Matt Daneman

Multichannel video programming distributors may be at a disadvantage in the fight over possible changes to good-faith retransmission consent negotiation rules, former FCC official Adonis Hoffman told us Friday. "Because of their proximity to communities and the high-touch nature of television, I give the edge to broadcasters, who are hyper-local and have a high name-identification quotient. Plus, broadcasters have shown their ability to mobilize members of Congress who understand that all politics is local," Hoffman, who was chief of staff to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, said in an email. In multiple filings posted Friday in docket 15-216, broadcasters and MVPDs and allies assailed each other's arguments about possible changes to the "totality of circumstances" test and defended their own turf. Thursday was the deadline for reply comments.

As analysts question how much CEO Tom Rutledge's comments about the online video distribution market could create problems for Charter Communications' bids to buy Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, Charter is adding to its public interest commitments. This time, it's pledges on board and employee diversity. An industry official said the company began work on its memorandum of understanding with various civil rights organizations in July, shortly after Charter/TWC/BHN was announced, and the MOU doesn't reflect any concerns about regulatory approval.

NAB came out swinging against retransmission consent negotiation proposals suggested by multichannel video programming distributors. It labeled them "a cynical ploy ... to use government to lower their cost of doing business," in a filing Thursday in FCC docket 15-216. ATVA said broadcaster arguments the FCC can't or shouldn't pursue such retrans negotiation rule changes as restricting online blocking or blackouts prior to marquee events don't hold water. "The public ... bears the brunt of broadcaster misbehavior," it said.

How the FCC will handle cable system franchising authorities seeking recertification in an era of presumed competing provider effective competition won't be clear until the agency starts making decisions on some of the recertification applications before it, cable franchising authority experts told us. "It's too early to read the tea leaves," said Dan Cohen of Cohen Law Group. "[However,] I don't think we can assume because of the [effective competition] order ... that the FCC is simply going to deny all these petitions." Echoed Mike Bradley of Bradley Hagen: "Until we see some order coming out of the FCC, it's hard to gauge how successful franchising authorities might be." The American Cable Association, National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) and NCTA didn't comment.

Dish Network, which opposes regulatory OK of Charter Communications' buy of Bright House Network and Time Warner Cable, probably is hoping not so much to derail the $89.1 billion deals -- as the company maintains -- but to have conditions that would advantage its Sling TV online video distribution service, said several experts, including those skeptical of such transaction curbs. "The louder [Dish CEO Charlie Ergen] is, the more influence he has in what those conditions might be," Boston College Law School associate professor Daniel Lyons said. And Dish on Comcast/TWC was joined by Cogent and Netflix in trying to block that deal outright, noted a cable lawyer. Dish seemingly is trying to have conditions imposed on the deal beyond those voluntarily proposed, such as deeper commitments that last longer, the attorney said.

Now needing additional downlink spectrum for its terrestrial broadband network, LightSquared is asking the FCC for reallocation and auction of a slice of spectrum used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and for conditions on its spectrum license that would let LightSquared share it. By giving up 10 MHz of spectrum as part of an agreement with GPS companies, the LightSquared LTE network "cannot be deployed without access to alternative downlink spectrum" compatible with the company's L-band uplink bands, meaning the FCC needs to reallocate the 1675-1680 MHz band for commercial sharing, it said in a filing to be posted Thursday in docket 12-340.

The growing number of suits against DirecTV and the NFL over supposed antitrust violations springing from the NFL Sunday Ticket subscription package could take years to resolve, Caleb Marker, of law firm Zimmerman Reed, tells us. Various sports bars across the country brought the litigation in recent months after Comcast, DirecTV and the NHL in September settled a 2012 federal class-action suit alleging similar activities by the NHL in how it made hockey game video content available via the Internet and TV. That NHL litigation helped spur the numerous state and federal suits against the NFL, said Marker, counsel in a number of the suits against the NFL and DirecTV.

Citing concerns about being elbowed out of the Connect America Fund Phase II competitive bidding process, the satellite industry is pushing the FCC to ensure that satellite is evaluated on equal footing with fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). "The FCC has a longstanding policy favoring technology neutrality for CAF that has served the public interest resulting in increased innovation, service quality and reduced costs to consumers," the Satellite Industry Association said in a filing Tuesday in docket 10-90. Due to such satellite innovations as high-throughput space stations and broadband via nongeostationary constellations, SIA said, "It would be a mistake for the FCC to abandon such a policy now."

While Charter Communications plans to roll out a low-cost home broadband plan if its buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable get FCC approval, it's unclear whether that offering moves the needle noticeably toward regulatory OK, cable merger experts tell us. The broadband offering seems to indicate the FCC might be starting to ask questions about the actual public benefits of the $89.1 billion pair of deals, with Charter maybe feeling the need to sweeten the pot, one cable attorney with no clients involved in the transaction told us. The low-cost plan appears to be a supplement to the work Charter has done upfront to mute opposition in a regulatory environment that's skeptical of major deals, another cable attorney with no clients in the proposed acquisition told us.

Altice's proposed takeover of Cablevision might not face much more difficulties before the FCC than its recently approved purchase of Suddenlink, merger experts told us. FCC approval "is never a sure thing," but the Cablevision acquisition is less problematic for the commissioners than a number of other mergers have been, Andrew Schwartzman, who's representing Zoom Telephonics, an interested party in the proceedings, told us.