Many FCC proposals for improving the emergency alert system would be unduly burdensome, said the American Cable Association, Dish Network, NAB and NCTA in replies in docket 15-91. Also Monday, the FCC approved 4-1 new EAS codes for storm surges and high winds, an item originally slated for the commission's June meeting (see 1606240072). Pay-TV entities and broadcasters said proposed EAS security measures would be overly onerous and should be left up to EAS participants. They disagreed about proposals to change rules that allow cable carriers to “force-tune” viewers to a central channel displaying EAS information.
Monty Tayloe
Monty Tayloe, Associate Editor, covers broadcasting and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2013, after spending 10 years covering crime and local politics for Virginia regional newspapers and a turn in television as a communications assistant for the PBS NewsHour. He’s a Virginia native who graduated Fork Union Military Academy and the College of William and Mary. You can follow Tayloe on Twitter: @MontyTayloe .
The FCC gave NCTA and other supporters of the pay-TV backed set-top proposal (see 1607010066) a list of questions seeking more detail on the plan’s specifics, a cable industry official told us. The document seeks more information about the future of HTML5 and how the pay-TV plan would work, and said “we agree that a licensing model is a viable option to ensure a variety of protections.” The FCC also indicated support for the HTML5 standard, which is what that alternative set-top plan is based on: “We agree that HTML5 may be an appropriate platform for app developers to provide access to content.” Both the licensing concept and the HTML5 standard were targeted in comments from proponents of the original FCC set-top plan, such as Public Knowledge. The questions also show the agency is trying to get specific answers to questions raised by critics of the pay-TV plan, such as whether third-party boxes running pay-TV apps will be able to use DVR functionality. There are also signs of contention, such as FCC comments that “innovation and competition in user interfaces has the potential to lead to consumer friendly features.” The pay-TV proposal’s apps would each use the multichannel video programming distributor interface. The FCC had no comment. In an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 16-42, Roku expressed concern about the pay-TV compromise plan’s use of HTML5. The MVPD proposal “would, as a practical matter, establish HTML5 as the de facto standard in the video distribution marketplace,” Roku said. “Such an approach would be ill advised given that consumers have clearly demonstrated their preference for an array of devices with diverse user experiences at various price points, which has spurred competition and innovation in the marketplace.” HTML5 is a “bulky and expensive architecture” that would require third-party device manufacturers to “include additional processing power and memory to support it, even in their lowest-priced devices,” the company said.
Two broadcaster petitions for permission to be foreign-owned over the 25-percent threshold could be test cases for future ownership situations, numerous broadcast attorneys told us Friday. Petitions for declaratory ruling from Frontier Media and Univision (here and here) are seen more likely to be approved than not. Frontier's petition is considered a “perfect” test case for the commission’s willingness to allow more foreign investment in broadcasting. Frontier is seeking permission to be 100 percent foreign owned by two specific individuals (see 1607060050). Univision's request to be allowed up to 49 percent ownership (see 1607070062) by a combination of investors and foreign company Grupo Televisa is seen as more amorphous, but also in line with recent moves by the FCC. “We have a really great fact pattern” said David Silverman of Davis Wright, who represents Frontier.
The question of how grandfathering will work under the FCC draft order on eliminating the UHF discount (see 1606270083) is the most important aspect of the proposed rule to broadcasters, broadcast and public interest attorneys told us. Since broadcasters don't know how or if the item will affect their combinations, it creates uncertainty, said Pillsbury Winthrop broadcast lawyer Scott Flick. If too many existing combinations are grandfathered, eliminating the UHF discount won't help limit broadcast consolidation, said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood. “It will be a nice symbolic victory that doesn't accomplish anything.” The FCC didn't comment.
Content companies and supporters of the FCC set-top plan expressed increased openness to the pay-TV apps-based compromise proposal after a week of meetings on the topic at the commission, according to ex parte filings in docket 16-42 and interviews. The pay-TV plan is “a preferred baseline for developing final rules,” Scripps Networks Interactive told the FCC, said a filing on a meeting that included Content and Distribution Marketing President Henry Ahn. Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer told us the PK-backed FCC plan “is the bee's knees,” but the Consumer Video Choice Coalition, of which PK is a member, isn't locked into any particular technology to accomplish its set-top policy goals.
Multiple stages of the incentive auction are seen as a near certainty and the process could last into 2017, broadcast attorneys, analysts and broadcasters told us after the release of the $86.42 billion clearing cost of the reverse phase of the auction after it ended at round 52 Wednesday. With auction costs and the $1.75 billion relocation reimbursement fund added on, forward auction bidders would have to more than $88 billion to prevent the auction from going to a second stage.
The FCC should launch a rulemaking on the ATSC 3.0 transition by Oct. 1, said numerous broadcasters in reply comments posted Monday and Tuesday in docket 16-142. “Time is of the essence,” said a joint filing from petitioners NAB, CTA, America's Public Television Systems and the AWARN Alliance. “Broadcasters, the consumer electronics industry and broadcast equipment manufacturers are ready to move forward if the Commission will just let them.” Initial comments included a cable focus on carriage burdens from 3.0 (see 1605270054).
FCC draft media ownership rules are likely destined for a fourth go-round at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, attorneys on the broadcast and public interest sides of the issue told us Tuesday. Industry officials are divided on whether to describe the rules (see 1606270083) as maintaining the status quo or increasing regulation. Lawyers in both camps said they believe there's time to move the FCC in one direction or another through lobbying, since rules are in the circulation phase and both Republican commissioners are expected to oppose them. “I support eliminating the current cross-ownership bans that are keeping broadcasters and newspapers from potentially forming multi-platform entities that could better serve consumer demands,” said Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in a speech that was released shortly before the draft rules were reported to be circulating.
A draft media ownership quadrennial review order and a draft item that would eliminate the ownership UHF discount were circulated on the eighth floor Monday, FCC officials told us. As expected (see 1606140052), the media ownership draft order would uphold most existing rules, sticking relatively close to an NPRM, and brings back the joint sales agreement attribution rule that was knocked down by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to an FCC fact sheet. The UHF discount draft order also closely resembles its NPRM forebear, including a grandfathering clause that would apply only to arrangements or applications that were in existence when the 2013 notice was approved (see 1309270045), FCC officials told us.
An FCC draft order on creating new emergency alert system codes was withdrawn from the commissioner meeting agenda Friday morning. An agency spokesman told us it’s expected to be adopted “soon.” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he hadn't voted on the item when it was unexpectedly pulled because of its “horrible” cost-benefit analysis. The item, which would create specific EAS codes for high winds and storm surges, wasn't expected to be controversial (see 1606220063).