Matt Daneman

The FCC and Comcast are wrong when they claim a 2013 U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling didn't set up a new evidentiary framework for deciding program carriage violations, Tennis Channel said in a proof reply brief in its petition seeking to force the agency to reopen a complaint against the cable operator. FCC arguments that Tennis Channel was supposed to anticipate the D.C. Circuit would put in place new evidentiary requirements and produce evidence in advance satisfying those hypothetical requirements "cannot be right in a case like this one, where an appellate court altered the standard of proof after the case was tried," Tennis Channel said Thursday. "Because the explanation in the FCC’s Order entirely fails to grapple with the relevant interests at stake, its refusal to reopen the record must be vacated."

World Radiocommunication Conference delegates agreed on a globally harmonized network of vehicular radar in the 77.5-78 GHz frequency band that opens the door to short-range collision avoidance systems, said Decker Anstrom, U.S. ambassador to WRC-15. Given the rise of smart cars and the “still unacceptable levels of traffic accidents or deaths [worldwide] … this will save lives,” Anstrom said on a call with reporters Thursday.

One major piece of the updated FCC.gov is in place, as the agency this summer put out a new search application and integrated it into the existing website, said Deanna Stephens, project manager of the website modernization effort. That faceted search goes through both FCC.gov and the Electronic Document Management System for results, though the search can be filtered, and will be carried over into the new site expected to go live in mid-December, agency representatives said Wednesday. So far, the site is getting good reviews from those we interviewed.

The FCC -- which once requested far less data and fewer documents than the Justice Department for use in evaluating mergers and acquisitions -- has caught up to and in some cases surpassed DOJ, Arthur Burke of Davis Polk said Tuesday at an FCBA panel on M&As. "Today, it's millions of documents, just like at DOJ -- maybe more," said Burke, who represented Comcast in a variety of antitrust matters, including its failed bid to buy Time Warner Cable. During the pendancy of Comcast/TWC, Comcast at one point had 300 contract lawyers reviewing documents in Falls Church, Virginia, office space, Burke said. "It's an enormous undertaking ... and it has to be done at breakneck speed," he said. "There's no easy way to resolve that."

Neither the Liberty companies nor Chairman John Malone has “the incentive or ability” to use any New Charter leverage in any way that represents a conflict of interest, Liberty Broadband, Liberty Interactive and Liberty Media said in filings posted Tuesday in FCC docket 15-149. Numerous conditions have been proposed as the commission reviews Charter Communications' proposed buying of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable (see 1511130021). Regulators will likely impose some that attempt to put up a barrier to any Malone leverage, said Andrew Schwartzman, who represents Zoom Telephonics, which is among those suggesting conditions.

From breaking out the cost of renting a cable modem on customers' bills to making any conditions indefinite, opponents of Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable put multiple proposed conditions before the FCC by the Thursday deadline for replies or responses to opposition. Parties argued in comments posted Friday in docket 15-149 for conditions to govern New Charter activities if the $89.1 billion pair of deals were to go through. Multiple Charter/TWC/BHN filings urged outright, unconditional opposition, often pointing to possible injury to online video distribution (OVD). "The single biggest barrier to providing video services is obtaining access to reasonably priced programming, followed by competing with other providers," NTCA said in its filing. "This merger will exacerbate both of these significant competitive issues."

The FCC expects “significant” broadcaster and wireless industry interest in March's incentive auction, said Howard Symons, vice chairman of the FCC's incentive auction task force, Thursday at NAB's Content and Communications World show in New York. Agency representatives have met with hundreds of broadcasters about the auction, but Symons gave no specifics on level of participation expected. "The interest is broad and deep," he said, the same as it is among carriers.

Major corporate investment in satellite systems is likely to grow, financing experts said Tuesday in New York at SatCon. As "the Googles of the world" step into this space, "it's something for the industry to take advantage of," said John Schuster, principal with 32 Advisors' Project and Structured Finance practice. Satellite mergers and acquisitions -- slower than expected in recent years -- almost surely will pick up, said Randy Russell, co-head of Americas Telecom Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank.

Some C-band spectrum almost surely will end up allocated to mobile broadband usage, though the satellite industry remains concerned about protecting the rest, industry experts said in New York Wednesday at SatCon. The satellite industry has indicated C-band reallocation issues will be a major fight at the ongoing World Radiocommunications Conference in Geneva (see 1501150050).

Pointing to possible harm to the over-the-top (OTT) market, Dish Network officials want the FCC to deny approval of Charter Communications buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. Dish was a major opponent of Comcast's now-dead attempt at buying TWC, citing potential harm to OTT competition. "The only difference [this time] is Charter doesn't own NBC," Dish CEO Charlie Ergen said Monday in a conference call on Q3 financial results. Some thought his comments on the incentive auction, meanwhile, signaled Dish may not go big on the auction.