The Senate is likely to address the broadcast ownership cap, although it remains unclear whether there is enough support to reverse the FCC’s decision Mon. to ease ownership rules, congressional leaders said after the FCC meeting. Senate Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Hollings (S.C.) said he believed Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) would let the committee vote on legislation (S-1046) that would preserve the 35% cap, even though there were indications that McCain himself didn’t support retaining the cap. “I'm convinced we can get a majority vote” in the Commerce Committee, said Hollings, who informally surveyed the panel’s members. The FCC commissioners will appear before the committee Wed. to answer questions about the media ownership ruling.
When AOL wanted to merge with Time Warner back in 2000, critics feared the marriage of such a large content company with an Internet service provider would put a stranglehold over a relatively new communications technology -- Instant Messaging (IM). The federal govt. agreed then, placing as one of the conditions on the merger a requirement that the new company work toward developing interoperability for IM that would allow other companies to provide IM services that would let their customers communicate with AOL’s IM customers.
FCC Chmn. Powell was heavily criticized by his 2 Democratic colleagues on the Commission and consumer groups for deciding to move forward with a June 2 vote to overhaul the country’s media ownership rules (CD May 16 p4). “This rush to judgment means that we will not fully understand the impact of the specific proposals on our media landscape before we are forced to vote,” Comr. Copps wrote in a statement.
At Congressional Internet Caucus lunch last week, House Internet Caucus Co-Chmn. Boucher (D-Va.) said “I look forward to the day when DRM [digital rights management] technologies are no longer controversial,” calling them the “long-term solution” to protecting digital content while ensuring fair use. To CEO of one DRM company, however, that solution already is here.
FCC officially repealed section of its media rules dealing with cross-ownership of cable systems and broadcast TV stations. Comr. Copps said in separate statement that he reluctantly supported order issued Wed. because U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., in Fox TV Stations v. FCC had “left us no option.” But, he said, FCC still should be addressing issue in its biennial review of media ownership rules, which it wasn’t doing.
FCC Chmn. Powell told reporters Wed. he expected UNE review order to be on agenda of Commission’s Feb. 13 open meeting, despite some speculation it could be delayed. He said agency definitely must act by Feb. 20, effective date of remand by U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., that could vacate agency’s UNE rules and leave telecom market in “chaos.” Added Powell: “I'm not sure what would happen. We would have 50 jurisdictions trying to figure out what to do in the absence of federal rules.”
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.) unveiled ambitious telecom technology agenda Wed. that included spectrum reform and E-911 as its “centerpiece.” Legislation to control spam would be first priority, but agenda also included several telecom-related measures: (1) Tax incentives for broadband build-out. (2) Wireless privacy. (3) Universal service reform. (4) Development of U.S.-Asia free trade network. “We can pass some of this agenda,” said Burns, who acknowledged passage of all items on the agenda would be difficult: “If we don’t offer something, we'll get none of it through.”
“Big government needs big information to fight terrorism,” but it should do it “in a way that balances privacy and security needs,” said Jerry Berman of Center for Democracy & Technology at Federalist Society conference in Washington last week: “We have to strike that balance, because if national security doesn’t include protection of our open society values, then Al Qaeda wins.”
FCC granted conditional approval for $47.5 billion merger of AT&T and Comcast, nation’s first- and 3rd-largest cable companies. Merged company would have 27.02 million subscribers -- 28.9% of all U.S. multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) customers in 41 states. However, public interest groups immediately said they would take decision to court.
AT&T and Comcast announced Tues. that key deadline had passed on their proposed cable merger without action by Justice Dept., indicating deal had won Justice approval by default, but DoJ officials said companies should hold off on celebrating. Agency still could step in at any time until investigation was officially completed, they said. They said they hoped that would be soon, but until then, and until FCC approved merger, transaction couldn’t go forward.