A second cable operator may get an FCC waiver to encrypt all channels. RCN now wants (CD Aug 16 p13) to follow Cablevision’s lead and be able to turn on and off service remotely, cutting down on signal theft and the expense and pollution of sending out technicians. Commission approval of RCN’s new request seems likely, and there will probably be less opposition to the move expressed than Cablevision faced in 2009, industry lawyers and an analyst said in interviews Tuesday. They said the regulator seems unlikely to start a rulemaking to examine whether it’s worth keeping a ban on operators encrypting channels in the basic tier. RCN wants out of that ban in Chicago and New York, where it’s gone all-digital.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a vigorous opponent of the FCC’s net neutrality order -- approved over his dissent Dec. 21 -- said last week he hopes the Office of Management and Budget will examine the costs of the order for businesses large and small. McDowell noted questions raised by some Congressional Republicans, including Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida about the cost of the rules.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a vigorous opponent of the FCC’s net neutrality order -- approved over his dissent Dec. 21 -- said last week he hopes the Office of Management and Budget will examine the costs of the order for businesses large and small. McDowell noted questions raised by some Congressional Republicans, including Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida (CD July 8 p5), about the cost of the rules.

Comcast stepped up lobbying against a draft program carriage rule to make cable operators keep distributing independent channels while indies’ complaints are pending at the FCC. Lobbying last week at the offices of Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell came as the Republican is the only FCC member not to have voted on a draft Media Bureau order and further rulemaking notice. He’s concerned that the agency may violate the Administrative Procedure Act by issuing standstill rules before seeking specific comment on them (CD July 25 p8). The agency’s approach to the standstill requirement “is out of step with its general interest in engaging in predictable and orderly rulemaking,” Comcast Senior Vice President Kathy Zachem reported telling FCC Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus.

Congressional Budget Office estimates of how much the government will raise through a proposed voluntary incentive auction of broadcast spectrum are no better than an educated guess, industry officials said last week. The CBO’s $24.5 billion estimate for revenue from proposed FCC auctions, after the cost of reimbursing broadcasters for their spectrum, has emerged as a key figure in the debate over spectrum legislation and even deficit reduction. But industry officials who closely track auctions say auction results are difficult to predict, especially at a time when the industry is changing.

Work by career FCC staffers on proposed media ownership rules is progressing, after an appeals court remand of previous regulations, industry and agency officials said. They said the last batch of studies the agency paid outsiders to do is heading toward completion, and a rulemaking notice will be issued later. The commission contracted to pay $725,000 for eight studies, according to contracting documents Warren Communications News, publisher of Washington Internet Daily, got from the agency by a Freedom of Information Act request. The research is on local online content, “civic knowledge” and “engagement,” TV viewing, ownership and other areas. The FCC has released five studies dealing with the Web, TV and radio (WID June 16 p6). Commission officials continue to expect a rulemaking notice on the congressionally-mandated review, due to have been completed last year, to come out later this summer or in early fall. With the July 7 remand of the last media ownership review, which also was finished late, FCC staffers are said by those watching the proceeding to be looking at how to deal in the NPRM with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling. Industry executives seek a review that’s quickly completed by addressing the remand and finalizing new rules. Tribune’s top area of interest in the ongoing review is easing limits on cross-ownership, Vice President Shaun Sheehan said. “When the 3rd Circuit first intervened” by sending the review done in 2003 back to the agency, “the one element which they said the commission was correct on was major-market cross-ownership relief,” he noted. “From 2003 until today, you'd almost have to be brain dead not to see that the economic model for newspapers has been severely threatened, and the case for cross ownership relief is self-evident.” The upshot of Prometheus is that this review must focus squarely on diversity, said officials of nonprofit groups that often oppose media consolidation. “The court has for the second time told the commission to take this very seriously,” said Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project. The most expensive study the FCC contracted outsiders to do is a consumer survey on how they value media, based on the draft purchase request for $198,000 to Donald Waldman and Scott Savage: The study is on how people value media “as a function of local market structure.” The final report was due March 31. It’s among the several studies the commission has arranged for academics and others to do that’s yet to be released. A commission webpage tracks the status of each study (http://xrl.us/bkz6ju). The study hasn’t been submitted to the commission, peer reviewed or revised, the webpage said. Waldman, a professor of economics at the University of Colorado, didn’t reply to a message seeking comment. Some studies were being done later than expected because the process in which fellow academics review the research and comment on it takes time, FCC officials said. They said such peer reviews often are followed by revisions to the report by the authors, and the research is then sent to the commission to be released. Studies the commission contracted to pay a total of at least $234,200 for are on the website, although not all are in final form. One such completed study, which the FCC contracted to pay $16,200 for, is “Less of the Same: The Lack of Local News on the Internet.” Kenneth Wilbur Consulting got two orders for $50,400 each, one for a study on TV viewing as a function of local market structure and another on such structures’ effect on “viewpoint diversity.” Reviewing “local news and public affairs programing is of particular interest because this is where viewpoint will be most evident,” said the FCC statement of work for the second report. It’s meant to study the ownership of local media outlets -- whether independent, part of a company that also has media properties in the same market, or in a joint sales or local marketing agreement. The study on TV viewership and local ownership is meant to measure the availability of TV and radio stations; cable, DBS and other subscription-video distributors; papers; and the Internet. Wilbur Consulting will use data from Nielsen for the study, its statement of work said. Contract documents limit award recipients from discussing their research with outsiders, unless the FCC approves such communications. Such limits are often imposed in government contracts.

Work by career FCC staffers on proposed media ownership rules is progressing, after an appeals court remand of previous regulations, industry and agency officials said. They said the last batch of studies the agency paid outsiders to do is heading toward completion, and a rulemaking notice will be issued later. The commission contracted to pay $725,000 for eight studies, according to contracting documents Warren Communications News, publisher of Communications Daily, got from the agency by a Freedom of Information Act request. The research is on local online content, “civic knowledge” and “engagement,” TV viewing, ownership and other areas. The FCC has released five studies dealing with the Web, TV and radio (CD June 16 p9).

The FCC must remedy paperwork problems and other shortfalls in its cross-ownership and diversity rules (CD Dec 19/07 p1) in the current media ownership review, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Thursday. It threw out those rules, sending them back to the commission to be reworked in the ongoing review. The Philadelphia court noted that the agency is curing some of the old paperwork flaws in the current review. Industry and agency officials told us that can be accomplished fairly easily. A question is whether the 3rd Circuit will rule on the issue once the paperwork problems are remedied, said President John Sturm of the Newspaper Association of America, a petitioner in the case. The court earlier tossed out previous rules promulgated by a different FCC chairman appointed by President George W. Bush. All members of the three-judge panel upheld other rules.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell is concerned about part of draft rules on complaints from independent programmers that they were discriminated against on the basis of affiliation by channels owned by cable operators, said agency and industry officials. NCTA stepped up its lobbying against part of the item, after cable operators expressed concerns earlier. McDowell is said to be concerned about the standstill provision of the draft Media Bureau order. It would require cable operators to continue carrying indies while their complaint is pending and after the bureau determined a prima face case was made.

The FCC’s pending cramming notice of proposed rulemaking is couched as a wireline order, but also has a major focus on wireless, said agency officials who have seen the item and industry officials who have been told some of the details. Some proponents of bill shock rules worry that the wireless parts of the cramming order could be the replacement for proposed bill shock rules. When Chairman Julius Genachowski said he'd circulate a cramming NPRM last month (CD June 21 p6), he also indicated that final bill shock rules were on their way.