The FCC will recommend some of what amounts to deregulatory actions, in what’s been called the Future of Media report which is slated to be released Thursday, agency and industry officials said. They said the document, which the commission of late has referred to by another name, will include some possible actions the regulator can take to communicate with the public. Report author Steve Waldman will spend some time during Thursday’s commissioner meeting discussing the document, and FCC members will issue statements responding to the study, agency and industry officials said.

A program carriage proceeding may be in play at the FCC, with career staffers and commissioners likely to consider changes to an order and further rulemaking notice (CD May 17 p7) before they're voted on, agency and industry officials said. They said it’s unclear whether the Media Bureau and office of Chairman Julius Genachowski will end up making all, or even some of the changes many multichannel video programming distributors seek. Genachowski and some of the other FCC members seem likely to consider making changes, agency and industry officials said. Much of what will end up in play will be based on what changes Genachowski and the General Counsel’s office seek, if any, after reviewing cable, DBS and telco-TV concerns, commission officials said.

Many TV stations probably won’t be able to broadcast to mobile devices anytime soon, because of an FCC action Tuesday (CD June 1 p20), industry lawyers and executives said in interviews. They said the Media Bureau decision to stop accepting applications to change TV channels means the several hundred broadcasters using VHF channels must stay there for the foreseeable future. The so-called freeze starting Tuesday on petitions to substitute digital channels was long awaited by some, but surprising to others, they said. Broadcasters who hadn’t sought moves can’t, foreclosing moving to the UHF band where it’s much easier to do mobile DTV, industry executives and lawyers said. More stations sought to move to UHF last week, citing mobile DTV.

The FCC should forbid broadcast networks from signing retransmission consent deals on behalf of affiliated stations they don’t own, several multichannel video programming distributors said in comments (CD May 30 p12) on changing retrans rules. The American Cable Association, several cable operators and DirecTV were among the MVPD interests making that argument, as the last of the comments were posted Tuesday in docket 10-71. Many broadcasters said the commission shouldn’t find good-faith negotiating rules were broken just because affiliates let networks strike retrans deals.

The largest combination of radio stations in many years likely will be approved later in 2011 and perhaps with few FCC conditions, agency and industry officials predicted based on the Media Bureau review so far. Cumulus in March agreed to buy Citadel in a $2.4 billion deal to form a company with more than 550 radio stations in about 120 markets. Last week, the companies said the transaction should be approved and offered more reasons, which an opponent of media consolidation said sweeten the possible public interest benefits. The transaction and another deal for $500 million may spur a small renaissance in the previously moribund market for radio station mergers and acquisitions, a consultant predicted, although a broker isn’t so sure.

The FCC asked whether it should extend for a second time a deadline for all radio and TV stations and subscription-video providers to start using a new government standard for emergency warnings. In a long-awaited rulemaking notice released Thursday afternoon, the commission asked dozens of questions on certification of emergency alert systems as complying with the new standards from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, deadlines and what’s technically needed to trigger alerts. The FCC tentatively concluded that existing EAS equipment can be used for the new standards and expects to start an inquiry on broadband alerting later this year.

The FCC is starting to implement rules to tamp down the volume of ads so they're not startlingly louder than the shows they appear within. Agency and industry officials said a draft rulemaking notice seeks comment on putting into place the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act. The CALM Act was passed by Congress in December (CD Dec 6 p8), and applies to TV stations and subscription-video providers. A Media Bureau rulemaking notice circulated May 5 may be voted on within the next few weeks and has already attracted lobbying at the commission from telco-TV providers, cable and broadcasters, FCC and industry officials said.

Industry groups seek carve-outs for broadband and other advanced communications services (ACS) from disabilities accessibility legislation passed last year, while advocates for those with trouble seeing want exemptions to be few and narrow. Replies posted Tuesday in FCC docket 10-213 picked up on the theme of initial comments on the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CD April 27 p7), where industry sought flexibility. The CEA, NCTA and others said the commission must not further regulate services whose primary function isn’t ACS, while the videogame industry’s lobbying group sought a blanket exemption for its products. Seven advocacy groups for the deaf and others said the act shouldn’t be curtailed, regardless of calls to do so.

The FCC is backtracking on an AllVid proposal it floated (CD March 24 p1) as an alternative to cable and telco-TV providers having to connect to consumer electronics, said agency and industry officials. They said the alternative to a gateway connector approach the Media Bureau floated in recent months, for pay-TV providers to let CE devices connect to their IP streams using application programming interfaces, appears dead. Lobbying by the CE industry against the plan and technical concerns within the bureau and possibly the office of Chairman Julius Genachowski sunk it, said commission officials and executives in the CE and pay-TV industries. AllVid aims to replace CableCARDs.

Pay-TV interests ratcheted up criticism of terrestrial broadcasters Monday, in a fight over whether the FCC should change rules on retransmission consent deals. Terrestrial TV is archaic, a “needless expense” that’s “propped up” by outdated rules for a technology with a “brilliant run to obsolescence,” wrote an economist who often opposes regulation. The paper, heavy with historical reviews of regulation and technology, was paid for by pay-TV companies and others seeking retransmission-consent changes. In it, George Mason University Professor Thomas Hazlett backed reallocating TV stations’ frequencies for newer technologies like mobile broadband. The NAB, which along with its members has said retrans works, criticized the paper, while the CEA said it offered some good points on reallocating spectrum.