Proposed media cross-ownership limits have “no connection to the realities imposed by today’s mass media marketplace,” Newspaper Assn. of America (NAA) said following announcement by Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.) about plans for legislation on media ownership (CD July 18 p1). NAA Pres. John Sturm called bill “a sad vestige of the past, just like the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule itself.” Rules are being loosened for other media, Sturm said, and there “has never been any showing of harm, anticompetitive behavior or abuse associated with newspaper ownership of broadcast properties in the same market.”
Notable CROSS rulings
FCC Chmn. Powell said Wed. he opposed legislation being drafted by Sen. Hollings (D-S.C.) to encourage diversity in media ownership (CD July 18 p1). Powell told reporters at African telecom conference he thought new newspaper ownership rules would have been out already if it weren’t for changeover of Commissioners. “I think it’s important [to review cross-ownership rules] because they recognize that the media landscape and the context changes consistently,” Powell said. He said he was trying to follow FCC’s cycle of biennial reviews of ownership rules, but that had been “complicated” by court interventions.
House Appropriations Committee ranking Democrat Obey (Wis.) decided against introducing amendment to Commerce-Justice-State (CJS) appropriations bill on House floor to tighten media ownership caps. Withdrawal of plan to prevent further concentration of TV industry follows vocal opposition from House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat Dingell (D-Mich.). Tauzin and Dingell, who sent “dear colleague” letter earlier this week (CD July 17 p7) to House members, denounced Obey’s proposal as “unwise policy” that would result in “broad brush prohibition” against media mergers and acquisitions.
Katherine Graham, 84, retired chmn.-CEO of Washington Post Co., died Tues. at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, Boise, Ida., of head injuries received in a fall 5 days earlier. At her death, she was chmn. of Post exec. committee. She graduated from U. of Chicago in 1938 and worked as reporter for San Francisco News and later Washington Post. She succeeded her late husband as pres. of Post Co. in 1963, becoming CEO in 1973. In mid-1970’s, Graham became concerned that Post Co. would lose its waiver of FCC newspaper-broadcast cross ownership rule to own both Post and WTOP-TV Washington, one of several stations owned by Post Co. Without consulting then CEO of Post-Newsweek Stations, she swapped WTOP-TV for Detroit Evening News’ WJR-TV (now WDIV) Detroit. She received Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for her memoir Personal History. Daughter, 3 sons survive.
FCC revised its colocation rules Thurs. in effort it said was designed to better balance needs of incumbents and competitors and provide “regulatory certainty.” Most of changes were in response to remand last year by U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., which questioned whether FCC adequately justified statutory basis for some of rules guiding colocation of competitive equipment in incumbent central offices. New rules:
Despite protests from public interest groups, Comcast’s unsolicited $58 billion offer for AT&T Broadband stands good chance of earning federal regulatory approval if it gets that far, according to public policy analysts. They said Justice Dept. (DoJ) and FCC were likely to allow proposed deal to go through largely unscathed, especially if AT&T shed its 25.5% stake in Time Warner Entertainment (TWE) as Comcast pledged. They also predicted that FCC’s expected new horizontal cable ownership cap shouldn’t be problem for proposed combination of nation’s largest and 3rd largest MSOs, assuming Comcast won AT&T’s consent. Nor did they see either govt. agency imposing such conditions as open access and interactive TV nondiscrimination on deal, even though those obligations were placed upon AOL’s recent takeover of Time Warner (TW) and AT&T and Comcast co-own Excite@Home, nation’s largest cable ISP.
Broad cross-section of wireless carriers and consumer groups urged FCC to implement transition period before eliminating requirements that cellular operators provide analog service. Recommendations came in comments to Commission this week on notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in which agency asked whether it should do away with or modify requirements for cellular carriers that dated back to 1981, including whether AMPS-type (Advanced Mobile Phone Systems) service requirement should be kept in place. Sprint PCS, Qwest and Verizon Wireless were among carriers advocating 5-year transition period before AMPS requirement was shelved. Factors cited by carriers advocating phase-out period include: (1) Large number of subscribers still using analog service. (2) Dominance of AMPS technology for roaming. (3) Importance of AMPS for linking customers to 911 services. (4) Reliance of new telematics systems such as General Motors OnStar system on analog networks. (5) Extent to which current digital technologies weren’t compatible with text-telephone systems (TTY) for subscribers with hearing disabilities.
N.Y. PSC said CLECs can make their own cross-connections between their facilities and incumbent-owned “house and riser” facilities in multitenant buildings. PSC said old practice that required technicians from both carriers be present to complete hookups made CLECs unnecessarily dependent on incumbent’s work schedules and impaired CLECs’ ability to provide service. PSC ruling came on 2000 petition by RCN Communications (Case 00C-1931) seeking order against Verizon. PSC said month-long trial in Jan. showed no serious technical problems existed. But Verizon said allowing CLECs unrestricted access to its house and riser facilities raised quality and compensation issues. To address Verizon’s concerns, PSC said “using” carrier must adhere to “owning” carrier’s technical standards and practices when making cross-connections, and owning carrier must offer training to technicians of using carriers. PSC said using carriers must negotiate compensation with owning carriers. Rule violations or bad-faith negotiations are subject to complaint jurisdiction of PSC.
General Services Administration (GSA), under scrutiny on Capitol Hill for delays in Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) contracts and high overhead rates, repeatedly pointed Wed. to lagging competition in local telecom market as one factor. House Govt. Affairs Subcommittee questioned why GSA was charging management fees of up to 85% in some cases. Technology & Procurement Policy Subcommittee quizzed GSA, General Accounting Office (GAO) and telecom carriers on why implementation in $4 billion MAA program still was only 11% complete in N.Y.C., with other cities also not yet shifted to local services contract for federal agencies. Building access barriers were cited as slowing progress of MAA contractors. “It is taking longer than expected to achieve the benefits of local competition,” said Sandra Bates, GSA comr., Federal Technology Service. Panel members and GAO, which is still working on MAA program report, didn’t lay blame for problems squarely on shoulders of GSA, but some fingerpointing did surface as AT&T and Bell companies criticized high level of overhead rates, with some saying GSA needlessly was inserting itself between govt. agency contractors and customers.
CHICAGO -- Whether News Corp. or EchoStar buys DirecTV, deal probably will face heavy scrutiny by lawmakers and regulators, key Hill staffers said. Speaking at NCTA convention here late Mon., congressional aides said either scenario would raise competitive concerns in Washington, potentially complicating efforts by new DBS company to compete against cable operators and other video rivals. But they said concerns would differ greatly, depending upon which buyer succeeded. “It’s 2 completely different set of competitive issues,” said Victoria Bassetti, chief counsel for Senate Antitrust Subcommittee.