Broadcasters are weighing whether to appeal an FCC rule adopted Friday (CD April 30 p2) requiring that TV stations post the contents of their political files online. Industry attorneys said challenges are likely, though as of Monday no decisions had been made, and a nonprofit group that backs the rules said it would consider whether to defend them if an appeal is made. The NAB won’t decide whether to challenge the rule before consulting with its board, a spokesman said. The group had opposed part of the rule that requires online disclosure of the low ad rates -- comparable to that of the station’s best commercial advertiser -- political candidates get in the run-up to elections.

Truth-in-billing rules didn’t solve “cramming,” and neither did millions of dollars in forfeitures, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell said. On Friday the FCC revealed its latest attempt to alleviate what it called “a problem that has plagued telecommunications consumers for more than a decade,” with new rules requiring several disclosures by wireline phone companies. Public interest groups and some legislators say the FCC didn’t go far enough, as it declined to apply the rules to wireless or VoIP providers.

The House’s successful passage of four cybersecurity bills last week turned the spotlight to the Senate, which has failed to reach a compromise between two of its leading cybersecurity bills. Nevertheless, telco groups said they're optimistic that the House’s movement on non-regulatory cybersecurity bills will help break the Senate cybersecurity stalemate.

The FCC took what Chairman Julius Genachowski said was its first concrete step toward a voluntary incentive auction of broadcast spectrum, on Friday approving a framework for two or more TV stations to share a single six MHz channel. The order left a number of thorny issues to be addressed at a later date (CD April 16 p1). “This is our first action at the commission level to begin to implement the historic incentive auction law that was passed by Congress and signed by the president not very long ago,” Genachowski said. Incentive auctions offer “enormous opportunities” but are also “unprecedented and complex,” he said. “Many steps to follow.”

Everything’s up in the air as the further notice of proposed rulemaking on contribution reform contains many more questions than answers. The notice, approved unanimously by the FCC Friday, poses questions about what types of communications providers should contribute to the Universal Service Fund, how contributions should be assessed, and how to reduce the overall cost of contribution. The text of the notice was not released by our deadline.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released his hold on FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel Friday after a year-long row over the agency’s handling of the LightSquared wireless project. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., would not say when he plans to schedule a vote on the nominees. It could come as early as the second week of May when lawmakers return from their April 30-May 4 recess.

With the sunset of the FCC’s must-carry viewability rules set to expire next month, companies and industry groups have been lobbying the FCC to make their cases for and against keeping them. The rules require cable operators to deliver must-carry TV stations’ signals to all viewers, which typically involves multicasting a digital and analog version of the programming. Barring FCC action, the requirement will expire June 17. The commission has asked whether it should extend it (CD Feb 8 p5).

FCC Democrats didn’t back down from what staff recommended, approving over the opposition of the Republican member a requirement that all information now kept on paper in TV station studios’ political files go online. Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn backed the Media Bureau’s draft order at Friday’s monthly meeting that stations must include information on what they charge to air political spots in the public files the agency will host. Requiring posting of the lowest unit charge rate broadcasters must levy for political commercials in the weeks before federal, state and municipal primaries and general elections was opposed by Commissioner Robert McDowell. That was expected, but it was unclear in the days before the vote whether Clyburn in particular would vote for LUC reporting after broadcasters floated new proposals (CD April 25 p2).

The Motion Picture Experts Group is close to a new standard relating to second-screen viewing, MPEG Chairman Leonardo Chiariglione said in an interview Friday. The idea is to allow broadcasters to use iPhones, iPads and similar devices as a second content channel that’s linked to what’s being transmitted on TV, he said. For that to happen, they must be semantically connected, he said. The new standard could appear in mid-2013, he said.

SILICON VALLEY -- Europe’s data-protection chief defended a proposed right to be forgotten, notably online, as a usefully provocative way of framing a prerogative to force organizations to justify keeping information about them. Participants at the Berkeley Law Privacy Forum repeatedly and pointedly questioned Peter Hustinx, the European Commission’s data-protection supervisor, on the matter last week.