Variety

Broadcast spectrum has long been a scarce and precious resource. In recent years, though, with the explosive growth in the number of users of cellular phones, smartphones and wireless broadband cards, it's come to resemble Manhattan real estate: in huge demand, with pressure to develop any parcel that seems underutilized. Those pressures are sure to increase under the National Broadband Plan unveiled last week by the FCC.

The Federal Communications Commission will undertake a review of the retransmission consent rule amid the growing contentiousness between broadcasters and cable operators on carriage agreements, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said...

The retransmission war is heating up in Washington. A group of major cable operators, satellite TV providers DirecTV and Dish Network, and Verizon filed a petition Tuesday with the Federal Communications Commission urging a review and changes to the law that governs negotiations between broadcast TV station owners and cable, satellite and telco operators for carriage of local stations.

The UK government's plans to green-light product placement in locally produced TV shows is being watered down.

Dan Glickman will step down as chairman of the Motion Picture Assn. of America in April to become president of Refugees International.

The Writers Guild of America, East is urging the Federal Communications Commission to pass a series of proposed new rules that will prevent cable and telecom companies from restricting or limiting access to Internet sites and other content as they deliver service to consumers.

The British Broadcasting Corporation generates £7.6 billion ($12.3 billion) a year for the U.K. economy.

In 1986, Capital Cities -- a drab TV station owner with a No. 2 exec named Dan Burke -- acquired ABC. Now Comcast -- perceived as a drab cable system owner, whose No. 2 exec is Burke's son, Steve -- has agreed to assume control of NBC Universal. Whether Comcast follows the CapCities playbook given all that's happened during the intervening years will partly depend, to borrow oft-quoted military parlance, on conditions on the ground.

A $10 levy on fixed phone lines to fund the roll-out of high-speed broadband networks was greenlit Wednesday by the UK government. The tax will be used to ensure that 90% of the population has access to next-generation broadband by 2017.

No matter what happens to the Peacock in the Comcast era, General Electric is sure to be a paying customer on NBC Universal's air for years to come.