Consumer intentions on buying TV sets fell in Oct. from Sept., according to preliminary data in Conference Board monthly survey. Of 5,000 households polled, 6.7% said they planned to buy TV set in next 6 months, down from 7.5% in Sept., 7.3% in Aug., 6.9% in Oct. 2000. Consumer Confidence Index fell in Oct. for 4th consecutive month, and at 85.5 stood at lowest point since Feb. 1994. Conference Board said: “Widespread layoffs and rising unemployment do not signal a rebound in confidence any time soon. With the holiday season quickly approaching, there is little positive stimuli on the horizon.”

Tenth U.S. Appeals Court, Denver, upheld decision by lower court that granted preliminary injunction to Dominion Video Satellite in contract dispute case with EchoStar currently in arbitration, but court left decision to U.S. Dist. Court, Colo., on whether further proceedings and hearing on factual findings in case were necessary. Lower court also will decide on amount and form of bond Dominion must post to continue case. Company has posted $10,000 bond based upon lower court ruling following hearing Feb. 8. Case involves type of payment required for subscribers of Dominion’s Sky Angel Network and whether Sky Angel customers are required to purchase DISH network packages or DISH receiver to fulfill terms of Dominion contract with EchoStar. EchoStar sent Dominion letter Jan. 26 announcing EchoStar no longer would activate Dominion subscribers unless they bought minimum amount of DISH network programming, unsubsidized satellite receiver directly from EchoStar or Dominion- specific smart card. EchoStar said goal was to “remedy the problem” of Dominion subscribers’ receiving subsidized prices without fulfilling their commitment to EchoStar, which would make them eligible for subsidies.

FTC, along with attorneys gen. (AGs) of Ill., Okla., Ore., N.C., Va. and Wis. announced actions against 9 “unscrupulous cold callers and telemarketing fraud.” In addition to 9 FTC, state or joint law enforcement actions, 6 Assurances of Voluntary Compliance were also filed. Actions focused on advance fee loans, credit card protection insurance and low-cost office supplies. Examples include: (1) R&R Consultants, which promised to remove consumer’s personal information from Internet. (2) Membership Services, American Card Services and Icon America, which sold credit card loss protection under false pretenses. (3) Pendleton Group, which conducted “classic ’toner-phoner’ scam” by tricking small businesses into believing seller was regular copy machine toner supplier and offered special deal before prices go up. In each case, FTC seeks or has been granted preliminary relief, including injunctions and, in most cases, asset freezes.

Federal judge has granted preliminary injunction that stops Southwestern Bell from continuing ad campaign denigrating cable modems as susceptible to slowdowns during peak Internet usage hours. U.S. Dist. Judge Catherine Perry in St. Louis said that while Southwestern Bell’s ads were “very funny” and even memorable, Charter probably would win its suit on false advertising claims at trial and was suffering irreparable harm from ads. Perry referred case to mediation, saying “the time is ripe for meaningful settlement discussions.” Under order, Southwestern Bell is enjoined from airing its “Cable Modem Slowdown” ad campaign, which included TV commercials showing drowsy family scheduling Internet use after 10 p.m. to avoid peak usage times. Campaign included similar radio commercials and Web page references, as well as published materials. Southwestern Bell was promoting its own DSL service as better. “The message of the ads is false and that falsity is likely to deceive the consumers because it is material to the target audience’s purchasing decision, and the ads are likely to injure Charter,” Perry said in her ruling. Charter filed its lawsuit in Aug. (CD Aug 30 p5), contending that Southwestern Bell had violated federal Lanham Act, which governs truth in advertising and unfair competition. Spokesman for SBC, Southwestern Bell’s corporate parent, said that while company executives were disappointed with decision, they intended to prove their case at trial. Although company said it would honor decision and pull ads, spokesman said: “What we continue to attempt to do is educate our consumers about broadband choices.” He said cable companies had roughly 70% of the broadband market nationwide, which he called stranglehold. Ads ran in 13 states served by Southwestern Bell and other SBC subsidiaries.

PanAmSat’s Loral-built PAS-7 satellite is suffering from solar array anomaly that causes 25% reduction in power but will not affect any others in Loral’s fleet of FS 1300 satellites, Loral spokesman said: “At this point we believe it’s unique to that satellite… We are delaying the shipments of any other satellites until we conclude our investigation.”

Lower court injunction blocking Echostar from distributing network TV signals (CD Oct 4/00 p4) was “an abuse of discretion,” 11th U.S. Appeals Court, Miami, said in decision Mon. Ruling vacates preliminary injunction, although networks will have another opportunity to prove case for preliminary injunction and main case is to go ahead.

As expected, Commerce Secy. Donald Evans sent congressional leadership draft bill Thurs. to postpone for 2 years deadline for receipt of advanced wireless auction proceeds. He told top brass on Capitol Hill and Vice President Cheney that Office of Management & Budget’s preliminary scoring indicated that proposal would reduce surplus by $1 billion in fiscal 2002 and increase it by that amount in fiscal 2004. Proposed language would shift statutory deadlines for completing auctions of 2 bands under consideration for 3G services to Sept. 30, 2004, from Sept. 30, 2002. “Based on revised assumptions for the current spectrum auction schedule, the midsession review of the budget baseline already reflects the shift in auction receipts from 2002 to 2004,” Evans wrote. He said any law that would reduce receipts was subject to pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) requirements under Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act (BEA). “The BEA requires that official PAYGO scoring continue to use the FY 2002 budget baseline and thus score the cost to FY [fiscal year] 2002,” Evans said. “The Administration will work with Congress to ensure that any unintended sequester of spending does not occur under current law or through enactment of any proposals that are part of the President’s program.” Proposal would shift deadlines for depositing proceeds in U.S. Treasury for auctioning 1710-1755 MHz and 2110-2150 MHz and would provide more time to arrive at 3G decisions, Evans said. “Chairman Powell of the Federal Communications Commission and I both believe that it is imperative that the final allocation decision be the best possible one and that additional time and continued hard work are needed to reach that decision,” Evans wrote. While govt. wants to identify spectrum for 3G services as quickly as possible, he said, current statutory deadline “does not provide sufficient time to conclude the identification process and conduct an auction before Sept. 30, 2002.” NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory told reporters Wed. that language would be sent to Hill this week (CD Sept 6 p1). Besides Cheney, Evans sent letters to Senate Majority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.), House Speaker Hastert (R-Ill.), House Majority Leader Armey (R- Tex.), Sen. Lott (R-Miss.). Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.), House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.), House Minority Leader Gephardt (D-Mo.), Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.), Rep. Dingell (D-Mich.).

Advanced EHF team of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and TRW completed its system Preliminary Design Review (PDR) demonstrating to its customer, the MILSATCOM Joint Program Office, U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, that it met or exceeded requirements for next-generation highly secure satellite system. Advanced EHF was designed to replace MILSTAR satellites, which were unable to provide complete global coverage after failed launch in 1999 left one of 4 birds in constellation unuseable. New system will employ world’s most complex and sophisticated communications satellites, team said. Budget and scheduling question arose last month when Pentagon panel discussed whether to move ahead with program. Advanced EHF constellation would consist of 4 cross-linked satellites providing secure data through capability and coverage flexibility to regional and global military operations and would be backward compatible with MILSTAR system. Advanced EHF team will focus now on ground and satellite segment PDRs. Team will conduct additional lower level element and component reviews before design system level design review in 2003.

“Quite a number” of PTV stations have been rejected for retransmission/must-carry by EchoStar and DirecTV, according preliminary results of APTS survey. Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis, APTS vp-policy and legal affairs, said more stations had been rejected by EchoStar than by DirecTV. “What we are doing is communicating with the stations and helping them sort this through,” she said. As in case of commercial stations (CD Aug 9 p1), reasons given for turning down stations included quality of signals and substantial duplication of programming with station in same market, she said. APTS staff proposed to meet with FCC Cable Bureau and other officials next week to take up issue after more data are collected, she said. However, APTS has no plans to meet with DBS operators to discuss issue, she said, considering it’s better for local stations to deal directly with DBS providers.

N.Y. PSC’s policy of “fully delegating” to cable operators power to adopt rules and regulations for use of public, educational and govt. (PEG) channel capacity and production facilities has been challenged in lawsuit filed by access programmer in U.S. Dist. Court, Brooklyn. Lawsuit filed by Robert Goldberg, coordinator of L.I. Public Access Movement, also implicates town of Oyster Bay for delegating to Cablevision franchise authority to determine access rules. Accusing Cablevision of declining to carry his programming for his refusal to agree to access-user contract that he called “illegal, unconscionable and against public policy,” Goldberg sought preliminary injunction to prohibit company from refusing to cablecast all qualified public access programming he submitted. He said PSC and Oyster Bay should have known that Cablevision had financial interest in minimizing use of public access channel capacity and production facilities and that was in conflict with their responsibilities for regulation of use of public access by all programmers. By delegating regulatory authority to Cablevision, PSC and Oyster Bay “acted with deliberate indifference” to threat to his statutory rights to be free from editorial control by cable operator over his programming, Goldberg said. Seeking compensatory and punitive damages, he said Cablevision’s access contract was illegal because it: (1) Required programmers to submit scripts for all live programming. (2) Wanted programmers to indemnify company and hold it harmless from any liability, including for its “wrongful exercise of editorial control.” (3) Prevented programmers from using company’s facilities to produce partisan political programming. Citing company policy, Cablevision spokesman declined to comment on lawsuit. But Cablevision had made clear in past that while it had no problem with carrying political programing on its PEG channels, it objected to use by programmers of its equipment and employees for partisan political programming, saying that constituted “implied donation.” Goldberg conceded that while PSC rules on PEG access specified that cable operator couldn’t censor programs, it didn’t deal with company’s obligation to allow use of its facilities for political programming.