Cablevision's attempt to have the Game Show Network carriage complaint against it tossed was shot down by FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel. In an order posted Monday in docket 12-122, Sippel ruled that there are too many contested facts and assertions to warrant the summary decision Cablevision asked for in April (see 1504300051). "Summary decision isn't a procedure that was intended to be used in resolving these complex issues of mixed law and fact," Sippel ruled.
Matt Daneman
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
The idea of a hybrid network of low earth orbiting (LEO) and geosynchronous satellites dates back nearly 20 years, but it now has new life with the OneWeb/Intelsat agreement to tie Intelsat's GEO system into OneWeb's planned swarm of 648 Ku-band LEO satellites (see 1506250023). “It’s not a new concept, but it makes a lot of sense," said Clay Mowry, president of Arianespace, which OneWeb hired to do 21 Soyuz rocket launches of its satellites, while contracting Virgin Galactic for another 39 using its LauncherOne.
From cheaper residential Internet delivered unthrottled, to bringing outsourced customer service jobs back to the U.S., Charter Communications has a litany of reasons why its proposed buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable should get FCC OK, said the public interest statement posted Thursday in docket 15-149. The deals worth $89.1 billion are expected to close by year end, giving Charter 19.4 million broadband, 17.3 million video and 9.4 million voice customers in 41 states, the companies said in May when they announced the deal (see 1505260047).
A massive low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of Ku-band OneWeb satellites is planned to be put into orbit starting in 2016 that will tie into Intelsat's geostationary orbit satellite network to create a worldwide high-throughput network. OneWeb announced the planned network of more than 600 satellites Thursday. It said it hired Arianespace to do 21 Soyuz launches of its satellites and Virgin Galactic for another 39 using its LauncherOne. It also said it has raised $500 million from a group of companies to help develop broadband technology including the terminals that will allow its LEO satellites to interoperate with Intelsat's GEO satellites. Those investors are Airbus Group, Bharti Enterprises, Coca-Cola, Grupo Salinas, Hughes Network Systems, Intelsat, Qualcomm and Virgin Group.
The small-satellite world is getting bigger in part because technology is making such satellites -- and the costs of launching them -- smaller. "It's really an exciting time," said Andy Hock, Skybox at Google project manager, Thursday on a panel about the small satellite market put together by the Washington Space Business Roundtable.
The FCC almost certainly will revisit the definition of multichannel video programming distributors to include one subset of over-the-top providers in the near future, cable lawyers said in recent interviews, saying they expect new rules in coming months.
Not many issues can get Google, Microsoft and NCTA on the same side of the table like Globalstar's proposal for the FCC to create a private Wi-Fi channel in the 2.4 GHz band. Microsoft and the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute organized a panel about Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service proposal, with the panelists each raising questions about or criticizing TLPS. "It's not that we're all convinced it won't work," said Russell Fox of Mintz Levin, counsel to the Wi-Fi Alliance. "There's been no meaningful demonstration from an engineering basis that it will work."
As cable and satellite companies snap each other up, the programmers behind the content they carry are on buying sprees of their own -- though on a smaller scale and primarily overseas. And more mergers and acquisitions among U.S. programmers are expected by industry executives, just as experts expect more pay TV M&A following more than $100 billion in planned deals in that sector. A wave of programmer M&A in Europe may spread to America, some predicted in interviews this month.
At loggerheads with DirecTV in retransmission consent negotiations, seven related broadcasters want the FCC to begin pushing more reciprocal disclosures of rates and terms. “An unbridgeable chasm has opened between [the broadcasters] and DirecTV on the issue of the competitive market value of the stations’ signals,” said the complaint posted Friday in docket 12-1.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau cares more about penalties and publicity than its core mission of enforcing the rules, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Thursday in a keynote at the FCBA annual meeting that was pointedly critical of the FCC's approach to enforcement. "It's entered territory that can only could be called misguided," O'Rielly said. "The Commission seems more intent on obtaining newspaper headlines trumpeting accusations and eye-popping fines. Self-aggrandizing fanfare is a major objective. Sizzle over substance." The remarks were later posted online.