October 16, 2008

Martin's Take: FCC Chmn Blasts Commissioners, Puts White Space Item on Agenda

FCC chmn Kevin Martin got his turn to complain about fellow Commissioners Wed. After the 4 revolted against his proposal to allow Class A stations to apply for full-power status, and thus receive cable must-carry obligations, the item was pulled from the FCC's Open Meeting agenda. Martin skipped Wed's meeting in Nashville, which ended up focusing on childhood obesity, but he did hold a press conference in DC. The main purpose of the news conference was to announce the items proposed for the Nov 4 meeting, which include the complicated matters of intercarrier compensation and white space, but he also addressed the LPTV item. "I was hopeful that the Commission would at least open the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking—that it would at least allow for the potential of this change," Martin told reporters in DC. "I am disappointed that after months of it sitting here at the Commission and after having been notified of it several weeks ago, Mon night 4 of the Commissioners said they did not want to vote on that NPRM and would not support it." He accused colleagues who had spoken about the importance of increasing diverse voices of being "unwilling to do so because the major media companies, the cable operators and broadcasters are opposed in this instance." According to sources, the 4 Commissioners did support and were ready to vote for several items in the NPRM, including establishing 2012 as a hard date for the DTV transition for low-powers and provisions to make that transition easier, but the commissioners wanted anything pertaining to how LPTVs are carried—ie, must carry and access to PEG channels—put into a separate NOI. Edits were made to the item last week, with 3 votes on board for a separate NPRM and NOI by Mon afternoon, and later all 4, the source said. Martin said Commissioners who said in Nashville that they were willing to move forward on a LPTV item were "not being straight-forward." "Several Commissioners said they would support a Notice of Inquiry, but they also wanted to remove the opportunity for low-power to have must carry from the item," Martin said, saying that would make the item useless. Sources contradicted that, saying the 4 Commissioners proposed full discussion of giving the stations must carry status in the NOI. Next up is the FCC's last meeting before a new president is chosen. Martin wants to put several items on the agenda, including white spaces, intercarrier compensation and approving Sprint and Clearwire's wireless jv and Verizon Wireless ' purchase of Alltel. It's an ambitious agenda, especially considering that it falls on Election Day. The white space item proposes allowing unlicensed mobile devices to operate in the white spaces between DTV channels up to 100 milliwatts, but only 40 milliwatts if the devices are operating in channels adjacent to TV channels. The FCC was to release its white spaces report Wed, which Martin said concludes that devices can be operated in white spaces without broadcast interference, but it had not been released at press time.