The FCC Media Bureau will allow broadcasters filing ex parte notices in the incentive auction proceeding to do so without disclosing their identities, the bureau said in a public notice Friday. “We recognize that broadcasters may have legitimate reasons for not wanting to disclose their potential interest in reverse auction participation,” the bureau said. Allowing anonymity “in this limited circumstance will encourage broadcasters to engage in frank discussions with Commission staff, promoting informed participation in the reverse auction and a more robust Commission decision-making process,” said the notice. However, such notices should “provide sufficient basic information to better allow the FCC and the public to understand and evaluate the positions taken during such an anonymous ex parte presentation.” That could include the market tiers the involved stations operate in and whether they are network affiliated or independent, the notice said. Broadcasters “must otherwise continue to follow the ex parte rules, including providing all data presented and arguments made during an ex parte presentation, except with respect to the provision of specific information that would reveal the filer’s identity, e.g., the call sign of its station,” the notice said.

NCTA urged the FCC to move forward with an order on the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII-1) band. Discussions between NCTA and Globalstar on access to spectrum haven’t progressed, “because the parties could not agree to important basic concepts,” NCTA said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1hX26fS). Proposals outlined by Globalstar “are unnecessary in light of the convincing evidence on the record that Globalstar will not experience harmful interference under any reasonable future Wi-Fi deployment scenario,” NCTA said. The association recounted a teleconference with staff from Chairman Tom Wheeler’s office and the Office of Engineering and Technology. If the FCC permits outdoor U-NII-1 deployments, Globalstar “favors the adoption of certain limited and simple design criteria for deployed U-NII-1 access points,” that company said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1fMPGnn). Criteria can include an antenna gain of -11 dBi at 30 degrees and higher, assuming U-NII-2A power limits, in order to lower the noise rise at its satellites, it said. “Antennas that radiate power vertically create the greatest impact on Globalstar’s constellation.” Globalstar determined that its system would be able to tolerate a noise rate of 2 dB from outdoor U-NII-1 devices, which is even higher than NCTA’s supposed “worst case” noise rise in this spectrum, it said. The filing recounts a meeting with International Bureau staff. Globalstar also joined Time Warner Cable, Comcast, NCTA, Cox and other media companies this week in a meeting with staff from the International Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology to discuss Wi-Fi duty cycles, power levels for indoor and outdoor access points and other issues, it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1fuoyuW).

Officials of CTIA and Los Angeles TV stations KLCS and KJLA met with various FCC officials to discuss their channel-sharing pilot program, said an ex parte filing. “Alan Popkin, of KLCS discussed a number of issues related to bandwidth management, bit rate efficiency, quality of experience, virtual information, program count and engineering best practices,” the filing said (http://bit.ly/1gFGL58). “The parties noted their expectation that this testing will yield critically important data to the FCC and other parties interested in undertaking their own channel sharing efforts, by arming them with the information necessary to make informed decisions and to promote a productive channel sharing system.” CTIA and the stations proposed the project in January (CD Jan 29 p4).

There’s nothing in Comcast and Netflix’s paid peering deal that’s anticompetitive, Technology Policy Institute President Tom Lenard told us Thursday. A day earlier, Consumers Union said it asked the FCC to see if degradation of Netflix quality for Comcast broadband subscribers violated an order’s conditions letting the ISP buy control of NBCUniversal, and asked the Justice Department to see if it violated a consent decree on the NBCU deal (CD Feb 27 p10). There’s nothing in CU’s letters to the agencies that shows the paid peering is anticompetitive or that consumers won’t benefit, said Lenard, an economist who has opposed the FCC net neutrality order. “It would be great if everything was free” as CU suggests, “but unfortunately that’s not the real world,” he said. “I don’t see any evidence that Comcast has more ‘clout’ than Netflix in these negotiations, and Netflix would not have agreed if the company did not think the deal would be beneficial.” The “reality” of the peering deal, which addresses congestion slowing delivery of Netflix to Comcast Internet subscribers, is it “reflects a common market transaction that yields an outcome more efficient and more quickly than any regulatory intervention could have,” wrote Lenard on TPI’s blog Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1eAsiVJ). “When Netflix pays Comcast for transit, the cost is passed through to Netflix subscribers. This is both efficient and fair, because the consumer of Netflix services is paying for the cost of that service."

Liberation Music, an Australian record label, will pay Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig an undisclosed amount in a settlement for “harm it caused” when it sued Lessig over his use of a song by the band Phoenix, which Liberation represents, said a Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/N8BqL8). The EFF helped represent Lessig, it said. Lessig countersued on fair-use grounds, it said. “Hopefully this lawsuit and this settlement will send a message to copyright owners to adopt fair takedown practices -- or face the consequences,” said Lessig, in the release. “Liberation Music agrees that Professor Lessig’s use of the Phoenix song ‘Lisztomania’ was both fair use under US law and fair dealing under Australian law,” said the record label, in the release.

Correction: RIAA’s position on the Songwriter Equity Act is that it’s neutral (CD Feb 27 p12).

Correction: Janet Nickloy’s job title at Harris Corp. is vice president-strategy and business development, national programs (CD Feb 19 p10).

The FCC’s H-block auction was racing to a conclusion Wednesday. Starting Wednesday, the FCC was holding 16 bidding rounds per day. As of round 156, the auction had brought in bids of $1.54 billion and all 176 licenses up for sale had a provisionally winning bidder. Dish Network has committed to bid at least $1.564 billion in the auction (CD Feb 24 p12). Consultant firm Spectrum Financial Partners posted an analysis of bids through round 155 Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1dAIMNZ), saying the top bid was $1.07 MHz/POP in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market followed by Los Angeles at 84 cents per MHz/POP. The lowest bid was in American Samoa at 2 cents per MHz/POP.

The Comcast-Netflix paid peering agreement (CD Feb 25 p2) deserves “a hard look” at the FCC and Justice Department, said Consumers Union, which opposes Comcast’s plan to buy Time Warner Cable for about $45 billion, in a Wednesday news release (http://xrl.us/bqn6bt). Comcast broadband subscribers with problems streaming Netflix had sought faster connections from the operator at higher prices, after the operator possibly violated FCC net neutrality rules on ISPs’ transparency about network management practices, wrote CU to the commission (http://xrl.us/bqn6bn) and DOJ (http://xrl.us/bqn6bp). Such traffic “degradation” may have violated the DOJ consent decree and FCC order letting Comcast buy control of NBCUniversal, wrote CU Policy Counsel Delara Derakhshani Tuesday to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Attorney General Eric Holder. The peering deal with Netflix “raises serious concerns about the clout of Comcast,” amid reports Verizon may strike a similar Netflix deal, she wrote. Comcast and Netflix representatives had no comment.

The next FCC open meeting was rescheduled from March 19 to March 31 (http://fcc.us/1ljNKGR). An FCC official said Tuesday the delay gives the agency time to finish items on 5 GHz and the AWS-3 auction. To meet a mandate of the 2012 Spectrum Act, the FCC needs to hold an AWS-3 auction by late this year to license the spectrum by February 2015, the official said. Chairman Tom Wheeler also is expected to circulate an order that could make it harder for TV stations to share some resources with other stations, which the Republican commissioners are expected to oppose (CD Feb 25 p1, Feb 24 p7).