Broadcasting&Cable

Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a longtime critic of the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules, is no fan of the commission's latest effort to come up with legally sustainable open Internet enforcement.

In a letter to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, Blackburn said the FCC should conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed network neutrality rules (the chairman circulated a draft April 24).

“Despite any evidence of a great consumer harm, the FCC is once again considering regulatory action that could change the future of the Internet as we know it. Before the Administration takes any reckless steps that could jeopardize the explosive growth and innovation of the Internet, it is important the FCC is able to explain the potential costs and its impact on jobs to the American people," she said.

AT&T has indicated that how the Federal Communications Commission structures the broadcast incentive auction could affect whether or not it participates, but it appears still to be trying to work it out with the commission.

The FCC is expected to circulate a spectrum aggregation item on April 24 that could potentially limit the low-band spectrum available to AT&T, but there are suggestions from recent interactions between AT&T execs and the commission that the item could be on its way to something AT&T could support.

The item would not be voted on until May 15 and other commissioners can still make suggested edits and changes, so it could, and likely is, still a work in progress.

According to ex parte filings, AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson got on the phone with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to talk about "issues" raised by AT&T about the auctions -- as well as to brief him on AT&T's plans to expand fiber deployment.

The Federal Communications Commission has approved the sale of three Hoak Media stations in Colorado to Nexstar.

They are KREX-TV Grand Junction and two satellite stations, KREY-TV Montrose and KREG-TV Glenwood. Gray Television bought the Hoak stations, but spun off the Colorado outlets to Nexstar. All three stations are in the Grand Junction (CO) market, but since satellite stations only rebroadcast the signal of the originating station on another channel too hard to reach areas, they are exempt from the duopoly rules.

The FCC agreed to extend that waiver, even though it found Nexstar had not met the presumptive standard.

Nexstar had sought an extension of that waiver as part of the sale since the FCC requires transfer applicants to demonstrate compliance with the presumptive waiver standard, which includes no overlap of signal between the parent station and satellite and no operator ready to purchase and operate the satellite as a full-service station. But the commission will also consider extending the waiver on an ad hoc basis even if the presumptive standard is not met, which it did in this case.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said he has heard and will respond to concerns from Sinclair and other broadcasters about repacking issues after the incentive auctions.

In a letter to the FCC, Sinclair raised numerous issues about the time it would take to repack and the costs. "We had a meeting with broadcasters in a group and repacking is clearly one of the issues that they are sensitive to," he said. "We are sensitive to it as well, and we are going to address their issues."

Nielsen is reporting that 51% of all adults over the age of 55 in the US owned smartphones in the first quarter of 2014, up 10% in the first quarter of 2013.

The development is notable because rapid growth in smartphone usage among older Americans means that a majority of Americans in all age groups now own smart phones. Overall, seven in ten Americans owned smart phones and about 85% of the purchases for new mobile phones are now smartphones.

The Center for Digital Democracy has asked the Federal Trade Commission to reject the application of iKeepSafe to run a safe harbor program for companies that want to demonstrate their compliance with Children's Online Privacy Protection Act restrictions on collecting and sharing personal info via child-directed Web sites.

CDD says iKeepSafe fails to provide the same or greater protections as the COPPA rule, using permissive language - "should" -- -rather than mandatory language --"must," "required." It also says the proposal does not clearly define child-directed sites. CDD also takes issue with ikeepSafe's plan to have a third party, PlayWell, assess compliance with the voluntary guidelines, saying it has provided no evidence that either it or PlayWell has the skill or technical expertise, and in PlayWell’s case the staff, to enforce the safe harbor.

The COPPA Rule allows companies that want to be considered de facto in compliance to do so through a safe harbor program that monitors that compliance. "[T]he FTC should reject iKeepSafe’s application, or require amendments and clarifying submissions from the company," said CDD, which is a leading voice for protecting kids privacy online," CDD told the FTC.

The National Association of Broadcasters has told the Federal Communications Commission it needs to issue a separate "notice-and-comment rulemaking process" ASAP to deal with repacking reimbursement issues.

The incentive auction statute directed the FCC to set aside $1.75 billion from auction proceeds for a broadcaster relocation fund (with cable and satellite operators also able to tap that for any expenses in carrying those changed channels). The FCC is preparing to vote May 15 on a framework for the broadcast incentive auctions, including on repacking, but the NAB says the commission's recent report from outside consultant Widelity on new figures for potential covered expenses in the repacking and moving of TV stations was only a first step.

NAB says that the commission has so far failed to provide "any information as to how the Commission will use the report, or how relocating broadcasters will receive reimbursement for all expenses they incur in repacking." In comments filed regarding the Widelity report, NAB said that there could be unanticipated costs and delays that could take the transition beyond the three-year sunset for reimbursement. It argues that one key question is whether the FCC will treat the report's cost estimates as an upper limit or merely guidance -- NAB says it should be the latter.

The Consumer Electronics Association announced its financial support for the Log Cabin Republicans, which represents gay conservatives and their supporters.

CEA said the contribution -- it did not say how much it was -- makes it the first technology group to back the national chapter of the organization, whose mission is to "advance the interests of the gay and lesbian community within the Republican Party," those interests including "limited government, a strong national defense, confident foreign policy, low taxes, personal responsibility and individual liberty," including supporting candidates who support "equal rights under law to persons who are gay or lesbian, promote nondiscrimination against or harassment of persons who are gay or lesbian, and encourage participation in the Republican Party by gay and lesbian Americans."

Dave Grimaldi, former chief of staff to Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and senior legal advisor to acting FCC Chairwoman Clyburn, has joined Pandora as director of public affairs.

Pandora is an online personalized radio service that launched in 2000. It now boasts hundreds of thousands of titles and tens of millions of listeners monthly. Grimaldi had been chief of staff since 2010, as well as media legal advisor.

He was succeeded last November by Adonis Hoffman. Before joining the FCC, Grimaldi had been senior counsel to house Majority Whip James Clyburn (Mignon Clyburn's father), specializing in telecom and technology, among other things. He was also former legislative counsel to Rep Ed Towns (D-NY).

As part of a restructuring of the government relations department, Maureen O'Connell, senior VP, regulatory and public policy, government relations for 21st Century Fox in Washington, is exiting her post after 18 years.

The news was announced in an internal memo from executive VP, government affairs, Mike Regan, which was circulated and confirmed by a Fox spokesperson. O'Connell will be available to help during the transition. In the wake of the company's global expansion -- most recently in Hong Kong and Brussels -- Kathy Ramsey, VP of government affairs, has been named senior VP and COO of government affairs.

VP and associate general counsel Jared Sher will assume much of O'Connell's portfolio of domestic and regulatory issues and represent the company before the FCC. O'Connell's successes in that role included Fox's fight against Federal Communications Commission indecency rules, pushback on efforts to weaken retransmission consent and helping shepherd various deals, including DirecTV and the Wall Street Journal purchase.

A top News Corp. executive once dubbed O'Connell the "queen of indecency," a title she was said to relish. Regan thanked O'Connell for her "many contributions to our company."