Broadcasting&Cable

The Federal Communications Commission has granted extensions for comments and reply comments on its media ownership item. The new dates are Aug 6, and Sept 8, respectively.

The FCC released its notice of proposed rulemaking on its quadrennial regulatory review April 15, with deadlines of July 7 and Aug. 4, but has just released new data on ownership diversity that could figure into comments on its rules.

In addition, The Coalition for Smaller Market Television Stations sought the extension saying it needed more time to respond to the questions teed up in the NPRM, which include on multiple ownership rules and shared service agreements -- the FCC wants to know whether it should make those attributable as it has joint sales agreements. It also points out that there are other comment deadlines in June and July.

The American Cable Association wants the Federal Communications Commission to act on retransmission consent reforms before most of its smaller cable op members have to start negotiating new three-year retrans deals starting in October of this year.

Key to those reforms, says ACA, is allowing cable operators to import out-of-market signals during retrans blackouts.

"It is axiomatic that MVPD subscribers should no longer be held hostage and subjected to broadcaster blackouts during retransmission consent negotiating impasses," ACA told the commission.

That came in comments to the FCC on further reforms of its retransmission consent rules. The FCC has already voted to prevent coordinated retransmission consent negotiations between top-four non-commonly owned TV stations in a market. ACA wants the FCC to prevent all third-party participation in retrans negotiations, including preventing a network from "interfering" with the ability of a station to grant out-of-market retransmission consent.

The media business has been anticipating mergers on the programming side since Comcast agreed to buy Time Warner Cable.

In a new report, analyst Todd Juenger lays out a bunch of potential combinations and looks at their pros and cons. The major advantages would be increased leverage to grow affiliate fees as distributors consolidate, added international exposure and chances for cost savings by combining assets such as studios with networks.

Some legislators took the opportunity of DirecTV Chairman Michael White's appearance at a House antitrust subcommittee hearing to ask about their constituents’ access to local signals.

Full Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) spent some time probing White on why DirecTV does not provide the local ABC affiliate in Harrisonburg (VA) to his constituents despite being allowed to do so legally. Instead they have to get the ABC affiliate from Washington (DC), he pointed out, which is hours away.

He asked White whether he would commit to resolving the issue. White conceded DirecTV had "some gaps" in its local coverage, but was working on them, including by launching two new satellites within the next year, and plans for closing one of those Virginia gaps -- in Charlottesville – later in 2014. He said he would be happy to work with the chairman on the issue of orphan counties so long as DirecTV did not have to double pay retransmission and its spot beams could reach the relevant rural areas.

Mike Gravino, director of the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition put out the call for PBS affiliates worried about having a home following the broadcast incentive auctions.

Noncoms, including PBS, have expressed their "profound disappointment" that the Federal Communications Commission auction framework does not ensure that all communities have free access to a public TV station following the auction and repacking of stations into smaller spectrum space.

"There are a growing number of PBS affiliates which want to enter the auction, and if they do, the PBS network is concerned that there will be gaps in the national coverage for PBS," said Gravino. "Many of these stations are owned by educational, community-owned and faith-institutions, and if they want to take a payday for their organizations in the auction, the door is now wide-open for PBS affiliates to contract with LPTV stations for carriage. But it must be done prior to the auction happening."

Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) the chair and ranking members of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, respectively, have written the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department to highlight concerns raised in the parent Senate Judiciary Committee's marathon April 9 hearing on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger.

Among the issues they wanted the agencies to consider in their vetting of the deal was the combined company's share of the broadband video market.

"A key element of any analysis of this merger will be the impact it will have on innovation in the markets for Internet and video and, in particular, any impact it may have on the development of online video distribution," they wrote in the letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and William Baer, assistant attorney general for antitrust.

Sens Klobuchar and Lee also relayed concerns from the hearing about the deal's reduction of the number of potential outlets for traditional video programming, and its potential to raise prices by raising its rivals' costs. "Because this transaction will materially increase the buying power of the largest buyer in the market for programming, it is important for your agencies to carefully assess the impact of this transaction on the ability of viable content providers of all types to obtain distribution of their content," they wrote.

Sens Klobuchar and Lee's last point was about the potential to raise prices for must-have content, including regional sports networks.

The American Cable Association is telling Congress it thinks the government needs to put conditions on the AT&T/DirecTV deal to decrease the incentive of DirecTV-affiliated programmers from charging higher prices to their rivals, which include hundreds of ACA members.

That is according to the written testimony of Ross Lieberman, senior VP of government affairs for hearings on the proposed deal in both the House and Senate June 24.

Lieberman cited ACA's concern over consolidation in general, including the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal and Comcast/Charter system swaps.

"Congress and the Federal Communications Commission ('FCC') need to ensure that consumers who reside in markets served by smaller multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) will not lose any competitive options or see their prices increase as the consolidation wave continues," he said.

Count the National Education Association, the Parent-Teacher Association, the American Federation of Teachers and a whiteboard full of other education associations as very concerned about Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposed changes to the E-rate program a subsidy for advanced communications services to schools and libraries, which they argue could be a rush to reform that jeopardizes the program.

The FCC signaled a vote for the July 11 meeting on reforms to E-rate, which is part of the FCC's efforts to make wireless more of a player and migrate away from voice subsidies, which will eventually be zeroed out. Said one industry source, the education groups were looking for more money over a longer period of time than they will be getting. The source suggested it could be Chairman Wheeler's next big fight.

The groups, who are beneficiaries of the E-rate program, are concerned that the FCC cannot support a five-year, $5 billion investment in Wi-Fi connections without raiding funding for ongoing broadband connectivity. They also don't like a per-pupil allocation formula for schools, a one-size-fits-all approach that they argue is grossly oversimplified.

The Federal Communications Commission sent out official notice that June 19 was the effective date of its new joint sales agreement (JSA) restrictions, which make some JSA's attributable as ownership interest.

That means that same-market JSA's that broker more than 15% of a station's weekly ad time (which is most JSA's), and whose attribution will put an owner over the FCC's local ownership limits, will have two years from that date, or June 19, 2016, to unwind them or take other action to come into compliance with the rules.

Federal Court denied Viacom’s request to dismiss a suit by Cablevision Systems that charges the programming for antitrust violations in the way it bundles its cable networks.

In the suit, filed in February 2013, Cablevision charged that Viacom was forcing it to carry and pay for 14 low-rated networks in order to carry popular channels like Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central. The cable operator also claims Viacom is unlawfully block-booking in the way it sells its channels.

“We are gratified the Court has ruled that Cablevision has stated a valid antitrust claim against Viacom for illegal channel tying,” Cablevision said. “We continue to believe that Viacom’s tying of its popular networks to carriage of its lesser-watched ancillary networks is illegal, anti-consumer, and wrong. We look forward to further pressing our case at the next stage of the proceeding.”

The ruling was made by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.