President Bush finally moved to fill top spot at NTIA by announcing his intention to nominate Wiley, Rein & Fielding partner Nancy Victory to be asst. secy. of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA dir. Position has been vacant for months, with Clinton appointee Greg Rohde taking over Dutko Group’s new e-Copernicus.com consulting arm in Feb. Victory joined Wiley, Rein in 1989, and has been involved in wide array of telecom activities, from representing PCIA to authoring last year antenna and tower site compliance handbook. She received her law degree from Georgetown U. Law Center. Victory had emerged in recent weeks as leading contender for position (CD May 11 p9). She couldn’t be reached for comment Fri.
FCC electronic filing requirements and procedures once again are under attack by attorneys and engineers who are required to use Consolidated Database System (CDBS) for most of their filings on behalf of clients. Making matters worse, according one lawyer, is that “there’s a complete lack of communication” on electronic filings between bureaus. Such communication is “absolutely necessary” for system to work, lawyer said, because, for example, Wireless Bureau handles broadcast auxiliary applications while Mass Media handles all other TV-radio applications. Principal complaint of lawyers was that attachments to electronically filed documents weren’t properly put with applications they referred to until days, sometimes weeks, later. Electronic filing system was criticized year ago (CD July 5 p1/00), and recently was shut down for overhaul (CD June 15 p10).
Wiley, Rein & Fielding partner Nancy Victory is latest said to be leading candidate for NTIA dir., sources indicated. President Bush hasn’t announced formal nomination, and one source indicated deal isn’t final. Victory isn’t widely known in telecom circles, wasn’t available for comment.
Washington law firm Wiley Rein & Fielding opens office in suburban Va. at 7925 Jones Branch Dr., Suite 6200, McLean 22102, phone 703-905-2800. Partners Michael Senkowski and Rand Allen will be co-heads of Va. office.
Despite some progress by movie studios and videogame makers, Sen Lieberman (D-Conn.) intends to introduce today his controversial bill that would impose fines on entertainment companies that marketed adult content to children. Dan Gerstein, Lieberman’s communications dir., said proposed legislation clearly would empower FTC to pursue civil penalties against movie studios, videogame makers, record companies and others that used “false and deceptive marketing practices” to target adult-rated material to kids in TV and print ads. Speaking at American Advertising Federation (AAF) conference in Washington Wed., he said bill also would authorize FTC to conduct periodic evaluations of how well industries were complying with advertising restrictions. “We said we would issue legislation if [industry] commitments were not made,” Gerstein said, noting that only videogame industry had responded fully so far. “We were very consistent all along.”
LAS VEGAS - Congress “absolutely must take” legislative action requiring manufacturers to build digital tuners into all TV sets, one of several measures needed to hasten transition to digital TV, Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) said at Mon. congressional breakfast panel. Fact that retailers last year sold 30 million analog-only TV sets is “not a particularly helpful statistic” for broadcasters striving to comply with May 2002 transition deadline, said Boucher, member of House Telecom Subcommittee. “I believe we ought to be requiring that every TV sold contain a digital tuner,” he said, eliciting applause from audience at NAB convention.
LAS VEGAS -- Deadline next year for commercial stations to begin DTV broadcasting is “a daunting reality” for many station owners, NAB Senior Vp Lynn Claudy said at NAB convention here Sun.: “It’s scary.” At least one FCC official predicted stations would petition Commission by fall for extension of May 1, 2002, deadline, although consultant Joseph Kraemer said bid for extension could “reinforce the perception” on Capitol Hill that broadcasters were “reneging on their commitment” to quick DTV transition in order to return analog spectrum for other uses. CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro said broadcasters’ bid to extend deadline would be “political dynamite” because there was “a sense that broadcasters are not providing enough HDTV programming.”
Decision of several radio groups to stop streaming their programming over Internet because of union contract problems could “freeze the possibility” that Internet audio streaming would become major business enterprise, said Washington lawyer John Kamp: “There will eventually be a real business here, with profits for everyone, including the unions, but if they don’t get realistic it will stall.” Several large radio group owners, including Clear Channel, one of largest and most aggressive in using streaming, have at least temporarily stopped streaming their radio programming pending settlement with unions, including AFTRA.
Cisco lobbyist Bruce Mehlman has been nominated to be Asst. Secy. of Commerce for Technology Policy, White House announced Tues. Mehlman, who was on President Bush’s transition team, joined Cisco in 1999 as telecom policy counsel. Before that, he was gen. counsel of House Republican Conference, working on Y2K and other high-tech issues. He also was legal counsel to National Republican Congressional Committee. Mehlman appears to be well- versed in telecom policy and last year gave talk on high-tech issues such as 3G wireless services at FCBA lunch at Wiley, Rein & Fielding offices. In new position, he would oversee Commerce Dept.’s Office of Technology Policy, National Institute of Standards & Technology, National Technical Information Service.
Publishers who own TV stations were prime movers behind affiliates’ petition to FCC calling for inquiry into Big 4 TV networks “illegal” activities (CD March 9 p2), NBC Pres. Robert Wright said at “Big Picture” conference in N.Y. He charged NAB (which isn’t party to affiliates’ FCC filing) had been “captured” by “publishers” who own TV stations. “They are the drivers of NAB,” Wright told us later. Affiliates, he said, want their relationships with Big 4 networks to return to “gold standard” days of yore but NBC doesn’t have same assets (with several cable networks now) and doesn’t operate same way it did 20 years ago. News Corp. Pres. Peter Chernin called affiliates’ filing “clearly unfortunate” but had no comment on Wright’s statement.