Monty Tayloe

The FCC isn’t expected to resurrect the issue of sharing video programming confidential information (VPCI) in connection with the review of AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV, content company and broadcast officials told us. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remanded the protective order on the sharing of programming and retransmission consent contracts to the FCC (see 1505080053). But it's unlikely to issue a new order before a decision on AT&T/DirecTV, said content company officials involved in the proceeding. The commission had argued that sharing VPCI with third parties in Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV was an important part of the review process.

Older, sector-specific laws such as those regulating health and financial information are good for protecting consumer data that stays in those respective silos, but the modern era of ubiquitous data collection means that no longer happens, said FTC Commissioner Julie Brill on a panel at the Techonomy Policy Conference Tuesday.

Broadcasters deny wanting an incentive auction delay for the adoption of ATSC 3.0, but the Expanding Opportunities For Broadcasters Coalition, Public Knowledge, wireless carriers and several wireless trade organizations issued a joint statement against that possibility last week. They “strongly support" the planned first-quarter 2016 start of the incentive auction and oppose delaying the auction “in an attempt to synchronize" the post-auction repacking and the transition to ATSC 3.0,” the statement said.

The “ubiquitous nationwide presence” of satellite carriers “presumptively satisfies” the requirements for effective competition throughout the country, said the order making effective competition a rebuttable presumption for all cable, adopted Tuesday but not released until late Wednesday. Tuesday was the deadline for new effective competition rules established by the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR) Act. As expected, the rule change was approved on the support of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Republican commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly, while Democratic commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn approved only rule changes for small cable systems and dissented from the rest. “I cannot support relief to larger providers particularly when doing so could harm consumers and unnecessarily increases the burdens on our local franchising authorities,” Clyburn said in a statement released with the order.

The FCC order making effective competition a rebuttable presumption is based on the fact that the size of a cable system “bears little relationship” to whether it faces effective competition, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a statement Wednesday. “Where there is 'Competition, Competition, Competition,' the need for basic service tier rate regulation is diminished,” Wheeler said. The FCC's most recent report on cable industry prices shows the average rate for basic service is lower in communities with an effective competition than in those without,” said Wheeler. The effective competition order won 3-2 approval by the Commission late Tuesday (see 1506020060), but the text still hadn't been released as of late Wednesday.

The FCC voted to approve a draft order that would make cable effective competition a rebuttable presumption nationwide, with both Democratic commissioners dissenting in part and approving in part and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and the Republican commissioners supporting the item, an FCC official told us Tuesday, the deadline for congressionally mandated changes to the rule to be approved.

Both Republican FCC commissioners have already cast votes in favor of a draft order making effective competition a rebuttable presumption nationwide, while eighth-floor Democratic offices have yet to throw their support behind the item, FCC officials told us Monday. Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel are seen as having concerns about the draft item in its current form, industry and FCC officials told us.

The FCC deadline for Class A's and full-power TV stations to build and license new facilities to have them protected in the incentive auction spurred a wave of construction by Class A stations working to get their new digital footprint in under the deadline, broadcast attorneys said in interviews last week. Many Class A's had put off such conversions because the auction deadline kept being moved and the prohibitive cost of upgrades, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Peter Tannenwald. He said he knew of several stations working hard in the last days before the deadline to get their facilities completed and proper filings in.

A push by NAB and public interest groups to limit a change in cable effective competition rules to small cable is getting traction in Democratic eighth-floor FCC offices, while Republican offices remain favorable to the draft order as originally circulated (see 1505150035) by Chairman Tom Wheeler, said broadcast, cable and agency officials in interviews. They said that with a congressionally mandated deadline for the rule change coming Tuesday, the Democrats have concerns about the draft. Some cable industry officials believe a majority of the commission is favorable to making effective competition a rebuttable presumption for all cable, as the draft proposes and as broadcasters oppose.

Charter Communications’ planned buy of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable doesn’t face the same regulatory hurdles as Comcast/TWC, said industry officials, analysts and public interest groups. But they don’t agree on the new deals' prospects, according to interviews and statements Tuesday. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge is “confident” regulators will sign off on the deal, he said on an investor call Tuesday. “We’re a very different company than Comcast.” Comcast/TWC opponent Free Press said Charter/BHN and TWC doesn’t offer a public interest benefit, which FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler highlighted in his statement.