The FCC is sticking to the sidelines in the Cablevision-Fox dispute that left all of the cable operator’s 3 million video subscribers without access for a fifth day to the three News Corp.-owned TV stations in the New York area and in Philadelphia. On Wednesday, Commissioner Michael Copps became the second FCC member to speak out against the contractual dispute, raising net neutrality concerns voiced by others. Chairman Julius Genachowski the day before criticized both sides for “petty gamesmanship” (CD Oct 20 p1). The head of the Fox affiliates group told us his members back the network’s position, as TV stations owned by networks and those held by independent companies seek more money to be carried by subscription-video providers.

Online content accessibility was raised for the first time in a continuing dispute (CD Oct 15 p2) between a broadcaster and cable operator when News Corp. wouldn’t let Cablevision subscribers access the Internet programming from its Fox network because of a linear content blackout, communications lawyers said. A retransmission consent impasse begun around 12:01 a.m. Saturday means all 3 million of the cable operators’ video subscribers can’t see Fox’s three New York and Philadelphia TV stations via Cablevision, and a quick resolution may not occur, industry and government officials said. For more than half the day Saturday, all of Cablevision’s 2.6 million Internet service subscribers couldn’t access any Fox content on Hulu, the video website partly owned by News Corp.

FCC commissioners soon will consider whether to reverse course from a staff ruling, an independent arbitrator’s decision and a draft Media Bureau order from early 2009 that until recently was circulating in a case involving Time Warner Cable and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, agency and industry officials said last week. They said agency officials will begin more-serious consideration of a new bureau draft order on whether the cable operator must distribute telecasts of Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles baseball games to its approximately 1.5 million subscribers in North Carolina. The new draft started circulating Oct. 5, replacing one that was circulated by Kevin Martin on his last business day as chairman and that would have forced carriage, agency officials said.

Industry and FCC attention has turned to the AllVid rulemaking for all pay-TV providers’ services to be accessible from consumer electronics devices, now that commissioners have approved an order making fixes in the interval until the gateway devices become available (CD Oct 15 p4). A rulemaking that could be voted on this year now becomes the focus of lobbying at the FCC concerning video devices, agency and industry officials said. No AllVid item is ready for a commission vote, and it’s unclear when such a rulemaking notice will circulate, commission officials said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wants more subscriber notice of contractual disputes between TV stations and subscription-video providers, he said as Cablevision and News Corp. continued to negotiate carriage rights for Fox’s TV stations set to expire Friday night. Cablevision said it would submit to binding arbitration, but Fox declined. Genachowski, Chief Bill Lake and others in the Media Bureau and the commissioners’ offices have been kept informed about the talks by Cablevision and Fox, agency officials said. They said it’s unclear whether the sides will reach a new deal before carriage of several New York and Philadelphia area stations is cut off. Talks remain stalled, company officials indicated.

Revisions to CableCARD rules will take effect over the next two years, FCC officials said Thursday as the commission approved an order making changes to the rules that largely were as expected. On one point of last-minute discussion at the regulator (CD Oct 7 p6), commissioners decided not to require cable operators to put information in monthly customer bills on how much CableCARDs would cost if leased separately. The mandate remained largely unchanged in the final order from the original draft circulated by Chairman Julius Genachowski, which he and colleagues said will help promote broadband by paving the way for people without computers to access online content from their TVs.

A proposal by FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell for broadcasters to come up with their own standards on indecency has drawn some early interest from the TV industry but no pledges of the dialogue sought. FCC enforcement of its own indecency rules is restricted by a recent appeals court loss. The plan floated at the NAB radio show (CD Oct 1 p1) by McDowell, a Republican, hasn’t led to serious talks between the commission and industry, and neither side appears to have made an entreaty to the other to begin a conversation, commission and industry officials said. Some broadcasters are skeptical of McDowell’s plan -- which drew some support from one former FCC chairman even as another said it’s unworkable -- while others may be interested, executives and government officials said.

A dozen broadcasters sought to jump start an auction of translators they hope can be used for service on either radio band, without waiting for new requests for low-power FM (LPFM) stations that could use the same spectrum. A counterproposal to one made last month from an LPFM group and a broadcaster among those with the most applications pending in the 2003 filing window for Auction 83 was filed by small commercial broadcasters frustrated at the pace of FCC action. The earlier proposal by the Prometheus Radio Project, representing LPFM stations, and Educational Media Foundation, with several hundred translator supplications, has been getting consideration from career FCC staffers and commissioners’ offices aware that many industry stakeholders hadn’t signed onto that plan (CD Oct 4 p8). Prometheus officials said they welcomed debate about their proposal.

Comcast and the Tennis Channel each have incentives to settle their cable program carriage dispute, which is slated to go before an FCC judge this month if they don’t enter arbitration or mediation (CD Oct 6 p9), industry lawyers and executives not involved in the case told us Thursday. Some of them said Comcast’s plan to buy control of NBC Universal is one reason for the cable operator to settle with the Tennis Channel, to avoid having the programming dispute become part of or muddy FCC consideration of the deal. That the deal is pending before the FCC may have been a reason the Media Bureau this week set Tennis Channel v. Comcast, which the programmer filed in January, for hearing by an administrative law judge, speculated agency and industry officials.

The past year’s net neutrality debate has featured “tortured semantics” from those who seek to subject the delivery of broadband to rules that the rest of the Internet doesn’t face, FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker said. She mentioned net neutrality in a dinner speech to the Media Institute in Washington. As with net neutrality, Baker said the government should keep to the sidelines for over-the-top Web content watched on TVs, as companies develop new features for such entertainment. Government and industry should be more active in combating online piracy, she said. At the awards dinner, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch lamented the state of U.S. public schools and supported higher-quality technology for them.