Pay-TV providers, broadcasters and their associations don't agree on whether the term multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) and its obligations should apply to over-the-top (OTT) video services, according to comments filed in docket 14-261 Tuesday. Though NAB said it supports extending MVPD rules to cover OTT services, it wants online video distributors (OVDs) to be bound by the must-carry and other rules that apply to current MVPDs. CCIA, DirecTV and others expressed concern that the MVPD designation would harm innovation in the OTT sphere, while NCTA opposed the definition change entirely. “That definition cannot be squared with how Congress defined the term in 1992, nor is it consistent with the policies Congress sought to achieve when it adopted rules conferring benefits and imposing obligations on MVPDs,” NCTA said.
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 .
Despite its dramatic effect on the cable industry, Thursday's open Internet order isn't much of an omen for how FCC review of Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable will play out, analysts, cable attorneys and ex-commission officials said in interviews Monday. Though the order addresses some of the concerns raised by opponents of the deal, it's not enough to protect consumers and new entrants from Comcast/TWC, said Dish Network Deputy General Counsel Jeffrey Blum and Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer, representing the Stop MegaComcast Coalition, on a news media call Monday. The net neutrality order “doesn't come close” to addressing all of the ways a combined cable giant could hurt over-the-top video entrants and video competition, Blum said. “Our filings have shown consistently that consumers will lose no broadband choices in this transaction,” Comcast said in an email.
ISPs will battle FCC reclassification of broadband service under Communications Act Title II in the courts, on Capitol Hill and possibly through pressure on a successor executive branch and FCC, Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso told us in an interview shortly after Thursday’s commission meeting (see 1502260043). The interview will be shown on C-SPAN's The Communicators. The FCC and the courts are likely to take “a long time” to resolve the likely challenges to net neutrality rules, Commisso said. Though he didn’t say Mediacom would sue over the new rules, he said it was a possibility and he was sure many entities would. The FCC’s open Internet order will create such a windfall for Washington attorneys that they’ll be able to take yearlong vacations, he told us.
The FCC’s focus on tough protections against online blocking and throttling and its current proceeding on extending multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) privileges to online video companies show that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is interested in the future of online video, said Dish Deputy General Counsel Jeffrey Blum at The Federalist Society's Telecommunications & Media Practice Group Future of Media conference Wednesday. Speakers at the event discussed the permutations of the over-the-top/MVPD notice of proposed rulemaking and the FCC’s looming net neutrality rulemaking, set for Thursday’s FCC meeting.
Debate about the scope of the FCC’s Downloadable Security Technological Advisory Committee's effort to recommend a replacement technology for CableCARD dominated its first meeting Monday. While committee members representing Google, Public Knowledge and others discussed replacement technology that could include a user interface and other outputs, cable company officials such as Cablevision Senior Vice President-Engineering and New Technologies Bob Clyne said the committee's recommendation should focus on downloadable security.
The FCC’s proposed release of confidential contract documents as part of its review of the AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast/Time Warner Cable deals was aggressively questioned by a three-judge panel during oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday. “Why does the commission need it?” asked Judge David Tatel. “The FTC and the Justice Department, which also review mergers, do not require this material.” The oral argument, which took twice as long as scheduled, was in CBS et al. v. FCC, which is being closely watched by the communications bar (see 1502190053). The courtroom was standing room only.
Oral argument Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit between content companies and the FCC over the release of confidential contract information in the FCC review of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV deals isn’t expected to swing those deal proceedings’ results, said analysts and attorneys in interviews Thursday. Oral argument is of interest to investors and others following the transaction, though. There’s “some interest among investors in what the case means" for the deals, said Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant. “The case probably won’t drive the yes/no decision on the deals.”
Carriers will participate in the incentive auction and “bid hard” even if it's held close on the heels of the AWS-3 auction, said a white paper prepared by Kagan Media Appraisals at the behest of Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden. Rising wireless usage, competitive pressure and limited spectrum resources “should be irresistible drivers for the carriers to be there,” said the paper, "Can the FCC Attract a Full House for the 2016 Broadcast Incentive Auction?" by Kagan analyst Sharon Armbrust.
The FCC Media Bureau rolled out phase two of its new Licensing and Management System, which is to completely replace the FCC Consolidated Database System by late 2015 or early 2016, a Media Bureau official said (see 1410060028). Phase two focuses on low-power and Class A uses of CDBS, and beginning Feb. 23 those broadcasters and TV translators will be required to use the LMS to file applications for construction permits, licenses and amendments to pending construction permit and license applications, the bureau said in public notice Friday. Phase one of replacing CDBS transferred the filing for full-power TV construction permits and licenses to LMS.
That executives from four large broadcasters pledged in a meeting with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to help the commission hold a successful incentive auction “as quickly as possible” is seen as a positive sign for the auction. It's a possible reaction to NAB’s tactics and court challenge of the auction order, said broadcast attorneys in interviews Monday.