The AllVid Tech Company Alliance urged the FCC to begin a rulemaking that would set up a nationally portable common IP-based interface between multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) services and consumer electronics devices. The alliance made the request following a back-and-forth in the basic tier encryption proceeding between large cable operators and Boxee over how to put in place interim and long-term solutions for getting CE devices direct access to the basic service tier should cable operators be allowed to encrypt it.

Liberty Media’s plans for spinning off Starz as a separate publicly traded company could clear the way for Liberty merging with Sirius XM, analysts said.

Chairman Charles Ergen said Dish Network is well-positioned to survive any ruling on a broadcaster lawsuit and any FCC order on the DBS company’s plans to use wireless 2 GHz spectrum for a terrestrial service. The agency’s decisions on Dish’s application to operate a terrestrial wireless service and Verizon Wireless’s deal for spectrum licenses from Spectrum Co. will provide clarity for the marketplace, Ergen said in a teleconference Wednesday to discuss Q2 results. President Barack Obama and the FCC indicated they want to free up spectrum and see more entrants in the market besides Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Ergen said. “It’s unclear to consumers whether there’s a third or fourth option out there” of a carrier with as many subscribers as the two biggest, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, for wireless broadband service, he said.

Charter Communications’ new CEO said it’s upgrading to an all-digital system within two years, which will help it catch up with its larger rivals and accelerate the industry’s transition to digital (CD Feb 22 p8). In an earning call Tuesday, CEO Tom Rutledge said the transition will give Charter more network capacity, which it will try to use to improve its video product and win new customers over satellite, its primary competitor in many markets. The operator’s no longer marketing its analog product, and in April began only selling digital cable, he said. Rutledge, the company’s third CEO in two years, called the transition an “investment strategy that will put us on a different growth path."

As the first branch of government, Congress “should be the most technologically savvy, the closest to the American people and the most innovative,” said Lorelei Kelly, a fellow with the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation, during a panel discussion the group hosted Tuesday. And yet, “people, and especially candidates, often speak of a disconnect between Americans and Washington, D.C.,” she said, asking how that can be fixed through technology.

Sirius XM added about 622,000 subscribers in Q2, a 38 percent increase from the year-ago period and making last quarter its strongest yet for subscriber growth since the deal creating the company in 2008, said CEO Mel Karmazin. Despite the subscription price increase this year, the company has benefited from stable conversion of people with new autos -- who got the satellite radio service for free and then decided to subscribe after the free period ended -- and stable churn of existing customers leaving, he said Tuesday during on an earnings teleconference.

Redemtech said it’s donating 200 recycled computers to the League of United Latin American Citizens’ (LULAC) technology training centers. Redemtech will donate another 100 computers to non-profits focused on digital literacy, the computer-recycling company said. Non-profits can apply for up to four computers each beginning Sept. 1 and more information is forthcoming, Redemtech promises.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s gold medal win Sunday in the 100-meter final has become a highlight moment of the London Olympics. It’s one that Comcast and NBCUniversal officials used to demonstrate the power of NHK’s Super Hi-Vision ultra-HD technology during a demonstration at Comcast’s Washington headquarters Monday night. Reporters crowded around an 85-inch LCD screen as video showed Bolt and his rivals lined up to start the race. The technology that was shown is in early stages of development and takes many gigabytes to be sent from London to the U.S., executives at Comcast’s NBCUniversal said at the demo.

Comments filed on USF contribution reform show little agreement and point to the need for more discussion, Verizon and Verizon Wireless said in FCC reply comments. That conclusion was seconded by many companies and groups filing replies this week. Though many suggested short-term fixes, most agreed there is little consensus to move to a numbers-based or connections-based approach.

Many hard questions must be asked about open government and how it gathers data and makes information available, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said Tuesday at an Aspen Institute symposium. The symposium also heard from Toomas Hendrik Ilves, president of Estonia, who discussed how his country’s government became ranked as top in the world for openness.