Comcast’s willingness to hire representatives with a background at the FCC gives the cable operator an advantage when dealing with the agency, said attorneys and executives -- some former FCC officials themselves. Though industry observers disagree over whether that advantage stops at merely having one’s phone calls returned or extends to more palpable agency favors, all said inside knowledge of FCC processes and personnel gives Charter Communications, Comcast and Time Warner Cable a boost when dealing with the commission.
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 .
Industry observers, FCC commissioners and analysts are divided over whether an FCC rulemaking notice seeking comment on extending multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) privileges to some online video services will have a strong effect on the video industry. “We expect Internet-based linear programming services to develop as a competitor to cable and satellite,” as a result of the shift, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement released with the NPRM.
The FCC approved an rulemaking notice seeking comment on broadening the FCC definition of a multichannel video programming distributor to include over-the-top providers, with three yes votes from Democrats and two concurrences from Republicans, FCC officials told us Thursday. The item seeks comment on defining linear online video services as MVPDs and includes tentative conclusions about how broadly the new definition would reach, the officials told us.
A circulating draft NPRM on broadening the FCC definition of a multichannel video programming distributor to include online video distributors is being held back by the chairman’s office as part of an effort to reach consensus with the Republican commissioners, officials at the agency including on its eighth floor told us. Chairman Tom Wheeler said at Thursday’s FCC meeting that a vote on the item would happen before the week was out (see 1412110069), but the vote was delayed, the officials said. The item already has enough votes from the FCC’s Democrats to pass, said the officials.
Broadcast industry observers are divided over whether interest in the incentive auction expressed by CBS CEO Les Moonves last week is likely to have much effect on potential participation in the incentive auction, they said in interviews Friday.
Though the FCC has characterized Sinclair’s deal with Howard Stirk Holdings as a victory for rules designed to increase diversity, Free Press and Sinclair's general counsel are less convinced the new arrangement is an improvement, they said in interviews. Free Press and others had characterized Sinclair’s original plan to shutter the stations as a political move designed to make tighter rules for joint sales agreements look bad. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn pointed to the stations’ sale last week to the African-American-owned broadcaster as evidence that those policies are working. New ownership models will "bring more independent voices to the station ownership ranks in a manner that promotes diversity, competition, and localism,” said Wheeler and Clyburn in a blog post.
FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai said rules devised for the TV incentive auction will discourage participation by broadcasters, further tilt the playing field in favor of competitors to AT&T and Verizon and effectively mean that the FCC won't offer generic blocks of spectrum. The two vigorously dissented to an incentive auction procedures public notice, citing those and other concerns. The two Republicans and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also issued a plea for the FCC to simplify the rules as much as possible prior to the auction, now slated to start in 2016. Pai said he wished “luck” for those planning to comment on the auction rules. “They will need it as they try to decipher what these proposals mean and how they are supposed to work,” he said Thursday.
A pricing plan proposed in the upcoming draft FCC incentive auction comment public notice is seen by many as discouraging broadcasters from participating in the auction and increasing the likelihood of interference between repacked broadcast stations and wireless uses, wireless and broadcast industry officials told us. The PN on circulation and slated for Thursday’s FCC meeting proposes basing initial offers to broadcasters in part on the population they serve, and also proposes using a dynamic reserve pricing system, said Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden and other industry officials. Under that DRP system, some broadcasters in the auction could face a choice of either being repacked into the wireless band or having already-locked-in bids for their stations unexpectedly reduced. Called the “antithesis of simplicity” by Padden in a recent ex parte filing, the DRP proposal is opposed by wireless, unlicensed and broadcast industry stakeholders because of its complexity and since it would increase interference and variability in the spectrum band plan, said a wireless industry official.
The success of the AWS-3 auction shows there's a demand for mid-band spectrum, and highlights an FCC error in establishing an enhanced review process for low-band spectrum as part of mobile spectrum holdings item, Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a Q&A session on the second day of the Practising Law Institute’s Institute on Telecommunications Policy and Regulation. Pai described the reaction to the success of the AWS-3 auction as “pleasantly shocked” and cited the FCC decision to have open eligibility for the auction as “greatly increasing participation” and one of the reasons it generated total provisional winning bids of $41 billion so far (see 1412050052). Pai and members of panels of privacy experts and consumer electronics industry officials also discussed net neutrality, the Internet of Things and possible ways the Communications Act could be updated to improve the FCC.
The FCC Media Bureau restarted the merger shot clocks and pleading cycles for the AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast/Time Warner Cable deals on the same day that Dish Network, Public Knowledge and other entities launched their new Stop Mega Comcast Coalition in opposition to that deal. The new group, which also includes content company The Blaze, NTCA, Sports Fan Coalition and others, wants the FCC and Department of Justice to block the Comcast/TWC merger outright, said Public Knowledge President Gene Kimmelman in a conference call Wednesday. “It’s no surprise that the same competitors and special interest groups who’ve gone after Comcast in the past are at it again,” said Comcast in a blog post responding to the coalition launch and FCC announcement of the restarted merger reviews.