Approval of a final data roaming order -- as recommended in the National Broadband Plan -- could face an uphill fight even though there have long appeared to be three votes in favor with strong support from FCC Democrats, said agency and industry officials. Chairman Julius Genachowski must decide by March 17 whether to seek a vote at the April 7 meeting.

Executives from all four major broadcast networks talked up the coming wave of retransmission consent payments from subscription-video distributors and affiliated TV stations, at two investor conferences in Florida this week. Retrans makes broadcasting a more attractive business, said Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo, in response to a question about how the broadcast network and TV stations fit into the company’s overall strategy. Retrans payments are among the more attractive aspects related to turning around the NBC network, Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis said Tuesday at a Credit Suisse investor conference. “We look at the network as having a heck of a lot more upside than downside."

The FCC is working on a pole attachments order for the April 7 meeting that would lower rates for attachers, commission officials told us. No order is circulating -- but Chairman Julius Genachowski has said he would like to finish work on pole attachments by early April, and staff is nearing the end of its work, the officials said. Power companies have lobbied furiously in recent weeks to preserve rates but apparently haven’t swayed the commission, said FCC officials and utility lobbyists.

Judges David Sentelle and David Tatel questioned the standing of a former radio executive to appeal an FCC decision transferring involuntarily the nine stations he used to run and part own to a court-appointed receiver. During oral argument Tuesday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the two judges each asked questions of lawyer Dennis Kelly, representing plaintiff Glenn Cherry. Cherry had been CEO of Tama Broadcasting and also a major investor.

Travelers information stations (TIS) broadcasting limited information to drivers should get the FCC permission they seek for a “narrow expansion” of rules so they can provide more types of emergency information, the NAB said in replies in docket 09-19. Other commenters in the docket also supported expanding TIS, some further than what NAB suggested. Highway Information Systems and the American Associations of State Highway and Transportation Officials had asked the Public Safety Bureau to amend TIS rules, which the bureau sought comment on.

Drafting by career staffers is far along on FCC and FTC reports about media, after both studies missed internal goals to have been released earlier, officials of the agencies told us. Recent work on the FCC’s Future of Media report has concentrated on the final part, which will offer policy recommendations, commission officials said. Some media executives have said they'll study the reports closely to see how the agencies will approach their industry, and that’s especially true with the FCC report, because the agency is also reviewing media ownership rules.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., isn’t surprised that more companies haven’t supported Republicans’ efforts to overturn FCC net neutrality rules, he said at a media briefing. The House is moving ahead full steam anyway, he said. NCTA and CTIA late Monday joined AT&T in offering support for the FCC order, with NCTA’s CEO saying the order may promote investment and job creation.

AT&T accepted an invitation from Democrats to testify at Wednesday’s net neutrality hearing of the House Communications Subcommittee, said a spokeswoman for Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., of the parent Commerce Committee The carrier, the only large ISP planning to testify at the hearing, is expected to stick to previous statements supporting the FCC’s net neutrality order. The committee’s Republican majority said it will mark up a GOP joint resolution of disapproval of the order immediately after the hearing and Republicans are reserving their right under the Congressional Review Act to reject amendments.

Time Warner Cable will work harder in 2011 to stem steady defections of its core pay-TV subscribers, CEO Glenn Britt said at a Deutsche Bank conference where several media executives spoke Monday. “It’s not acceptable to me to continue to slowly lose video customers every year,” he said. “That’s been going on for too long, and we're going to put some new energy both into the product space and the marketing to hopefully slow that down.” Comcast Executive Vice President Neil Smit said his company is also working to slow video subscriber losses. “I can’t give you a time frame” for stopping the losses, he said. Comcast lost fewer subscribers in Q4 than a year earlier, Smit said. “I'd like to see that number go away."

Carrying out the EU’s first multiyear spectrum policy program may expand mobile broadband and enable innovation and investment in member countries, but could also add uncertainty in competition, spectrum license renewal and loss of spectrum assets, speakers said at an FCBA briefing Monday. In a few months, EU member states will begin following through on 2009 changes in the EU regulatory framework.