Doctor Television Channel (DrTV), a broadcast network with a focus on medical news and health related programming, will launch Jan. 6, it said in a news release Thursday. DrTV’s focus is on “medical programming by medical professionals,” said DrTV president Jim West in the release. The channel has affiliation agreements in 93 markets, covering almost 30 million homes, the release said. The largest affiliate group signed is DTV America with 68 TV markets. The new channel allows the affiliate group to “build partnerships with local medical professionals” to “reach consumers with targeted health initiatives and community programs,” said DTV America CEO John Kyle.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Puerto Rico asked to withdraw its petition to opt out of the National Lifeline Accountability Database, in a letter to the FCC posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/18N4MZh). The board had previously sought a participation waiver because it had already implemented a similar database. Due to cuts to the board’s budget, however, it won’t be able to make the Puerto Rico database compliant with the Lifeline rules, it said. “The Board commits to maintaining the current Puerto Rico database to retain its ability to eliminate and prevent duplicates in the Lifeline rolls until such time as Puerto Rico has been successfully migrated to the national system,” which will happen in the spring, it said.

The FCC should raise the maximum effective radiated power for low power FM stations from 100 watts to 250 watts and hold an FM translator window exclusively for LPFM licenses, said the Prometheus Radio Project in an ex parte filing this week (http://bit.ly/1hHfVLF). Those changes would “significantly unburden” LPFM stations while addressing the problem of limited signal coverage, a “major threat” to LPFM, Prometheus said. The FCC should also delay a proposed FM translator filing window for AM stations until all LPFM applications have been resolved, Prometheus said. That window should also be restricted to Class D and C stations, the filing said.

Speculation about a possible Sprint/T-Mobile US merger “will continue to persist,” said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche Thursday in an email to investors. There would likely be “little resistance of such a move from both” AT&T and Verizon Wireless, Fritzsche said. “If the industry continues to see more consolidation, we remain confident that Sprint will play a key role."

CTIA unveiled a website aimed at helping wireless subscribers make sense of the apps on their phones. CTIA, its members and the app developer community “created KnowMyApp.org so you know how the most popular apps use data,” CTIA said Thursday. “With Intertek Testing Services North America, we offer data usage estimates on some of the most popular apps in the Apple and Google stores.” Offering advice to help networks and devices run better, including using Wi-Fi connections when possible, CTIA said: “Adjust your apps’ settings to stop or minimize updates unless you're on a secure Wi-Fi hotspot. Minimize apps that aren’t in use so they're not running in the background. Uninstall any apps you don’t use.”

The FCC should maintain a “flexible regime” in its oversight of closed captions, said NAB in an ex parte filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cUfWad). Broadcasting is a “diverse industry” with “some errors and latency issues that cannot be avoided, due to human and transmission issues,” said NAB. The commission should continue to allow broadcasters to use the Electronic Newsroom Technique (ENT) to provide captions, the filing said. A phase-out of ENT “could likely result in a loss of competitive local news coverage, as well as additional voices in the market,” NAB said. Instead, the commission should “work with industry to examine how ENT can be better utilized to ensure local viewers have improved access to important news and information,” said the filing.

The FCC defended its denial of Spectrum Five’s request for a review of the International Bureau’s decision to grant EchoStar special temporary authority to move its EchoStar 6 satellite (CD July 10 p20). Spectrum Five appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The FCC questioned whether Spectrum Five has standing to appeal the ruling and asserted that the decision made was well within agency authority. Spectrum Five is a privately held company formed in 2004 to develop and operate satellite systems, and does not yet have any satellites in operation. “This case lies in the heartland of agency discretion: the Commission’s judgment involving the technically complex allocation of orbital slots and the evaluation of the public interest in light of arrangements with foreign nations,” the FCC said (http://bit.ly/1g4o2RU). “Spectrum Five questions the agency’s policy judgment, but the Commission acted reasonably and explained its actions. Nothing more is required."

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."

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.”

Vonage is modifying its VoIP service to comply with the FCC’s new rule banning false ringing tones, it said in a Thursday meeting with Wireline Bureau representatives (http://bit.ly/1eCDxmL). Currently, Vonage plays the rings on the small percentage of calls where it doesn’t receive a ring signal from an intermediate carrier within four seconds, it said. “It is not possible for Vonage to modify the analog terminal adapter to deliver a messaging solution consistent with the new ring signaling rules.” The VoIP provider said it’s “significantly modifying its service to deliver network-generated messages” to callers instead of the ringing tones.