September 2014

With Netflix poised to make its debut in six European countries, the expansion of that online streaming giant’s international territory is stirring a mix of anticipation, anxiety and political intrigue.

The stakes are high. Europe’s unified market and high Internet use have created ripe territory for American technology companies like Netflix, Amazon and Google. But as their power and reach grow, companies like Netflix are also being assailed by European politicians and business rivals over issues like taxes and competition. The fiercest resistance to the company is emerging in France, where, so far, telecommunications operators like Orange are refusing to carry the service on popular television-top devices that enable Internet streaming because they have not settled on financial terms. Netflix is nonetheless available on tablets, computers and smartphones.

Turns out the California Public Utilities Commission proposal to endorse Title II in comments at the Federal Communications Commission did not pass after all. The item was first reported to have passed by a 3-2 vote Sept. 11, but Commissioner Carla Peterman rescinded her vote and the 2-2 item was put on hold at her request.

According to a copy of the draft memo from the CPUC's assistant general counsel, it advises that the CPUC file comments at the FCC in support of enhancing the Open Internet/transparency rule, which is still in effect, but of using Title II to reinstate prohibitions on anticompetitive paid prioritization. "The commercially reasonable standard is inconsistent with an open Internet because it would allow ISPs to discriminate under an undefined and likely unenforceable standard," said the memo. "Accordingly, the CPUC would oppose FCC adoption of the proposed “commercially reasonable” standard, and argue instead adoption of the “no unreasonable discrimination” standard rooted in Title II.”

Representatives from the hundreds of local TV stations affiliated with NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox are warning the Senate Commerce Committee not to move forward with a bill that would change some features of the television market.

The bill, they wrote, “asserts unprecedented extension of [Federal Communications Commission] regulatory authority over private marketplace negotiations” and unfairly singles out broadcast companies for new limits. “Singling out broadcasters and broadcasters, alone, for such enhanced regulatory treatment is patently unfair, discriminatory and anti-competitive, and it would create an even more uneven playing field between broadcasters and their principal competitors to the detriment of your constituents,” the broadcasters wrote. The changes broadcasters are protesting in the committee’s Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (STAVRA) are tacked onto the bill’s language renewing an otherwise uncontroversial law that lets some rural satellite subscribers watch distant broadcast channels.

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have signaled they have no antitrust issues with Media General's purchase of stations from Sinclair. Media General is buying Sinclair's KXRM and KXTU in Colorado Springs-Pueblo and Sinclair's WTTA in Tampa-St. Petersburg.