SAN FRANCISCO -- There’s a huge potential to show online video viewers more ads when they watch professionally produced TV programs, said Gian Fulgoni, executive chairman and co-founder of comScore, during the OMMA Global conference Tuesday. The ratio of ads to programming minutes for online video is far lower than on TV, and closing the gap could prove lucrative for content owners and brand marketers, he said. “I think we can expect to see ad loads increased,” he said. “Consumers are willing to accept a lot more ads and the issue will be how many ads can we push it to.” But there is a concern that online video platforms could keep advertisers from reaching viewers, said Mitch Oscar, executive vice president of televisual applications for MPG, and ad agency.

The FCC affirmed some cable operators’ billing practices of charging subscribers for products and equipment as part of a bundle and not individually requested by name (CD Feb 16 p17). A Media Bureau declaratory ruling Tuesday granted much of a petition from Time Warner Cable. The ruling said so-called negative option billing, when a subscriber doesn’t tell a customer service representative each product and service being requested, comports with the 1992 Cable Act. Nothing in Section 623(f) requires the customer to tell the CSR each product being purchased, in many cases, said the ruling signed by Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake.

FCC staffers met Monday to prepare for a possible government shutdown when the existing Continuing Resolution expires Friday. While House Republicans and Senate Democrats may soon agree to a short-term extension, the threat of a later shutdown lingers, said lobbyists. A shutdown could jeopardize RUS and NTIA broadband projects, delay FCC work on CenturyLink’s purchase of Qwest, and create problems for those with expiring spectrum licenses.

Liberty Media is trying ease “the natural channel conflict” as cable operators and services like Netflix vie for distribution of Starz and Encore programming, Liberty Media executives said Monday on a conference call. Liberty signed a distribution pact in 2008 giving Netflix access to streaming titles in the pay TV window or at the same time they are viewable on the premium channel service. Starz is estimated to be making $25-$30 million a year on the deal, which expires in Q1 2012. A renegotiated streaming agreement could be worth more than $250 million a year and a new deal expected sooner than 2012, BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield has said. Starz typically gets $2 a subscriber from cable and satellite distributors, analysts said.

A handful of states are considering bills to combat contraband cellphones in prisons as they wait for possible FCC action on a cell jamming petition. Some prisons are looking at technical solutions like managed access systems and cellphone detection practices. Iowa and New York legislators are considering expanding the definition of contraband to include telecom and other electronic communications devices. The New York proposal would even expand the definition of dangerous contraband to include electronic recording devices. The Iowa measure would make obtaining or possessing of unauthorized electronic contraband a Class D felony.

The growing popularity of smartphones and devices like the iPad are creating a new challenge for the nation’s cybersecurity, General Keith Alexander, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, said Sunday on a National Governors Association panel. Alexander and other federal speakers emphasized the big role the states have to play in making the Internet safer.

Wireless groups are urging the FCC to reduce the time it takes to get attachments on utility poles, but utility interests say their opponents are threatening public safety. In the most recent round of lobbying, 33 executives and lawyers representing 16 power companies met with the FCC staff, according to an ex parte notice published on the commission’s website Friday in docket 09-51.

Serious issues continue to surround European satellite navigation system Galileo, EU lawmakers said Monday at a European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy Committee meeting. On the agenda was discussion of a draft report by Vladimir Remek, of the Czech Republic and the European United Left-Nordic Green Left, responding to the European Commission’s mid-term review of Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (CD Jan 19 p10). Among so-far-unanswered questions are how Galileo will be funded, exploited and governed, panel members said.

The FCC might not put off a vote on making it harder for radio stations to move from rural to urban areas, even after a group of more than 500 broadcasters last week formally sought a delay, agency officials said. They said that, as of Monday afternoon, the move-in part of a tribal radio order remained set for a vote at Thursday’s FCC meeting. It’s the only controversial part of a Media Bureau order that otherwise seeks to make it easier for tribes to get AM and FM licenses (CD Feb 22 p6). Broadcasters have no objections to the rest of the order, said a filing posted Friday to docket 09-52.

The FCC International Bureau overstepped its authority in granting the LightSquared a waiver of mobile satellite service rules that will allow it to offer terrestrial-only service through resellers, companies and groups said in filings at the FCC. Applications for review and a petition for reconsideration were filed. Requests for review are largely focused on alleged procedural problems. Meanwhile, LightSquared submitted its first working group structure report to the FCC. LightSquared was required to create working group to address GPS interference concerns and submit reports to the agency as a condition of the waiver (CD Jan 27 p1).