The posting of about 3,000 pages of documents in the FCC net neutrality docket, days before a vote on an order set for Tuesday, is unusual and not a good practice for any agency, said administrative law professors and former commissioners not involved in the policy debate. The Wireline Bureau posted about 2,000 pages Dec. 10 (CD Dec 11 p1) and 1,000 more Tuesday (CD Dec 15 p8). The documents contain information that was publicly available, but not all of it had been filed in docket 09-191.

Terrestrial TV may be quite different in two decades, industry executives and others said Thursday. Experts split over whether over-the-air TV will be around at all. In a panel on broadcasting and retransmission consent deals held on Capitol Hill by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Michael Calabrese of the New America Foundation said “broadcasting will be completely off the air in a decade or two.” Broadcast representatives, including an NAB official, disagreed.

House Commerce Committee Democrats probably won’t decide right away whom to vote for to lead Democrats on the Communications Subcommittee, a race that’s being closely watched by the telecom industry, lobbyists from both parties said. They said that those U.S. representatives who are named to the full committee, which will have fewer Democrats come January because Republicans will have a larger proportion of members of the body, likely will meet in January to make their decisions. It’s unclear exactly when the vote will occur because some details of the committee makeup depend on decisions made by the GOP. That party will pick a chairman of the Communications Subcommittee as soon as this week.

A review by career FCC staffers of Comcast’s planned purchase of control of NBC Universal is intensifying, said agency and public interest officials outside the negotiations. They said commission staffers and executives of the companies continue to discuss conditions for possible approval, and an order may circulate soon. Ex parte filings show that FCC and Justice Department staffers reviewing the deal have in recent days been talking about possible conditions (CD Dec 13 p9). The talks appear to be intensifying and may end soon with a proposed order from the Media Bureau, said officials inside the commission and out. Antitrust experts and analysts have predicted the deal will be approved, with many conditions.

The FCC can impose net neutrality by directly implementing at least four sections of the Communications Act, under a draft of the order set for a Dec. 21 vote, according to agency, industry and public-interest officials briefed on the rulemaking. Several other parts of the Act are mentioned in the draft order as giving the commission authority, they said. With the sunshine period on the order set to begin Tuesday night under usual commission procedure, lobbying on the eighth floor continues by those supporting and opposing Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan to adopt nondiscrimination rules without reclassifying broadband as a telecom service, filings in docket 09-191 show. Some companies and groups that support net neutrality rules but oppose reclassification suggested that they're dissatisfied with the draft.

The House Commerce Committee took its first steps at naming GOP members beyond the chairman. The office of incoming Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., released a list Friday of 13 others from his party who will be new members of the full committee. Many are new faces to telecom, industry officials and lobbyists said. They said that poses challenges to the communications and high-tech industries, which will have to quickly get members up to speed, and also an opportunity to lobby them.

Familiar faces to the communications industry may have key posts on the House Communications Subcommittee and the full Commerce Committee next Congress, after Democrats decide on ranking members and Republicans pick a subcommittee chairman, said industry lobbyists watching the races. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., is seen by many lobbyists and a Capitol Hill aide as having the best chance to be named chairman of the subcommittee. Outgoing Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is said to be very likely to become the ranking member of the full committee. And possible competition is shaping up for the ranking member of the subcommittee.

Several high-profile FCC rulemakings likely will be forthcoming in 2011, many in the first quarter, from the Media Bureau as staff work advances on retransmission consent, media ownership and AllVid rules, Chief Bill Lake said Wednesday. A rulemaking notice on deals between TV stations and subscription-video providers took up most of his prepared remarks at a luncheon of industry executives sponsored by the Media Institute. The bureau is preparing “a notice that will take a broad look at what more we might do to advance the statutory objectives of allowing retrans fees to be set by market forces, while protecting the interests of consumers,” he said.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., was picked to be the next House Commerce Committee chairman. He beat other challengers for the spot, who included ex-Chairman Joe Barton of Texas, in a vote taken Tuesday afternoon by the House Republican Steering Committee, his office and other Hill aides said. That was expected (CD Dec 7 p1). All GOP representatives are set to vote Wednesday to ratify the steering committee’s selections for committee chairmen, said a spokesman for incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. He couldn’t say if Upton will be unopposed in the caucus vote. Barton won’t ask the Republican caucus to vote individually on him, a spokeswoman for him said.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps is seen as holding the key vote on net neutrality rules to be decided on at the Dec. 21 meeting, said agency and industry officials closely watching the order. Democrat Copps is widely seen as the commissioner whose vote Chairman Julius Genachowski must work hardest to win, by making changes to the order whose first draft circulated Nov. 30. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, the third FCC Democrat, is seen as more supportive of the draft, though she’s continuing to review it and doesn’t appear to have made up her mind whether to support it, said agency officials.