Online video distributors (OVDs) have refused to disclose their licensing agreements with other major networks when they're seeking access to Comcast/NBCUniversal programming under terms of a condition the government applied to approval of Comcast’s application to take control of NBCU, said lawyers for Comcast/NBCU in a letter to the FCC last week. In the so-called “Benchmark Condition” of the FCC’s order approving the deal, the FCC required Comcast to provide “comparable programming” to OVDs that have at least one agreement with a major broadcast network, pay-TV network, TV or film studio not affiliated with Comcast or NBCU. But OVDs have told the company they can’t share those deals because of confidentiality restrictions, the letter said. The FCC Media Bureau should issue a new protective order to ensure the confidentiality of OVDs’ peer deals, the letter said.

The cable industry is beginning another phase in its transition to all-digital systems, our survey of major U.S. operators found. Most provide some digital channels in all or nearly all systems, which marked the first phase of the multiyear transition. Systems are continuing to switch off the remaining analog channels to take them all-digital in the second phase of the transition. Cable operators have a way to go before most companies are fully digital in all systems and have moved all channels off the analog tier, which frees up bandwidth for HD and broadband.

The FCC plans a nationwide broadband speed test, following up on the limited tests it did last year which showed that customers at 13 of the largest ISPs were generally receiving performance at or exceeding advertised levels. Industry players have been meeting with the commission over the past several weeks to hammer out details of how the expanded tests will be done and what they'll measure, according to a series of ex parte filings. An agency source said that in addition to raw speed measurements, the new tests will include data on jitter, latency and variance.

The spectrum provisions in the payroll tax extension will only get the Obama administration part of the way toward finding 500 MHz for wireless broadband. The legislation won’t free up nearly as much spectrum as expected, industry and government officials said. The FCC National Broadband Plan projected that voluntary incentive auctions of broadcast spectrum would yield 120 MHz for broadband. That figure appears now to be down to 60-80 MHz, with a big chunk of the 120 MHz lost in part because of language sought by the NAB protecting TV station signals along the Canadian and Mexican borders, industry and government officials said.

Debate intensified on whether cable operators should install radio frequency traps in all-digital systems so consumer electronics can get basic programming without using extra devices. NCTA Friday released a blog titled “it’s a trap” against the use of such technology. Meanwhile the CE company that has been most vocal against cable operators scrambling signals took aim at RCN for saying traps aren’t practical.

The House and Senate passed long-awaited spectrum legislation on Friday as a “pay-for” in the payroll tax cut extension bill. President Barack Obama praised the bill and was expected to sign it into law. The spectrum law (CD Feb 17 p1) authorizes the FCC to conduct voluntary incentive auctions, a recommendation from 2010’s National Broadband Plan. It also sets up national public safety wireless broadband network ten years after one was recommended by the 9/11 Commission.

GENEVA -- World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) decisions will safeguard spectrum needed to observe and understand the Earth, atmosphere and oceans and to reduce the risk of weather, climate and water-related disasters, the World Meteorological Organization said in a press release following the four-week conference. The growing importance of collecting and exchanging Earth observation data was an important issue before the conference, said Hamadoun Toure, ITU secretary-general, at a press conference. Toure was referring to boosting the accuracy of weather forecasting, climate change monitoring, disaster prediction and mitigation, and gains in other areas.

GENEVA -- ITU member governments made gains in clarifying the rules for bringing into use satellite network frequency assignments and set up a process of inquiries about the movement of satellites, sources said on the last day of the four-week World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC). Reducing the orbital arc used for determining the coordination requirements of satellite networks is one way to ease difficulties, but is “not sufficient by itself,” said Francois Rancy, director of the Radiocommunication Bureau, during a press conference.

GENEVA -- The World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) took major steps toward global harmonization for mobile applications, including wrapping up work on issues remaining after the 2007 conference, setting up a work program on future use of the 700 MHz band and agenda items for the 2015 conference that will follow up on decisions this month and consider spectrum allocations to the mobile service to spur broadband applications, officials said during a press conference on the last day of the four-week conference.

Dish Network lacks the legal standing to force the FCC to pull back encoding rules for set-top boxes adopted in 2003 as part of plug-and-play device implementation, the FCC and Justice Department said in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Dish appeal, filed in 2004, was paused as the agency considered DirecTV’s petition for reconsideration of the plug-and-play order, which the commission denied in 2010. Dish argued in its brief last month that the agency’s application of plug-and-play rules to all multichannel video programming distributors, rather than just cable, goes beyond the congressional intent.