kathy Zachem reported telling FCC Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell likely will vote against part of a program carriage order if changes aren’t made to a draft that’s been approved by all his colleagues, agency and industry officials said last week. They said he continues to have concerns about the Media Bureau order to require cable operators to keep carrying independent networks while indies’ complaints against the companies are pending. The order circulated May 3 by Chairman Julius Genachowski and approved by him and the other two FCC Democrats would require standstill carriage. It would begin once the bureau finds an indie made a prima facie case that a distributor gave less favorable carriage to it than to an operator-affiliated channel (CD July 13 p3.)

Invitations to serve on the FCC’s diversity committee will be made shortly, as work on the Universal Service Fund “soon” will culminate in a comprehensive order, Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus told minority and women communications entrepreneurs Friday. A day earlier, Commissioner Robert McDowell told the Minority Media and Telecom Council conference (CD July 22 p7) he worried about delays in changing USF to also fund broadband and in rejuvenating the Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age. Chairman Julius Genachowski’s staff told the Federal State USF Joint Board last week that the order on USF and intercarrier compensation (ICC) will be ready for the October meeting, an FCC official told us.

The FCC should waste no time in reinvigorating its diversity committee, especially since an appeals court recently sent back to the agency rules on the subject, Commissioner Robert McDowell said Thursday. Last month’s remand of a diversity order and media ownership rules from 2008 by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia shows why it’s timely for the Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age to become active once again, McDowell said. And “I think we have had some needless delays there of months or of a year” in getting the 3rd Circuit’s ruling, because the commission had sought to put Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC on hold, he told a Minority Media and Telecom Council conference. He had opposed that stay.

A closely watched FCC filing on reforming the Universal Service Fund to pay for broadband, which is backed by Comcast and others selling landline phone connections, will be ready as soon as next week. Verizon’s top executive in Washington predicted at a Minority Media and Telecom Council conference Thursday that the filing will be made next week and may be joined by the cable operator. Talks among many USF stakeholders led by USTelecom have been ongoing for some time, with the expectation of finishing the work this month or early next. Regardless of how wide support is for the USTelecom plan, the agency needs to soon approve an order on USF, Commissioner Robert McDowell told the conference. The USTelecom-led “framework” reached its conclusion in late June and has won favor with mid-sized telcos Windstream, CenturyLink and Frontier (CD July 6 p6).

An infrequent FCC filer weighed in against AllVid rules. The Institute for Liberty (IFL), which last filed at the commission in April 2010 on net neutrality, said now that AllVid rules likewise are unneeded. IFL said it’s “puzzled that the Commission is considering moving beyond its antiquated and heavy-handed CableCard regime to a new and even more intrusive AllVid paradigm,” given Chairman Julius Genachowski has said he wants to nix outdated rules (CD July 12 p10). “It makes little sense to repeat prior mistakes with AllVid,” IFL said. The Phoenix Center, another group that often opposes regulation, was right to ask the agency to use Section 629(e) of the Telecom Act to phase out retail video device rules, IFL said. Its filing was posted Wednesday to docket 10-91 (http://xrl.us/bk2mmp). The group didn’t comment at the behest of anyone, and doesn’t disclose donors, President Andrew Langer told us: He first heard of AllVid at a meeting of other politically conservative groups that often oppose regulation, and IFL “is starting to do more” on telecom issues. The Media Bureau has been holding off proposing AllVid rules.

The FCC has made significant progress in reducing a backlog of cable company requests for local rate deregulation, according to agency records and interviews with lawyers who file petitions for operators or oppose them on behalf of municipalities. There were 56 requests for Media Bureau findings of effective video competition pending as of June 30, agency figures show. That’s the lowest figure in any Communications Daily review of such requests in the last six years (CD June 3/10 p4, Feb 2/07 p3, Sept 29/05 p1), although exact data for earlier periods is unavailable. Recent recipients of effective competition findings include the four largest U.S. cable operators.

Meredith Baker and her aides consulted with FCC lawyers at least 10 times in the three-and-a-half weeks between when the then-commissioner began considering working for Comcast and when the cable operator hired her, agency records show. Emails between Baker and FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick and ethics official Patrick Carney in the Office of General Counsel (OGC) and Baker’s calendar entries were released to Warren Communications News, publisher of Communications Daily. The records confirm the accounts given publicly by FCC and Comcast officials that Baker consulted with the OGC before the date she says she began considering a job at the cable operator, and that she recused herself from any issues at the commission affecting the company. Of the 17 documents Warren received under a Freedom of Information Act request, six were completely blacked out and two were partly redacted.

The FCC set its hard date for the last DTV switch, saying low-power stations must turn off analog signals in just over four years. The deadline is Sept. 1, 2015, for all TV stations that broadcast at lower power levels than the several thousand full-power outlets that went all-digital in 2009. All low-power stations must vacate the 700 MHz band by the end of this year. That will clear that band, “allowing for the successful deployment of wireless services” by companies and public-safety agencies,” Commissioner Robert McDowell said. Friday evening’s order seemed to have no major changes from an earlier Media Bureau draft (CD June 24 p4).

Work by career FCC staffers on proposed media ownership rules is progressing, after an appeals court remand of previous regulations, industry and agency officials said. They said the last batch of studies the agency paid outsiders to do is heading toward completion, and a rulemaking notice will be issued later. The commission contracted to pay $725,000 for eight studies, according to contracting documents Warren Communications News, publisher of Communications Daily, got from the agency by a Freedom of Information Act request. The research is on local online content, “civic knowledge” and “engagement,” TV viewing, ownership and other areas. The FCC has released five studies dealing with the Web, TV and radio (CD June 16 p9).