The FCC was close but not spot-on in its preliminary cost category schedule for C-band relocation expenses, said numerous interested parties in docket 18-122 filings posted Friday, suggesting additions and changes. There was some opposition to reimbursements for gold-plated upgrades and support for not finalizing the cost category schedule until after the FCC has filed, reviewed and approved satellite operator transition plans.

Seven hundred seventy-four broadband and phone providers extended their Keep Americans Connected pledge through June 30, the FCC said Thursday. The agency said Chairman Ajit Pai's requested extension (see 2004300044) resulted in more companies signing up for KAC than declining to extend previous commitments. The extensions "will help ensure that Americans can continue to communicate with loved ones, access education, and get healthcare remotely as they practice social distancing," Pai said. Under KAC, providers agree not to end service due to bill nonpayment caused by the pandemic, waive any pandemic-caused late fees and open their Wi-Fi hot spots to the public. ACA Connects President Matt Polka said its members "have been looking out for their customers and communities long before COVID-19, and all of them will continue to do so long afterward," and the association reaffirmed its endorsement of the pledge through the extension. Bad debt costs associated with KAC are growing, with telecoms setting up reserves of hundreds of millions of dollars in anticipation (see 2005120017).

FCC rules on good-faith negotiation of retransmission consent now allow retrans negotiations between MVPD buying groups and large station groups, said a 5-0 order Wednesday. The buying group draft order, stemming from the TV Viewer Protection Act, went on circulation last month (see 2004100064) ACA Connects said the approval "will benefit both the MVPD members of such buying groups and the broadcasters with whom such buying groups negotiate."

Cable’s 600,000 subscriber losses in Q1, down 4% year on year, look “positively gentle” compared with overall traditional pay TV's 1.8 million losses (7.6%), also a record, MoffettNathanson reported. Pay-TV penetration is at 1995 levels, with as many nonsubscribing households as subs in 1988, the analysts said Friday. More distressing is where those customers didn’t go, wrote analyst Craig Moffett. VMVPDs, once viewed as “the last line of defense for cable networks, imploded in Q1,” and Moffett estimates the vMVPD category lost about 341,000 subscribers. Sony’s half a million PlayStation Vue service customers appear to have gone “nowhere” after the service shut down in January; AT&T TV Now, Sling TV and fuboTV lost subs, he said. Disney’s Hulu Live TV appears to “have hit a wall” after price increases, growing by about 100,000, “an abrupt deceleration from their recent torrid growth,” said Moffett. Numbers will drop this quarter, with sports off the air and unemployment taking hold, Moffett said. Combined traditional and vMVPDs subscriptions are shrinking 5.3% yearly, also setting a new low. Q1's sub loss "was hardly a surprise. No one has tried harder to avoid this outcome than ACA Connects and" its MVPD members, emailed the association's spokesperson. "Programmers and broadcasters have only themselves to blame. They demanded untenable rate increases year after year, forcing MVPDs to provide their customers with dozens of programming channels they didn’t want." The cost for "pay TV programming is four times higher than local TV, even though broadcast ratings dwarf that of cable," emailed an NAB spokesperson. He cited SNL Kagan data. NCTA didn't comment on MoffettNathanson's predictions. COVID-19 is stoking the cord-cutting trend, said Moffett, and even the return of sports is unlikely to bring back pay-TV customers who left traditional or vMVPDs. “The underlying causes for the defections are not transitory,” he said, raising the possibility of a “rapid death spiral for the entire category.”

Cable interests didn't agree about possibly eliminating the rule that cable operators maintain records in online inspection files about attributable interests in video programming services, in docket 20-35 comments posted this week. An NPRM on axing or modifying the rule was approved at commissioners' March 31 meeting (see 2002280044). Verizon said Tuesday there's "simply no basis" for requiring cable operators to keep attributable interest records in their public inspection files because the agency or local franchise authorities can just request records from operators, and responding to those requests is less burdensome for operators. NCTA called the rule "regulatory underbrush [that] serves no meaningful purpose." ACA Connects said vertical integration information could be useful in bringing a program access complaint but urged the FCC to find "a less burdensome" means for making it available. It suggested such possibilities as eliminating the part of the rule requiring reporting carriage of a particular system, or revising rules to require cable operators post the information only once and then make updates when it changes.

MVPDs and subscribers shouldn't expect rebates from programmers due to the lack of live sports content, sports and cable experts said in interviews last week. At least one cable ISP indicated it expects a rebate or discount, and multiple ones have brought up the issue with programmers. The idea of sports costs is also getting political pressure.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants telecom providers to extend their Keep Americans Connected pledges by an additional month and a half to June 30 (see 2004300037), the agency said Thursday. Several phone, cable and wireless providers announced extensions earlier this week (see 2004270050). March 13, Pai asked providers not to terminate service for 60 days for residential or small-business customers due to inability to pay because of disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic, waive late fees for residential or small-business customers due to COVID-related economic circumstances and open their Wi-Fi hot spots to any American who needs them (see 2003130066).

As the coronavirus pandemic heightens the need for ubiquitous broadband access, some want the FCC to hurry release of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund money. Possible measures include moving the auction date earlier than the proposed Oct. 22, or a quick review of RDOF applications deemed shovel-ready. Some small providers are concerned they won't have enough time to review available census blocks and make prudent bids due to scheduling conflicts stemming from COVID-19. They are seeking an auction delay. Consensus indicates neither an auction delay nor accelerated timetable is likely, we found in interviews this month.

There's no consensus whether mobile and fixed communications services are complementary or substitutes in docket 20-60 comments this week for the FCC's communications market competitiveness report to Congress. The agency got requests for further smoothing access to poles and rights of way for wireline broadband access.

More than 85% of Americans have access to fixed terrestrial broadband at speeds of 250/25 Mbps, said an FCC 2020 broadband deployment report Friday. The number of rural Americans with that access more than tripled from 2016 to 2018, it said. But Democratic commissioners and some consumer advocates question the findings that broadband is deployed in a reasonable and timely manner, saying the COVID-19 pandemic put the digital divide in stark relief.