Broadcasting&Cable

As the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction winds down, the Media Bureau was busy with what comes next—establishing the outlines of the phased TV station relocation transition and in the process denying some broadcaster requests for changes and granting others. Apparently, one of the goals was to provide more flexibility for broadcasters.

The Media Bureau adopted a methodology for establishing construction deadlines for TV stations transitioning to new channels within its phased transition plan. Stations will transition in 10 phases. The plan was issued in September. An FCC official said beyond the tweaks, it essentially adopted the item as proposed last fall. The goal is to allow TV stations, manufacturers and vendors to coordinate the "daisy chain" of TV station moves, hundreds if not a thousand, following the end of the auction, which is currently wrapping up. The FCC decided not to adopt the suggestion of the National Association of Broadcasters not to assign stations to a phase until they had completed structural or engineering studies or to treat them as preliminary phase assignments to be evaluated later. "We find that NAB’s suggested approach could negatively affect the incentive for broadcasters to begin preparing for the transition in earnest," the bureau said.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has circulated an order waiving the FCC's Open Internet order's enhanced transparency requirements for smaller Internet service providers for five years and upping the trigger for that waiver to 250,000 subscribers or fewer. Not only that, but he already has two votes for the item in a three-person commission, which means it has effectively been approved pending casting of the third vote. That squares with legislation that passed in the House recently, as well as what then-Commissioner Pai reportedly pushed for when then FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had circulated an item extending the waiver but leaving the trigger at 100,000 subs for fewer. The waiver expired in December, when the enhanced transparency requirement kicked in for all ISPs.

Small and mid-sized cable operators have banded together with independent programmers to tell the Federal Communications Commission that reining in most favored nation (MFN) clauses and alternative distribution method (ADM) clauses is all well and good, but that it should tackle program bundling first in its effort to promote access to independent and diverse content.

That came in a filing on the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking stemming from its program diversity inquiry. A politically divided FCC back in September voted to propose prohibiting unconditional MFNs clauses and "unreasonable" ADMs. Joining with ACA in the filing were independent programmers MAVTV Motorsports Network, One America News Network and AWE, and RIDE TV. They said that while they were generally supportive of the MFN and ADM restrictions, focusing on those rather than channel bundling was like trying to put out a four-alarm fire with a cup of water.

American Cable Association president Matt Polka and top ACA policy staffer Ross Lieberman were among a group representing rural broadband who met with new Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai Jan 26, his second meeting with outside groups since being named chairman this week. It was a continuation of Chairman Pai's pledge to focus on closing the digital divide. Also at the meeting were Mike Romano of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, Alex Phillips and Stephen Coran from the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, Steve Berry and Rebecca Murphy Thompson of the Competitive Carriers Association, and Martha Duggan of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

According to an FCC official, "participants raised several ideas for closing the digital divide and expressed strong support for proposals he made as part of his Digital Empowerment Agenda." For his part, Chairman Pai at the meeting "pledged to continue working closely with these organizations to bring digital opportunity to all Americans."

The Republican sponsor of a bill to put conditions on municipal broadband buildouts in Virginia has recrafted the bill after Gov Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) said he would veto it, according to a group opposing the bill. The bill allows for municipal buildouts but only targeting unserved areas, which it defines as an average speed of less than 10 Mbps download speed, 1 Mbps upload. It also requires an independent study to identify unserved areas before any buildouts and puts conditions on overbuilding of any existing service at any speed. The municipality must also provide access to rights of way on a first-come, first-serve basis to commercial providers and can't cross-subsidize its broadband with regulated utility money.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which backs municipal broadband buildouts, says the bill still does nothing to help connect rural Virginia. It says that while the bill allows for buildouts, it is a way for "big cable companies" to limit broadband competition in Virginia.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai had his first official meeting with outside parties as chairman with a diverse group of stakeholders in closing that digital divide, apparently. The meeting was held with Kim Keenan of the Multicultural Media, Telecom, and Internet Council, Rosa Mendoza of the Hispanic Technology & Telecommunications Partnership, Carlos Gutierrez of the LGBT Technology Partnership, and Debra Berlyn of the Project to Get Older Adults OnLine (GOAL).

The chairman was said to have solicited ideas for getting broadband to all Americans. He also asked for input on proposals in his Digital Empowerment Agenda. Among other things, Chairman Pai wants Congress to create Gigabit Opportunity Zones to "provide financial incentives for internet service providers to deploy gigabit broadband services in low-income neighborhoods, incentivize local governments to make it easy for ISPs to deploy these networks, and offer tax incentives for startups of all kinds in order to take advantage of these networks and create jobs in these areas."

[Commentary] Because you will be the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, we want to initiate a dialogue with you—and the public. At the core of that dialogue: How the FCC can foster competition in the communications market yet at the same time protect the American public from media concentration and oligarchic control of television, radio and the internet.

The Writers Guild of America, East, represents thousands of writers working in film, television, news and digital media. Our members are directly affected by the decisions made by the FCC. They have made it clear that they want their work to be accessible to as many people as possible through an open internet and a competitive marketplace. If the FCC were to overturn net neutrality and allow companies like AT&T and Time Warner to merge, the real losers will be hardworking Americans who will see their bills increase and their access to content restricted. As you assume the chairmanship of the FCC, please contemplate all the possible consequences of your actions and take these vital concerns to heart.

[Michael Winship is the President of the Writers Guild of America, East. Lowell Peterson is the Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America, East.]

Democratic Sens are asking AT&T and Time Warner to prove that their proposed merger is in the public interest, given that they plan to structure the deal so that it does not need Federal Communications Commission review. While the Justice Department looks at deals for antitrust issues, the FCC goes beyond that to also look at the public interest benefits, or negative impacts, of media mergers.

Sen Al Franken (D-MN), a member of the Antitrust Subcommittee, led a baker's dozen of Democrats in a letter to the companies saying that the public deserves to know what is in the deal for them, FCC review or no. "To achieve greater transparency for regulators, lawmakers, and American consumers, we ask that you provide us with a public interest statement detailing how you plan to ensure that the transaction benefits consumers, promotes competition, remedies all potential harms, and further serves the public interest through the broader policy goals of the Communications Act,” the Sens said. They say they would like the statement by Feb 17.

New Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is a long and strong opponent of former Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal to revamp the set-top box marketplace to boost online video competition and would be unlikely to exhume that push, but the Republican leadership of the House Commerce Committee want him to put a nail in the coffin.

In a letter to Chairman Pai, House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Communications Subcommittee Chair Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Commerce Committee Vice Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX), and every Republican member of the Communications Subcommittee asked him to officially close the docket on the proceeding. "The regulatory overhang of the set-top box regulation has cast a shadow over investment and innovation in traditional video programming delivery," they said. "[W]e urge you to close the proceeding and permit the industry to innovate and serve consumers free from the restrictions of a government-chosen platform." They said it would generally be a good idea to close all inactive dockets and that in this particular case it should be closed as an "unnecessary regulatory threat to content creation and distribution industries" and to signal to video program distributors "that they can bring technological advances to set-top boxes and video delivery without fear that the Commission overturn them by regulation."

Looking to trump President Donald Trump's trillion-dollar infrastructure spending plans, Democratic lawmakers unveiled their own plan that calls for spending big bucks to expand "high speed and affordable broadband" in both unserved and "underserved" areas, including funding for both middle-mile (backbone) and last-mile wired and wireless deployment. The Democratic plan calls for a $20 billion investment, which the Democrats say will result in 260,000 new jobs.

Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) was a key co-sponsor of the spending plan. "To close the rural-urban divide, and to push toward ubiquitous access to high-speed broadband, we will invest $20 billion to fund the build out of high-speed broadband in unserved and underserved areas. This funding will be available to projects currently eligible under programs at both the Department of Commerce and the US Department of Agriculture. We also propose expanding the programs to enable grant recipients to use grant funds to deploy various types of infrastructure capable of offering, middle-mile, last-mile wired and wireless broadband access, and adding evaluation criteria in the awards process to ensure that the funding goes to the most effective and efficient uses. Finally, we propose ensuring additional funding is available to help upgrade our nation’s aging 9-1-1 system and other critical infrastructure technology."