Low-power TV service displacement rights after the TV incentive auction give low-power broadcasters the ability to “homestead” spectrum ahead of unlicensed uses, the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition said in an email Tuesday. “Our Coalition predicts that the unlicensed industry will be stopped cold in its tracks for over a decade in its quest for low-band spectrum,” Director Mike Gravino said in the email. “Any attempt to put unlicensed users ahead of LPTV will result in a court case, and a long delay in the auction,” he said. Unlicensed industry companies could prevent LPTV from locking up needed spectrum by supporting “a buy-out of LPTV spectrum for the good of the economy,” Gravino said. The price for LPTV spectrum before the auction will be lower than it will be after, he predicted.

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is not leaving the FCC, despite rumors to that effect, an aide to the commissioner said Tuesday. Several top industry lawyers told us they had heard from numerous sources that Rosenworcel may leave as early as June, potentially leaving the agency with a 2-2 split between Democrats and Republicans. “This is really easy; she’s staying put,” the aide said.

AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV should be granted only with conditions that “eliminate all regulatory advantages AT&T and DirecTV have enjoyed as putative upstart competitors to established rivals,” Cox Communications told an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in an April 2 meeting, according to an ex parte filing. The deal “will create a new company with unprecedented resources, diversity of service platforms, and household reach,” Cox said. The new company should be required to comply with the basic tier requirement that cable companies already face, and be prohibited from exclusive programming agreements, and demanding volume discounts from programmers, Cox said. The deal also should include conditions designed to prevent the new company from having “unfair competitive advantages in the bundled services market resulting from its control of the largest wireline and data network,” Cox said in docket 14-90.

Chanelle Hardy was named FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s chief of staff and media legal adviser, Clyburn’s office said Monday. The appointment is effective May 1‎. Hardy was the National Urban League’s senior vice president-policy and executive director of the group’s Washington, D.C., bureau, a news release said. She has been counsel and later chief of staff to then-Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala. "Chanelle Hardy is a deeply committed public servant, who brings significant experience in policy analysis, advocacy, strategic partnerships and media analytics to my office,” Clyburn said in the release. Former chief-of-staff Adonis Hoffman left the agency last month to start a think tank (see 1503260051).

An FCC public notice was published Friday in the Federal Register seeking comment on how the commencement of operations for new 600 MHz band wireless licensees after the TV incentive auction should be defined (see 1503260047) . Comments are due May 1, replies May 18.

The FCC published a list of prohibited written presentations made at the FCC on its net neutrality rules between Feb. 20 and March 12, the sunshine period on the order. FCC rules prohibit making any presentation, “whether ex parte or not, to decision-making personnel concerning any matter listed on the Commission’s Sunshine Agenda from the day after the Sunshine Agenda is released until the Commission releases the text of a decision or order relating to that matter or removes the item from the Sunshine Agenda,” the FCC said Friday. Among those who filed prohibited communications at the agency were the New Networks Institute, the Consumer Federation of America and Protect Internet Freedom, the notice said.

Multichannel video programming distributors' video subscribership showed the first-ever full-year decline between the end of 2012 and the end of 2013, the FCC said in its 16th Video Competition Report, released Thursday. Between year-end 2012 and year-end 2013, the number of MVPD video subscribers dropped from 101 million to 100.9 million households, the report said. Cable sub numbers fell from 56.4 million to 54.4 million, while direct broadcast satellite subscribership increased from 34.1 million to 34.2 million. Telephone MVPD video numbers increased from 9.9 million to 11.3 million subscribers, the report said. MVPDs have been increasing video revenue partly by raising the price of video service, but data in the report suggests “that programming expenses are rising faster than revenue,” the report said. MVPD programming expenses were 44.6 percent of MVPD video revenue in 2013, the report says. Fifty-seven percent of the total footprints of the top eight cable MVPDs had transitioned to digital by the close of 2013, the report said. In broadcast TV, the number of stations broadcasting in HD was down slightly at the start of 2014, from the previous year, from 1,536 stations to 1,517, the report said. The number of houses relying exclusively on over-the-air broadcast increased from 11.2 million households in 2013 to 11.4 million households in 2014, the report said: “The percentage of all households they represent has remained steady at 9.8 percent.” Broadcast industry revenue “rose to $24.6 billion in 2012 from the $21.6 billion in 2011, but were reported to fall to $24.2 billion in 2013,” the report said. The data also shows viewing of online video distributors' content on multiple devices becoming more prevalent, the report said, with more than 53 million U.S. households watching online programming with at least one Internet-connected device. During Q4 2013, 12.8 percent of video streams were viewed on smartphones, up from 7.2 percent during Q4 2012, the report said. The report is “filled with good news," said Commissioner Ajit Pai in a statement attached to the report. “When it comes to video programming, Americans have more choices than ever before.”

The FCC sent the net neutrality order to the Federal Register for publication on Wednesday, an agency official said. Publication is likely to set off more appeals to the order (see 1503300055). When it will be published was unknown Thursday. The typical timeline is three business days, the Federal Register said on its site, and it wasn't listed to be published on Friday. Alamo Broadband and USTelecom appealed the order March 24 (see 1503230066). The agency has said they were premature before publication in the Federal Register and plans to file a motion to dismiss the two appeals on that ground (see 1503270036).

The FCC’s net neutrality order will “have a negative impact on innovation,” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told the Association of National Advertisers on Wednesday. The order’s “vague, catch-all” Internet conduct standard will be used to “decide the lawfulness of sponsored data plans,” he said (see 1502250064). “Other attempts by providers to differentiate themselves through innovative partnerships and pricing models may also end up on the chopping block,” he told the group in a wide-ranging speech that also touched on multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). The agency has a “desire to edge into Internet privacy and security issues,” O’Rielly said. The FCC also could try to police how broadband and edge providers collect, use, share and store consumers’ information, as well as how those practices are disclosed to consumers, he said. The agency’s NPRM (see 1412190050) could also lead the agency to redefine some over-the-top video programming providers as MVPDs, he said. The agency doesn’t seem to have “any authority to allow an opt-out,” so “if the Commission declares an OTT video provider as an MVPD, it is so. And the limited benefits and many burdens of doing so will be applicable,” O’Rielly said. It’s a “safe bet that there will be significant unintended consequences on an emerging industry still trying to define itself, as it moves forward.” On the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, O’Rielly said the agency should “provide clear rules of the road that will benefit everyone” by acting on pending TCPA petitions to clarify the law. He doesn't support companies “hounding consumers with incessant or harassing calls,” but the litigation risk created by the law, agency decisions and court rulings have forced businesses to “avoid making calls to their existing customers or clients even if the purpose of the call could directly and immediately help the customer,” O’Rielly said. In addition, he said broadband providers’ advertisements “are garnering greater scrutiny and are even being used to justify FCC decisions to increase regulation.” Ads about speed and capacity were used to help justify the reclassification of broadband as Communications Act Title II service, he said. “Unfortunately, I would not be surprised if decisions like these begin to have an impact on how providers market their services,” O’Rielly said.

The FCC rulemaking process is “mired by incomplete and unfinished documents being allowed to circulate, perpetuating a belief that the circulation deadline is irrelevant,” said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in a blog post Wednesday. FCC staff “certainly should not be negotiating last-minute deals with outside parties or revising the document without advance notice to all Commissioners and the consent of at least three offices,” during a proceeding’s “sunshine period,” O’Rielly said. It’s “patently unfair” to expect FCC commissioners to be able to read and give feedback “when staff is working on a substantially different document to be provided later -- sometimes not until late the night before a vote,” O’Rielly said. The FCC should “codify” its rules that the final text of a meeting item has to be presented to commissioners 24 hours before an open meeting, O’Rielly said. “If that simple concept -- what some wise people previously referred to as the pencils down moment -- can’t be met, there is no shame or harm in pushing the item to the next meeting,” he said. Many changes to recent items have been unrelated to edit requests from commissioners, O’Rielly said. “We are left to guess why revisions were made and at whose behest.” Edits to items are also not always memorialized in the “official email chain” as they're supposed to be, O’Rielly said. “If staff feels that additional changes are truly needed for whatever reason, then they should be made under the Chairman’s name and posted on the official email chain,” O’Rielly said. Revisions shouldn’t be made to an item unless two commissioner offices agree to them, O’Rielly said: “That shouldn’t be a heavy lift.” The FCC didn't comment.