Comments on the application of the IP closed captioning rules are due Jan. 27, replies Feb. 26, the FCC Media Bureau said in a Federal Register notice to appear Thursday. The bureau seeks comment on the extent “to which industry has voluntarily captioned” IP-delivered video clips, it said.

There’s optimism multichannel video programming distributors will embark on a third stage of reducing power consumption by set-top boxes after an expanded voluntary agreement (VA) among MVPDs that now includes energy efficiency advocates ends Dec. 31, 2017, said two advocates. They said in interviews that they have some hope that a Tier 3 for further reductions in set-top energy, following the Tier 2 in the new voluntary agreement disclosed Monday (CD Dec 24 p1), could come to fruition, though they said further VA expansion would be a long way off. Jennifer Thorne Amann, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy buildings program director, is “guardedly optimistic” for a Tier 3, she said. “We've laid the basis for a relationship where we hopefully can get there,” and now she wants to see how the industry does with the new commitments, she said. “We'll be able to keep working with them to make continued progress,” because advocates are joining the steering committee overseeing the energy savings, said Amann. “It looked like a good opportunity for us certainly to capture a larger amount of savings” for set-tops than would have occurred absent the pact and waiting for the Department of Energy’s rulemaking process, she said. DOE said Monday it’s ending that process. The Environmental Protection Agency, which has targeted version 4 Energy Star specifications for set-top boxes, had no comment Tuesday on the amended VA. “Industry was very willing to work with us to make sure we had a seat at the table” and to make continued improvements, said Amann. Any Tier 3 could start Jan. 1, 2018, said Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz. Information on set-top boxes’ energy use had been in the public domain, and with the deal “now, through other forums, the information will be more readily available,” said Vice President Evan Groat of Arris, which is part of the VA. “If consumers are interested, it’s something they can look at.” At Cisco in recent years, it has “become clear that we can do better when it comes to reducing set-top-box energy consumption,” wrote Vice President Joe Chow, who runs the company’s Connected Devices unit, on the blog of the participating VA company Monday (http://bit.ly/19e9IV9). He said the amended VA is a win for saving consumers money, protecting the environment and providing “regulatory certainty for manufacturers and providers alike.”

The Vermont Department of Public Service asked the FCC for a permanent waiver of Lifeline certification rules. The filing described how Vermont’s certification process works, and the department believes that process “meets the requirement of special circumstances that provide a proper basis for the granting of the permanent waiver,” it said (http://bit.ly/1hCj7rT). “The waiver will allow uninterrupted continuation of the current process in Vermont, which has demonstrated over a number of years to be successful in providing this valuable telephone service to eligible subscribers, while eliminating fraud and duplication of service, and also allowing Vermont subscribers to benefit from the state add-on program."

The Public Interest, Public Airwaves Coalition again said the FCC should establish standards for online political file data. It shared with the FCC results of a Sunlight Foundation study examining station compliance with the online political file disclosure requirements enacted by the commission, it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1cm8IQ3). The report suggests that some of the noncompliance “might be due to a lack of understanding of the disclosure rules,” it said: “Lack of disclosure is a universal problem, whether caused intentionally or by a misunderstanding of the law.” The commission should adopt standardization requirements, it said.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court faced a flurry of separate filings from the American Civil Liberties Union, ProPublica and technology companies in the past week, all pushing back against the government urge to classify and redact. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn joined in a filing to attack the government’s redactions. “The government offers no explanation of how national security would be harmed by allowing the providers -- each of whom would have been or could be entrusted with the individual orders issued by the court -- to access the government’s response,” the tech companies said (http://1.usa.gov/1hCqyz5). “It fails to grapple with the specifics of this case, resting its response to the providers’ constitutional arguments on generalities about the protection of classified information.” The providers know what FISC requests they have received, if any, and “only now, in this lawsuit” does the government argue the information is too sensitive to reveal, the companies said, asking that the FISC strike the government’s Sept. 30 filing unless providers can access the unredacted version. The ACLU, in a separate proceeding, also criticized government redactions and pressed for release of opinions related to bulk collection of metadata. The ACLU joined the Yale Law School Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic in the filing (http://1.usa.gov/1cm2Fe0), which asked for expedited consideration and oral argument before the FISC. The ACLU cited increased public debate on the programs, such as in the Klayman v. Obama opinion that ruled unconstitutional the surveillance. “Just days ago, the President’s own review group joined that conversation with a three-hundred-page report that recommends, in part, greater transparency in this Court’s operation,” the ACLU said. ProPublica, in yet another proceeding, had asked for release of phone surveillance opinions but attacked subsequent classifications and redactions, in a Monday filing. “But the Executive’s claims of classification have yet to be subject to judicial scrutiny, and therefore they do not moot ProPublica’s motion,” it said. The FISC should review the redacted opinions and “independently determine whether to publish it,” ProPublica said (http://1.usa.gov/1kDlOf6). “There is a growing recognition that the classification system itself is in drastic need of oversight."

Sixty-nine percent of respondents were concerned about computer and phone data collection by private companies and the federal government, according to a Washington Post poll published Sunday (http://wapo.st/1hw6QoC). The poll found 43 percent were “very concerned,” as opposed to the 26 percent “somewhat concerned.” Sixty-six percent were concerned about data collection by the National Security Agency (NSA), said the poll. In separate cases, 69 percent of respondents were concerned about personal data collection on websites such as Amazon, Google and eBay, and the same was true of information collected by phone companies such as AT&T and Verizon. Fifty-nine percent of respondents were concerned about data collection from retail stores such as Target, Walmart and CVS, said the poll. Thirty-four percent of respondents were more concerned about data privacy since the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, while 62 percent maintained that the leaks had made “no difference” in their estimation of data privacy, said the poll. Seventy-four percent of respondents said they have not taken any action to “better protect” data privacy in the wake of the Snowden leaks, said the poll. A random sample of 1,006 adults from across the country, which included landline and cellphone users, was polled from Nov. 14 to 17, said an adjoined article in the Post (http://wapo.st/JgXocs). The poll has a margin sampling error of 3.5 percentage points, it said.

NAB bought the assets of the Content and Communications World and the Satellite Communications Conference and Expo (SATCON) New York-based events from JDEvents. The conferences will complement NAB’s existing trade shows and events, NAB said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1fBJI76). The association’s goal is to grow both the attendee and exhibitor base “of what has emerged as an important East Coast venue for the content community,” it said.

Meredith Corp. signed a definitive agreement to buy the broadcast assets of TV stations in Phoenix and St. Louis from Gannett and Sander Media. Gannett also completed its acquisition of Belo. The agreement with Meredith stems from a Department of Justice consent decree, which required Gannett to divest a St. Louis station to get approval for its Belo acquisition (CD Dec 17 p6). The stations -- KTVK Phoenix, KASW Phoenix, and KMOV St. Louis -- will be sold for $407.5 million, Meredith said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1hzeX3R). “At the closing, Meredith will simultaneously convey KASW-TV to Sagamore Hill of Phoenix, LLC, which, through its affiliates, owns and operates two television stations in two markets,” Gannett said in a separate press release (http://ganne.tt/1c2USgP). The purchase of Belo “nearly doubles Gannett’s broadcast portfolio and creates the largest independent station group of major network affiliates in the top 25 markets,” it said (http://bit.ly/1cNF4zr).

Members of the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Jan. 14 on the group’s recommendations for changing U.S. surveillance law, committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Sunday. The group’s set of 46 recommendations, released last week, included recommending that the government no longer store phone metadata on U.S. citizens (CD Dec 19 p4). The group’s recommendations “make clear that it is time to recalibrate our government’s surveillance programs,” Leahy said in a statement. “Momentum is building for real reform.” Several of the group’s recommendations align with Leahy’s USA Freedom Act (S-1599), the committee said.

NCTA asked the FCC to review the Wireline Bureau decision that model-based Connect America Fund Phase II support will be made available to ILECs in any area where an unsubsidized provider “does not comply with exactly the same service obligation requirements that would be imposed on the subsidized LEC” (http://bit.ly/1laLOMt). The “practical consequence” of the decision is that areas where cable providers have invested “significant private capital” to deploy broadband “erroneously will be treated as if they are unserved,” NCTA said Monday.