The FCC is looking at changing some broadcast regulations, leading to less oversight of how noncommercial stations raise money and possible rules for all types of stations to make disclosures online, not just on paper. Chairman Julius Genachowski has asked the Media Bureau to work on those areas, he told an FCC hearing in Phoenix about a June report by commission staffer Steve Waldman on the future of the new and old media industry. Those were the two concrete steps the commission said it’s taking to deliver on the recommendations of the report (CD Oct 3 p6).

Touting “original, premium programming,” a reach of 100 million people in the U.S. and an “innovative” opportunity for advertisers, executives from Yahoo and ABC News entered a strategic alliance. They said Monday it brings together Yahoo’s technology and reach and the journalism of ABC News, with the goal of becoming the “premier digital media company in the world.” The future of news and information “is completely up for grabs,” said Ben Sherwood, president of ABC News.

Federal agencies must do more to fortify their cybernetworks from attacks, said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. In a joint statement Monday, they cited a GAO report that said federal agencies’ cybernetworks have significant weaknesses due to their failure to implement information security programs. “There is perhaps no greater vulnerability that Congress has yet to address through legislation than the insecurity of cyberspace,” Collins said. “Today’s report points out too many serious vulnerabilities. We must fortify the government’s efforts to safeguard its own cyber networks from attack and build a public/private partnership to promote stronger national cyber-security.”

BRUSSELS -- There are “severe imbalances” in the growth rate of Internet traffic, with more revenue generated by traffic that’s not monetized by network operators, London School of Economics (LSE) Professor-Technology Management Jonathan Liebenau said Monday. Different business models apply to the different segments that generate traffic, and network operators aren’t part of the most profitable business activities, he told the Financial Times/European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association digital agenda summit. Given EU goals to boost broadband build-out, the reluctance to invest in next-generation networks threatens the ability of network operators to respond, he said. That won’t change until investors are sure network owners will eventually benefit from traffic growth, he said. Speakers also urged regulators to safeguard net neutrality.

BRUSSELS -- Telecom companies must stop bickering and speak with a single voice if they want to reach their potential as a driver of growth in the European economy, several speakers said Monday at the Financial Times/European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association digital agenda summit. Considering the “tremendous investments” needed to accomplish the digital agenda, “critical mass is required,” said ETNO Executive Board Chairman Luigi Gambardella. “The minor fights between incumbents and the cries of newer entrants over a few eurocents of access charges belong to the past,” because both sides have a common interest in rolling out the new networks needed to meet consumer demand for new services, he said. But incumbents and their rivals sparred at the meeting over a European Commission proposal to dictate access charges to copper networks.

Top FCC officials may decide to discuss ways the agency will implement some of the many recommendations in the report on the future of the media industry at an event Monday in Phoenix, agency officials watching the deliberations said. They said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Steve Waldman, who wrote the 478-page report finished in June, may talk about concrete steps the agency will take to act on its suggestions on the broadcasting industry. Genachowski’s office and Waldman appeared to be working out the details on Friday of the extent of the recommendations that will be implemented, with a view to possibly discussing some at the hearing, agency officials said. Waldman leaves the agency at week’s end.

The Commerce Department’s Inspector General is auditing the effectiveness of NTIA’s BTOP Booz Allen Hamilton contract, according to a memo to NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling. The audit could be a standard procedure, several former federal officials said. Meanwhile, federal regulators suspended a $30 million BTOP project in northern Florida due to concerns regarding deployment progress, project management and vendor oversight.

Cable operators could encrypt all channels in their basic lineups on all-digital systems if they take steps to give customers the equipment they'd need to get the programming, under a draft FCC proposal. The Media Bureau rulemaking notice on cable encryption is meant to supplant a waiver process, commission and industry officials said Friday. They said it has not been voted on by all FCC members yet, but that approval ought to be noncontroversial.

Universal service lobbying was intensifying at the FCC as the deadline for the October open meeting drew near, filings on docket 10-90 showed. Comcast, Cox Communications, Northeast Colorado Cellular, U.S. Cellular, USTelecom, NTCA, NECA, Free Press, Dish Network and CompTel posted ex parte notices Friday. If the commission is to adopt an order for the Oct. 27 meeting, drafts must circulate by Thursday. Most industry observers expect such an order, but weren’t certain how many changes staff would make from the incumbent-backed ABC and rural consensus plans. The most-contested provisions remained the right-of-first-refusal provision for wireline carriers and the size of the mobility fund, but Free Press also filed a lengthy denunciation of the plans.

LightSquared remains confident it can meet the FCC buildout requirements despite the request for additional testing from the FCC and NTIA, said LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja during an interview on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. LightSquared, which is required by the FCC to cover 260 million people by 2015, will be able to reach that number about a year early, said Ahuja.