Matt Daneman

NBCUniversal's retransmission and reverse compensation fees -- zero five years ago -- should hit $800 million this year, CEO Steve Burke said at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch investor conference Wednesday. He also said the unit of Comcast is "catching up" with other major broadcasters in retrans and reverse compensation revenue, but "I wouldn't anticipate us zooming past anyone else." CBS has said it's on track to take in more than $1 billion in retrans and reverse compensation revenue this year (see 1607290022). Burke said NBCU signed some large retrans deals last year and has a couple left this year.

Auto industry objections to a push for an emergency stay on launch of dedicated short-range communication systems (DSRC) aimed at curbing traffic accidents lack relevancy and swerve around the petition's core argument -- how commercial applications in the 5.9 GHz band negatively affects road safety, consumer privacy, cybersecurity and public interest groups said in reply comments posted Friday in RM-11771. Instead, those opponents to the petition "offer nothing more ... than the same tone-deaf talking points and avoiding the substantive issues at hand," the public interest groups said. The only opponents to the petition are licensees with commercial interests, and many critics don't address the specific privacy and cybersecurity concerns raised in the petition, while consumer and auto safety groups all back it, the public interest groups said. The filers were Public Knowledge, Open Technology Institute at New America, Access Humboldt, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Consumer Watchdog. Numerous auto industry groups and allies have pushed for denial of the OTI/PK request (see 1608250051). General Motors in a filing Thursday said the petition is based on "myths grossly exaggerating the security risks posed by DSRC and mischaracterizing the [FCC's] reasoned and long-established rules for the DSRC service." In its reply comments, GM said there are no heightened cybersecurity risks from any backward compatibility mandate in DSRC service rules, and Section 95.1509 of FCC rules -- governing DSRC technical standards -- doesn't preclude future security improvements. It challenged claims that commercial DSRC applications pose a cybersecurity and privacy risk, pointing to IEEE security standards for applications using wireless access in a vehicular environment. Such DSRC applications might include parking management and payment or fuel management, and in each case, consumers will have a choice of whether to share information on an application-by-application basis, GM said, saying its 2017 Cadillac CTS, with DSRC vehicle-to-vehicle communications, won't include any commercial DSRC applications: "There is no need for regulatory action to address a non-existent problem, much less a precipitous 'emergency stay.'"

Prohibiting “unconditional” most-favored-nation (MFN) provisions and types of “unreasonable” alternative distribution method (ADM) provisions would be the focus of the independent and diverse programming rulemaking notice on the FCC's September meeting agenda, but the proposal also will invite comments on program bundling, an FCC official told us. Chairman Tom Wheeler's announcement Thursday that he was proposing for consideration rules limiting ADM and MFN use (see 1609080083) left some buoyed. That ADMs and MFNs also were singled out as conditions in regulatory approval of Charter Communications' buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks (see 1604250039) "signals ... the importance of these," Public Knowledge Policy Fellow John Gasparini told us Friday.

The FCC will consider this month whether to set new rules limiting most-favored-nation (MFN) and alternative distribution method (ADM) provisions in program carriage agreements. The tentative agenda released Thursday for its Sept. 29 meeting includes consideration of an NPRM on independent and diverse programming. In a blog post Thursday, Chairman Tom Wheeler said the MFN and ADM prohibitions are meant to promote "the availability of diverse and independent programming from which to choose."

The FCC Enforcement Bureau was right to deny some material sought in a Freedom of Information Act request by Skybridge Spectrum Foundation President Warren Havens, but FOIA requests for other material will be remanded for further examination, commissioners ordered. Commissioner Ajit Pai approved in part and dissented in part. Havens is no stranger to run-ins with the FCC over document and other issues some bureaus have deemed baseless. In one instance, the Wireless Bureau barred him from making further filings without advance permission (see 1203130063). Pai's dissent also slammed Havens' document-seeking.

In addition to hiking regulatory fees charged to satellite-TV operators, the FCC left the door open to further DBS fee increases. Saying Media Bureau oversight and regulatory work over direct broadcast satellite and cable/IPTV is similar, the FCC order setting the 2016 regulatory fee structure said it "remain[s] committed as a goal to regulatory fee parity for all MVPDs paying into the cable television/IPTV fee category." One multichannel video programming distributor official told us that language indicates the agency is considering future DBS fee hikes. The FCC didn't comment Tuesday.

Univision's distribution contract with Time Warner Cable remains operative, even though TWC is now part of Charter Communications, since Charter's contract with Univision expired in June, Charter said in a motion to dismiss in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Univision is suing Charter, claiming license fees in its TWC agreement apply only to the legacy systems and through this year (see 1607080022). Charter said Friday the structure of New Charter and the language of the TWC contract back its argument the TWC contract applies to all of New Charter. Univision didn't comment Tuesday. Typically, such contractual disagreements settle before becoming litigation, a sign numerous such programmer/New Charter disputes may have come up since the close of the TWC and Bright House Networks deals in May, one cable lawyer who has been active in retransmission consent and program access negotiations told us Tuesday. The language in programmer/cable distributor agreements is sometimes unclear on merger/acquisition transactions, and language in such agreements can vary significantly by deal, the lawyer said. Charter undoubtedly pursued the TWC deal in part because of the acquired company's lower-priced programming agreements, with TWC having been an effective procurer of programming rights, the lawyer said. Charter didn't comment Tuesday. Its reply in a similar suit brought by Fox News Network (see 1607200065) is due Friday in the Manhattan court. Charter said Univision's twin breach of contract claims -- that it applied the wrong rate to the legacy Charter systems after the Charter contract expired and it hasn't negotiated a new contract or agreed it can't apply the TWC contract to any New Charter cable system starting in 2017 -- fail to state a contract claim as a matter of New York law. Univision hasn't pointed to any part of the New Charter contract entitling it to negotiate a new contract, Charter said. Charter said it wasn't seeking dismissal of Univision's declaratory judgment claim. While acknowledging it and Univision disagree about when the TWC contract ends -- end of this year or in 2022 -- Charter said Univision showed no breach of contract: "If Univision does not want to accept payments pursuant to that contract after year-end, then it can terminate the signal on Defendant's cable systems at that point."

Opponents of OneWeb's planned non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellation are continuing their criticisms before the FCC. Thursday was the deadline for reply comments to OneWeb's petition, and parties cited conflicting orbits and spectrum coordination. The petition already was opposed by parties such as SpaceX and Telesat Canada (see 1608160051) and the radio astronomy community (see 1608090037). Processing round applications in the proceeding are due Nov. 15 (see 1607180006).

Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigation -- which skyrocketed in the past half dozen years -- shows no sign of abating, TCPA experts tell us. But the targets of such suits are shifting, often to smaller companies, said Thomas Cunningham, a Locke Lord class-action practitioner. “The low-hanging fruit has all been picked.”

Many major cable distributors have almost crossed the finish line on full digital conversion of their analog signals, but digital transition progress for smaller operators is more of a mixed bag, said companies and industry experts. Most small to midsize cable operators will go digital, or even transition to IPTV, within a decade, American Cable Association President Matt Polka told us. "We want to get there," he said. "We need to maximize our networks to be more efficient so we can reclaim more bandwidth [for broadband]. The issue becomes one of complexity, size, technology and available resources."