It’s time to kill a 1976 rule that radio and TV stations must disclose on-air all material terms of their contests when promoted during programming, the owner of 112 radio stations told the FCC. Entercom asked it to start a rulemaking to let any broadcaster -- and in particular radio stations -- instead disclose all contest terms on their websites. If the commission seeks feedback on the proposal, all radio stations filing comments are likely to back it, industry lawyers and an executive said. Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, owner of several radio stations, filed in support of Entercom’s petition, less than a day after it was posted online.

FTC Commissioner Julie Brill urged online companies to implement “reasonable security safeguards,” better transparency, and “important privacy principles” or face FTC scrutiny. The warning came in a Thursday speech to the National Cybersecurity Alliance. An FTC spokeswoman told us separately that the commission plans to release its final privacy report “in the next few weeks.”

Time Warner Cable executives said they will begin offering live and VOD IPTV programming to game consoles, computers and some Internet-connected TV sets this year. The company is already delivering some video to the iPad through its TWC TV app, and those live TV features should also be available soon for devices running the new Android 4.0 operating system, Chief Operating Officer Robert Marcus said on the cable operator’s Q4 earnings call Thursday.

CompTel and its allies withdrew a petition filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asking the court to grant a writ of mandamus that would have forced the FCC to act on special access reform. The agency was due to file its response Friday. Commission officials asked competitors in recent days to withdraw the petition, saying an order was being readied by the Wireline Bureau, industry officials told us. The court acted quickly to grant the request in an order handed down shortly after competitors made their filing Thursday.

It appears that the FCC wants to “pick winners and losers rather than letting the markets work,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said about the agency’s scrutiny of spectrum transactions. Specifically, he criticized the agency for applying the spectrum screening standards differently when reviewing AT&T’s T-Mobile USA deal than when evaluating the Qualcomm spectrum transfer that was approved earlier, he said during AT&T’s earnings call Thursday. Meanwhile, the carrier lost $6.7 billion in Q4 partly due to the deal breakup fee paid to T-Mobile, other charges and benefit plan costs.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden said Wednesday he’s watching FCC actions closely as the commission moves forward on a Lifeline order, slated for a vote at the Jan. 31 meeting. Meanwhile, AT&T said in a filing that the record shows most Lifeline customers forced to de-enroll from the program continue to pay for service afterward.

Career FCC staff is working out details of rules allowing scrambling basic cable programming (CD Nov 30 p10). That would let cable operators cut down on the need to send out technicians and their energy-consuming, carbon-dioxide-emitting vehicles to turn on and off service. Media Bureau staffers have been devoting attention in recent weeks to work toward a draft order that will allow encryption of the basic tier, agency and industry officials said. They said the order may be one of the next major media decisions released by the commission.

Industry participants are asking the FCC to revisit a couple of items in its recent order (CD Jan 12 p8) implementing a newer emergency alert service format that was developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some EAS players told us they want the commission to rethink its decision to prohibit the use of text-to-speech and to consider the burden the rule would place on the smallest cable operators. The Common Alerting Protocol is transmitted via the Internet, and the FCC’s rules address the equipment aspects of CAP.

The House Communications Subcommittee plans to be active this year on FCC process reform, cybersecurity, the LightSquared controversy and the future of video, audio and data, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told reporters Wednesday morning. Walden said he was optimistic about passing spectrum legislation as part of the payroll tax cut bill. And he criticized FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s remarks at the CES show seeking more flexibility from Congress on auction conditions.

Outgoing FCC Office of Strategic Policy Chief Paul de Sa is a new target of Sen. Charles Grassley’s push for insight into the FCC’s process in conditionally approving LightSquared’s terrestrial use of its frequencies. De Sa, who has said he will leave in February, is seen by many as playing a key role in making the case for LightSquared’s merits at the highest levels at the FCC. Grassley, R-Iowa, asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in a letter Wednesday to make de Sa available to answer questions before he leaves government.