February 2010

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced an $11.9 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) investment to help bridge the technological divide, boost economic growth, create jobs, and improve education and health care in DeKalb County and portions of LaSalle County, Illinois. Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling announced the $11.9 million broadband infrastructure grant for the DeKalb Advancement of Technology Authority Broadband project during an event today with Governor Pat Quinn and U.S. Rep. Bill Foster. This investment will enable the deployment of a 130-mile fiber network across DeKalb County and northern LaSalle County, providing high-speed Internet connections to at least 60 anchor institutions, such as schools, hospitals, libraries, public safety entities, and numerous government agencies.

The project will also:

• Provide network speeds between 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps, enabling connected anchor institutions and other local Internet service providers to extend service to underserved households and businesses in the area.
• Connect local municipalities to one another and provide backbone infrastructure for emergency services and disaster recovery.
• Connect to the Illinois Rural HealthNet, allowing medical facilities connected to this project to collaborate with specialists at larger facilities throughout the state and nation.

A confidential report to Congress on Comcast's proposed deal for control of NBC Universal -- issued in advance of the Feb. 2 hearings on the transaction -- raises issues on both sides of the debate, but starts from the premise that the deal will go through.

"There is consensus that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are likely to approve the combination subject to merger conditions and/or license conditions - intended to protect competition, diversity of voices, and localism - that may significantly affect the impact of the combination," wrote a telecommunications policy specialist with the Congressional Research Service, who declined to discuss the report citing its confidentiality. CRS reports are not made public by the agency, but are sometimes released by the members of Congress for whom they were prepared. In this case it was prepared for all members - there were hearings in both the House and Senate. According to a copy of the report, the document identifies the issues most likely to draw scrutiny from the FCC as program access, programming costs, the potential for favoring owned content over independent content, migrating NBC to a cable network, and, on the plus side, what possible new business models could be crafted to benefit consumers. As to the thought that NBC will become a cable network, the report suggests that is not likely to happen unless the marketplace changes significantly. It cites "the strong trend" of broadcasters getting cash for retransmission consent, as well as "the continued strong demand for local news and sports programming and the strong branding associated with local broadcast stations, as well as the criticism Comcast would face if it abandoned local programming and free, over-the-air programming."

A coalition of consumer advocates, labor interests and video service providers are urging Comcast President and CEO Brian Roberts to drop litigation that seeks to overturn a Federal Communications Commission regulation he has pledged to follow even if his company prevails in court.

Comcast joined a challenge by Cablevision Systems Corp. of a program access requirement designed to ensure that programming owned by cable operators is shared with competing cable and satellite TV providers. In the wake of the Comcast-NBC Universal merger announcement in December, Roberts has vowed to abide by the requirement even if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia strikes it down -- a promise critics say is insufficient. "The fact that Comcast has not withdrawn from the litigation raises questions about whether your company will follow through on this commitment," the coalition wrote in a letter Friday to Roberts. "Your assurances are undercut by the fact that your company has a history of opposing the program access rules," they wrote. In a statement, Comcast Executive Director of Communications and Government Affairs Sena Fitzmaurice said the groups are "confused." Comcast only challenged "the FCC's extension of the rule that prohibits cable companies from entering into exclusive contracts that better enable them to compete with satellite companies who have exclusive content like [DirecTV's] NFL Sunday Ticket." She added that Comcast did not "challenge the rule that ensures that cable-affiliated programmers must charge fair and non-discriminatory rates to competing cable, satellite and phone companies in that case -- we do and will abide by those rules."

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced a three year investment for the National Center for Media Engagement (NCME). NCME, formerly the National Center for Outreach, has refocused its mission on community engagement and is serving as the centralized entity for professional development for the public media system. NCME seeks to strengthen public media's capacity for engaging communities, share best practices and local stories of impact, and sponsor opportunities for public media entities, national foundations and like-minded institutions to work together. Additionally, Charles Meyer has been named the center's new executive director, after spending four years as its deputy director. Prior to NCME, Meyer spent six years as managing director for Best Practices in Journalism, an initiative to help local public and commercial stations improve their coverage of politics, campaigns and elections.