FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker criticized review of Comcast-NBC Universal by the agency as having taken too long and imposed too many conditions, including about broadband deployment and online video. She expanded on a concurrence that she and Commissioner Robert McDowell put out concerning the order approving Comcast’s purchase of control of NBC Universal. The deal stands to benefit consumers and other content companies, and the commission should have stuck to its 180-day voluntary shot clock for decisions on mergers and acquisitions and not imposed conditions that don’t directly relate to the NBCU deal, Baker said in a recorded interview to be shown on C-SPAN Saturday and Monday.

Any efforts to fight the U.S. government’s conditional approval of Comcast’s acquisition of control of NBC Universal would face hurdles, and challenges seem unlikely at first glance to be made, those who had sought more conditions agreed with one who opposed them. A hurdle is that the Justice Department and FCC imposed similar Internet conditions (CD Jan 19 p1) , and DOJ’s probably would stand even in the unlikely event that a lawsuit against the commission succeeded, said several lawyers who had sought more deal curbs. Judges who review consent decrees, such as the one that Comcast agreed to with DOJ, usually approve them, even if parties seek changes through written comments that they can submit to the court under the Tunney Act, the nonprofit group lawyers said.

A rulemaking on retransmission consent deals may be put to an FCC vote soon, but no notice had circulated by midday Tuesday, FCC and industry officials said. The notice also wasn’t part of the tentative agenda released that evening by the commission. Agency officials said it’s unclear whether Media Bureau staffers drafting the notice have finished the work or when they will. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment. Consumers Union and Verizon last week lobbied front-office bureau staff on retrans, said ex parte filings in docket 10-71. A retrans rulemaking should deal with program access issues, Consumers Union said it told bureau Chief Bill Lake and subordinates. The group also said it wants “reform” of the program carriage complaint process. Verizon said, “Scrap the existing regulatory regime and allow the marketplace for broadcast programming to function like a normal market, free of artificial regulatory preference.” Requiring pay-TV providers to give subscribers notice of deadlines for renewal of carriage contracts -- as some broadcasters seek -- “would not be helpful, and would cause substantial, unjustified consumer anxiety and confusion,” the telco said. “Such notice also would encourage brinkmanship tactics on the part of broadcasters.” A group seeking changes to retrans rules said over the weekend that “blackouts” continue, even with an agreement in principle between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Time Warner Cable that averted a signal cutoff. (See the separate item in this issue.) Northwest Broadcasting and DirecTV haven’t been able to reach a new deal on the DBS company’s carriage of stations in Binghamton, N.Y.; Medford, Ore.; and Yakima and Spokane, Wash., said the American Television Alliance. A DirecTV spokesman said the deadlock continues. The alliance also said Frontier Radio Management and Dish Network are at an impasse over a TV station in Macon, Ga. A Dish spokeswoman confirmed that the dispute is ongoing.

The U.S. government is making Comcast fulfill several Web conditions to complete its purchase of control in NBC Universal from General Electric and form a new joint venture with GE. The FCC and Justice Department said they're barring the cable operator, in its role as an ISP, from discriminating against competing content. A condition from the commission -- which some see as a form of net neutrality (CD Jan 12 p4) -- prohibits Comcast from giving priority on its broadband network to its content over competitors’, FCC officials said.

Republican commissioners didn’t get some briefings by FCC staffers reviewing Comcast’s deal to buy control of NBC Universal, in the months leading up to Chairman Julius Genachowski’s sending a draft order to approve the agreement to his colleagues for a vote, commission officials said. Though Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps got many substantive updates throughout the deal’s review, Commissioners Meredith Baker and Robert McDowell didn’t get them, though they did hear some more topical details such as about the review’s timing. They didn’t explicitly ask for such in-depth briefings, and they weren’t offered, some commission officials said, although all FCC members were kept updated on timing of the deal’s review.

Industry executives and disability rights advocates should continue to strive toward consensus, as they begin work on recommending implementation of legislation signed into law last fall that updates the Communications Act to make new technologies accessible, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday. “A spirit of consensus and partnership among the disabilities community and the industry” preceded passage of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, he said. “The law is not something that was done to industry, it was done as something with industry,” he told the first meeting of the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee.

Those concerned about Comcast-NBC Universal intensified their FCC lobbying, as a nonprofit group opposed to the cable operator’s plan to buy control of NBC Universal said new pledges (CD Jan 13 p14) from the buyer fall short, filings posted Thursday to docket 10-56 show. Viacom, the largest programmer to express concerns about carriage of independent programming after the deal, teamed up with much smaller indie channel WealthTV to lobby aides to Commissioners Michael Copps and Commissioner Robert McDowell. The eighth floor continues to closely review the multibillion dollar deal, and commissioners are considering making changes to the Dec. 23 draft Media Bureau order conditionally approving the deal, agency officials said. Some said that no changes have yet been proposed by commissioners.

The Local Community Radio Act doesn’t favor low-power over translator stations in the FM band, said the NAB and the owner of several hundred translators. Their filings and one from a provider of engineering data to low-power FM (LPFM) stations were posted to docket 99-25 Tuesday and Wednesday. Those filings and ones last week (CD Jan 11 p8) from a group representing LPFM stations and a dozen broadcasters seeking FCC permission to operate more translators come after a commission official encouraged comments on how the act applies to a translator auction. President Barack Obama signed the act this month.

Draft FCC conditions on Internet video and network management in Comcast’s planned purchase of control in NBC Universal are the subject of close scrutiny from some commissioners, agency officials said Tuesday. They said Internet conditions in the draft Media Bureau order on the deal are getting significant attention in general on the eighth floor. The two Republican commissioners seem skeptical about whether all the Internet conditions are needed, said FCC and industry officials. Commissioners are also giving attention to arbitration conditions, the subject of a filing Tuesday by the two U.S. DBS companies, a commission official said.

A draft Comcast-NBC Universal FCC condition could help a growing group of websites specializing in local news and often staffed by journalists who left traditional media raise their profile and increase their funding from other sources, said broadcast and Internet executives and professors studying the issue that we interviewed. Part of the proposed order that commissioners are studying this week on Comcast’s agreement to buy control of NBC Universal would require an additional four NBC TV stations owned by the combined company to enter into news-sharing arrangements with nonprofit sites, agency officials said. Proposing conditions, which agency officials said the commission would require, Comcast and NBC Universal cited KNSD San Diego’s arrangement with VoiceofSanDiego.org.