Matt Daneman

BOSTON -- Regardless of how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rules on the challenge to the FCC order on net neutrality, that ruling could spur Congress to work on a legislative solution, congressional staffers said Monday at INTX 2016. "This issue is not going to be settled" until Congress acts, Senate Commerce Committee GOP telecom policy director David Quinalty said during a panel Monday on congressional communications policy.

Looming FCC requirements for carrier identification digital video uplinks have satellite news gathering (SNG) truck operators raising red flags about what they said are regulations that could put them out of business by requiring SNG companies buy tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of new modulators. “The guys that sell this equipment are champing at the bit -- it’s great for them,” American Satellite Uplink President Don Collopy said. “It’s going to kill us.” The FCC, already having delayed implementation of its Automatic Transmitter Identification System (ATIS) rule for such transportable earth stations by a year, to September 2017 (see 1603040054) is considering whether to further delay implementation.

Applying to the FCC International Bureau for such international licenses and permissions as Communications Act Section 214 authorizations and transfers, submarine cable landing licenses, satellite earth station licenses and Section 310 rulings could get more complicated if the agency agrees to an NTIA request. Whether that NTIA-sought approach -- having the FCC require more information upfront with the aim being a streamlining of the approval process -- bears fruit, "we won't know until this is rolled out and plays out," David Klein, lawyer at Klein Moynihan, whose practice includes Section 214 applications for telco clients, told us Thursday.

The FCC rejected several proposed conditions on Charter Communications' proposed buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, including limits on New Charter's ability to access TWC's regional sports networks for five years and requiring it to offer a stand-alone broadband option. Some parties were critical of the final order that left out their suggestions. "We're pretty disappointed," Alliance for Community Media President Michael Wassenaar told us Wednesday.

FCC conditions for Charter Communications' buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks include requiring New Charter to build out its broadband network by a million customer locations within four years of close and to offer a low-income broadband service. A number of the conditions the agency itself acknowledges aren't transaction specific. Despite that, the FCC said in its 348-page order Tuesday that buildout "would provide a substantial public interest benefit [and] spur competition, leading to lower prices and greater choice for consumers." That the order was coming was announced last week (see 1605060059).

After weathering downturns in the 1970s and 1990s, the commercial space industry might now be in a "third delusion" economic bubble, Orbital ATK CEO David Thompson said Tuesday at a Washington Space Business Roundtable (WSBR) event. "When you're in a bubble, it's hard to know you're in the bubble," he said.

Skepticism abounds on a black-owned independent programmer's escalating quest to get wider carriage for its network by pursuing litigation and public and investor relations strategies against pay-TV providers that aren't minority owned. Already pursuing a $10 billion lawsuit against Charter Communications and the FCC (see 1601280063) and a $20 billion suit and separate commission complaint against Comcast (see 1603280030), Entertainment Studios is planning a “disconnect and divest” campaign to target investors of pension funds with Charter and Comcast holdings, as well as suits against those pension funds, CEO/founder Byron Allen told us. Industry lawyers, including some who represent the defendants, said in interviews they see Allen's quest as more of a business decision than a way to bolster diversity.

The FCC signed off officially on Charter Communications' buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable with conditions, the agency said in a news release Friday. The order, including conditions, is expected to be issued in the coming days, one agency source told us. Charter in a statement said the conditions in the order largely "codified or reflected specific commitments" it made at the start of the transaction review process. The operator noted that the curbs include settlement-free peering, no usage-based billing, provision of a low-income broadband program and buildout of its high-speed broadband footprint. An OK was expected after the deals worth about $90 billion were announced (see 1507160021) and last week, when most FCC members had OK'd the deals (see 1605050049).

Both broadcast and cable interests continue to lobby the FCC on proposed changes to retransmission consent negotiation rules. People who have been part of recent retrans ex parte meetings told us the agency doesn't seem ready to circulate soon for commissioner approval new rules for the totality of circumstances test for good-faith negotiations, with the FCC perhaps still trying to figure out what it plans to do. But, given the agency staff taking part in those meetings, it seems likely the FCC is intent on getting feedback on the NPRM on 15 negotiation practices (see 1509020061). In a meeting with Chairman Tom Wheeler aide Jessica Almond, NAB said it cited the pro-competitive aspects of bundling, such as efficient economies of scale and cost savings, and the role they play in fostering creation of new and diverse programming, said a filing Thursday in docket 15-216. NAB also said multichannel video programming distributors "are the true masters of the bundle" with their double-, triple- and quadruple-play packages, "sometimes giving consumers little or no choice to select just one service if they prefer." NAB said the FCC should be "tickle[d] that MVPDs -- in this one instance -- are asking for the government to intervene to severely curtail or eliminate completely the ability of broadcasters to offer programming bundles." NAB also said it backs changing or eliminating media cross-ownership rules, citing "today's intensely diversified media marketplace." The American Television Alliance and member Mediacom, meanwhile, met with Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel staff to argue the FCC has authority to direct broadcasters to grant retrans consent for a limited period, said a Thursday filing in the docket. While Congress said MVPDs can't retransmit a broadcaster signal without that broadcaster's consent, lawmakers never limited FCC authority to require a station to give consent on a limited-time basis, ATVA/Mediacom said. Instead, Section 325 of the Cable Act and sections 201(b) and 303(r) of the Communications Act are sources of FCC authority to adopt such a rule, they said: "It is safe to say that there is virtually no part of a broadcaster's operations that are within its 'unqualified' control and immune from the Commission's regulatory authority absent an express and specific withdrawal of that authority by Congress." ATVA/Mediacom also said the FCC's requiring that a broadcaster consent to interim carriage would be akin to its authority to deem an interim franchise to have been granted to a competing cable operator after a franchising authority failed to act on a pending franchise application. Congress directed the agency to prohibit unreasonable denials of franchises, and the FCC would be now allowing unreasonable denials of retrans consent by requiring interim carriage, they said.

A majority of commissioners have signed off on Charter/TWC/BHN approval, with it now in "must-vote" status, FCC and cable industry sources tell us. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly approved Charter Communications' buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, with dissents in some parts, while Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also approved, an FCC official told us. The official didn't provide details on the dissents. Meanwhile, Commissioner Ajit Pai voted "no" Thursday, an FCC source said. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's office didn't comment.