Broadcasting&Cable

The Federal Communications Commission has put out for public notice Mediacom's request that the FCC force media conglomerates to unbundle their package programming deals.

New York District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald has found FilmOn in contempt for continuing to deliver network TV station signals over the Internet after the Supreme Court found similar service Aereo in violation of copyright.

Judge Buchwald said, "FilmOn is not entitled to a license under § 111, and its retransmissions clearly and unambiguously fall under the scope of conduct barred by the Injunction." FilmOn will appeal the decision.

Tom Larsen, group VP of cable operator Mediacom, has written Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Claire McCaskill (D-MO) suggesting that as part of her inquiry into pay-TV bills, she should ask Missouri broadcasters to disclose the rates they charge multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) for carriage of their stations.

That way, he says, she can better determine how much of a cable or satellite bill goes to those station owners, the rate at which that payment is rising, how much or little of that is being reinvested locally and more.

The National Association of Broadcasters has quantified for the Federal Communications Commission what it says are the significant economic benefits of network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules.

In reply comments in the FCC's inquiry into retransmission consent regulations, NAB offered up a Compass Lexecon study of ratings changes for 10 TV stations that did not have the exclusive rights to affiliate and syndicated programming until they petitioned the FCC for waivers that were granted.

The study says the stations' Nielsen ratings were projected to be 24.4% higher in prime time than they would have been without that exclusive programming. "Elimination or weakening of the Commissions' exclusivity rules is likely to have an economically significant impact on local stations and their incentives to invest," the study said.

The Low-powered TV (LPTV) and Translator Preservation Act of 2014, introduced by Rep Joe Barton (R-TX), was one of the subjects of the July 24 House Communications Subcommittee hearing.

The bill is intended to insure that the Federal Communications Commission takes into account the value of low-power TV stations, TV station translators and boosters when it repacks stations after the broadband incentive auctions.

The bill does not change those stations' secondary status. Some LPTV supporters do not support the bill because the FCC can force the stations to go dark if not to do so would adversely affect repacking. But it would require the FCC to take that value into account when deciding the fate of those stations, which other avowed LPTV supporters say could jeopardize the auction repacking for not much upside given that it does not change their regulatory status.

The leadership of the House Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee said that something "smells rotten on the [Federal Communications Commission's] 8th Floor" -- where the commissioner offices are located -- and that a report about a waiver related to an upcoming auction raises "a cloud of favoritism."

Rep Fred Upton (R-MI) and Greg Walden (R-OR), chairman of the full committee and subcommittee, respectively, were responding to a Bloomberg News story that the FCC had granted a waiver to a private equity firm and Obama supporter, Grain Management, and had done so in a nonpublic 3-2 vote.

The Federal Communications Commission has dismissed the complaints filed by Sinclair and Buckeye Cablevision, ending the Washington wrangling that accompanied their months-long retransmission consent impasse.

The FCC concluded that dismissing the complaints was in the public interest because it "promoted private resolution of disputes."

The American Cable Association (ACA), representing small cable operators, told the Federal Communications Commission that its proposed new network neutrality rules will not protect Internet openness unless they extend to content (edge) providers like search engines and not just ISPs.

It is the first time ACA has asked the FCC to regulate edge providers, including online programmers.

A new report from the co-chairs and all 10 members of the original 9/11 Commission urges Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation, saying it has proved resistant to needed reforms due to partisan politics that should have no place in securing the nation.

It concludes that cyber readiness lags "far behind the growing" threat," that data collection is a "vital tool" for preventing terrorist attacks, but needs to be "tempered" with measures to protect civil liberties.

House leadership has scheduled debate on the STELA Reauthorization (STELAR/ H.R. 4572) Act, for 2 pm on July 22. If nobody asks for a roll-call vote, the bill could pass soon after that 2 pm debate.

If a roll call is called for -- it only takes one House member -- the vote will not occur until 6:30 pm.