GM, Hughes and News Corp. asked the FCC Thurs. to ‘quickly dismis...

would bypass its Fox affiliate broadcasters by distributing a national feed were “far from a model of clarity.” Because Fox’s contracts with sports leagues cover over-the-air broadcast rights, efforts to distribute programming via national feed would exclude the more popular sports programming, they said: “If a bypass strategy were profitable, the parties already would be pursuing it via contract.” While the NAB has said a contract would be too complicated, it hasn’t explained why, the letter said. (2) The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) recently asked the Commission to analyze the contents of newspaper and magazine articles to learn about News Corp.’s intentions, but such “conclusory assertions, of course, fall woefully short of CDD’s obligation to set forth specific allegations ’supported by affidavit of a person or persons with personal knowledge thereof.'” (3) Wyser-Pratte Management Co. said the deal would result in the “inequitable treatment of holders of GM Class H common stock,” but a license transfer was not appropriate for that claim. (4) The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) said a decision on the proposed transaction should be delayed until the broadcast ownership rules had been released. The request is “unrelated,” “groundless” and “moot given that the Broadcast Ownership Report and Order was issued July 2, 2003. (5) Maranatha’s concern that DirecTV might choose to increase its local program offerings using a 2-dish system should be addressed in existing Commission rules, which say that 2-dish systems can be deployed only in a legal (nondiscriminatory) way. (6) Sun Microsystems asked the FCC to require DirecTV to migrate to a set-top box standard if the transaction were approved, but imposing “such a condition would conflict with the Commission’s well- established policy against picking winners and losers among competing technologies and its preference to let the markets decide such issues.” Migration to a standard might “serve Sun’s individual interest” but “falls well outside the scope of this proceeding.” Separately, the CDD criticized the requests and urged the “Commission to engage in an objective and in-depth inquiry.” It said the FCC couldn’t ignore its questions to fulfill its “public interest mandate” to review the proposed transaction: “We are astonished -- but not surprised -- that News Corp., et al., would implore the FCC not to conduct a serious analysis. As one of the signers of their Aug. 28 letter is a former chair of the agency, they especially should know better [than] to urge the Commission to ignore the public interest requirements of the Communications Act.” The CDD said it questioned “whether the parties are truly afraid of serious analysis and public disclosure.” Communications attorney Richard Wiley was among the signers.