Comcast won a stay of an FCC administrative judge’s decision (CD Dec 28 p2) that it move the Tennis Channel to the same programming package as the cable operator’s own sports networks. The Office of General Counsel’s stay may be short-lived, because commissioners have a draft order before them on the case. The Media Bureau Wednesday separately backed a complaint Comcast isn’t living up to the conditions of last year’s order letting it buy control of NBCUniversal, because Bloomberg TV isn’t near the channel positions of other news networks. (See separate report in this issue.)

Verizon Wireless, the SpectrumCo partners and Cox should have some idea about whether the Justice Department has major objections to the proposed sale of AWS licenses to Verizon in the late May or early June timeframe, industry and government officials said. Justice typically offers some guidance to companies involved in such transactions within about 30 days of when they provide all of the data requested by the department. Verizon and the cable companies have either completed or are about to wrap up data submissions on the spectrum parts of the transactions, officials said. The major parties are still submitting information on the other part of the transactions: marketing agreements between Verizon and the three cable operators.

Verizon’s recent class action settlement regarding unwanted third-party charges could provide a roadmap for FCC members as they consider adopting further “cramming” regulations very much like the ones Verizon agreed to in February, a rulemaking notice suggests. In a further notice of proposed rulemaking adopted Friday, the commission contemplated far greater restrictions than the disclosure requirements adopted in the order. An “opt-in” requirement would block all third-party charges unless customers give affirmative approval that they will accept such charges (http://xrl.us/bm5st6).

Truth-in-billing rules didn’t solve “cramming,” and neither did millions of dollars in forfeitures, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell said. On Friday the FCC revealed its latest attempt to alleviate what it called “a problem that has plagued telecommunications consumers for more than a decade,” with new rules requiring several disclosures by wireline phone companies. Public interest groups and some legislators say the FCC didn’t go far enough, as it declined to apply the rules to wireless or VoIP providers.

Smaller public interest groups face new challenges in legal representation before the FCC and in court on communications issues because of the closing of the largest law practice devoted to representing nonprofits (CD April 4 p2). Industry lawyers and nonprofit officials said the immediate future of Washington representation for public interest groups without in-house lawyers isn’t bright on issues that will arise where counsel isn’t in place. Our review of the work done by other lawyers for public interest groups found nothing is making up for all of the loss of legal advice provided by the Media Access Project, closing its office May 1.

Sixteen TV-station owners and the NAB proposed uploading most of what’s now in studios’ paper political-ad files to fcc.gov, and updating it at least every other day during the lowest unit charge period before elections. An exception is for the LUC cost for each commercial, which broadcasters want to keep confidential to all but those who visit stations to see files. FCC members are continuing to consider if listing everything but online LUC information would be sufficient for disclosure purposes, industry and public-interest officials noted.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski appointed Gary Epstein, a longtime telecom attorney with ties to LightSquared, to serve as co-leader of the commission’s Incentive Auction Task Force. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, instantly raised questions about the appointment. The move had raised some questions within the agency after it was unveiled internally last week, officials said. Epstein was originally slated to be appointed deputy chief of the Office of Strategic Planning. He ended up being named a special counsel to the chairman.

The Verizon Wireless/cable deals, unveiled in December, have raised opposition that looks similar on some levels to that for AT&T’s proposed buy of T-Mobile last year. Most of the foes of AT&T/T-Mobile reorganized against the latter deal, with the addition of T-Mobile, which may have the most at stake. Opponents of Verizon’s buy of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox say marketing agreements unveiled concurrent with the spectrum buys are partly to blame. Then too, the spectrum landscape has changed in recent months, with the FCC facing huge obstacles bringing any new spectrum online for commercial use anytime soon (CD March 30 p1).

Industry and FCC officials said they're watching two FCC dockets to see what parties may reveal their policy positions and potential business plans related to the distribution of video over the Internet. Comments on a proposal by Comcast to clarify how it can access information submitted by online video distributors (OVDs) to prove they can avail themselves of the certain Comcast-NBCU approval conditions were due after our deadline Tuesday. And the Media Bureau issued a Public Notice Friday about the definition of the term “multichannel video programming distributor,” for which comments are due at the end of the month.

T-Mobile USA brought CEO Philipp Humm to the FCC last week to push for FCC decisions granting T-Mobile the AWS licenses it got as part of the breakup fee when the AT&T/T-Mobile deal ended in December, and denying Verizon Wireless’s buy of AWS licenses from the cable companies. Humm met with Chairman Julius Genachowski, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Angela Giancarlo, the top aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell, and Rick Kaplan, chief of the Wireless Bureau, among other FCC officials. The visit was Humm’s second to the FCC this year.