Opposing disclosure of “highly confidential information” to agents of Comcast/NBCUniversal about online video distributor (OVD) peer programming contracts, Disney executives on its and ESPN’s behalf also lobbied an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on ensuring there’s sufficient wireless mic spectrum. Exchanging such highly confidential information as OVD contracts when an OVD invokes a benchmark condition in the FCC order letting Comcast buy control of NBCUniversal is “discouraged and prevented by competition and antitrust law,” said a Disney ex parte filing posted Monday to docket 10-56 (http://bit.ly/K07tLD). It noted an agency proceeding on a stay related to the deal condition, a delay which Disney and other content providers have backed (CD Dec 23 p16). The commission should ensure there’s sufficient spectrum for wireless mics after the incentive auction repacking, Disney said four executives also told Rosenworcel’s aide Dec. 18.

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."

Members of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition made their case for unlicensed use of the TV bands following the incentive auction and channel repacking, in a meeting with Roger Sherman, FCC Wireless Bureau acting chief, and others from the bureau. PISC said the FCC should designate “an unlicensed and contiguous duplex gap (and/or guard band) of at least 20 MHz” and maintain two designated channels for wireless mics, opening “them for shared unlicensed use; shrinking the separation distances that limit wireless microphone use of locally-vacant, out-of-market TV co-channels; and requiring microphones to rely first on out-of-market TV co-channels that are not available to unlicensed devices,” said a filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1eCAKdd). It said the FCC should also make Channel 37 available on a limited basis for unlicensed use and maintain “the status quo with respect to unlicensed access to 600 MHz spectrum, post-auction, in each local area until it is actually in use.” Michael Calabrese of the New America Foundation, Harold Feld of Public Knowledge and Matt Wood of Free Press were at the meeting for PISC.

Members of the GPS community again said the FCC shouldn’t permit the operations proposed in LightSquared’s request to use its spectrum for a terrestrial network until technical interference concerns have been resolved. The concerns should be resolved in “transparent, public notice and comment rulemaking proceedings,” like the process involving Dish Network’s AWS-4 spectrum, the GPS Innovation Alliance said in an ex parte filing in docket 11-109 (http://bit.ly/1cPXT5e). The filing recounted a meeting last week with members of the Wireless Bureau and the Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis, it said.

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.”

The FCC Media Bureau granted Pappas Arizona a “failing station” waiver, allowing it to assign the license of its station KSWT-TV, Yuma, Ariz., to Blackhawk Broadcasting. The FCC approved the application for assignment of KYMA-DT, Yuma, to Blackhawk this year, the bureau said in a letter (http://bit.ly/JWsRkS). The combined operation of the stations will pose minimal harm to diversity and competition and allowing KSWT to operate in tandem with a stronger station “will help it to become a more viable local voice in the market, through a definite improvement in facilities and programming,” it said.

Turksat and Eutelsat signed an agreement to increase satellite resources and services for Turkey. Eutelsat will redeploy Eutelsat 33A in May from 33 degrees east to 31 degrees east, “where it will be operated by Turksat under its satellite network filings,” Eutelsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/JZCCPY). Turksat operates two satellites at 42 degrees east and it plans to launch Turksat 4A and Turksat 4B next year, Eutelsat said.

The Obama administration asked U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White to dismiss a case on the constitutionality of warrantless collection of data by the National Security Agency, arguing that a trial threatens national security. White is overseeing a case brought in San Francisco by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and others, Jewel v. NSA. Among the documents released by the government Friday was one that acknowledged that President George W. Bush authorized NSA’s bulk data collection on phones calls and the Internet in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (http://bit.ly/1gSAOFR). “President Bush issued authorizations approximately every 30-60 days,” wrote James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, in a post on the DNI’s Tumblr page. “Although the precise terms changed over time, each presidential authorization required the minimization of information collected concerning American citizens to the extent consistent with the effective accomplishment of the mission of detection and prevention of acts of terrorism within the United States. NSA also applied additional internal constraints on the presidentially authorized activities.” EFF criticized the administration’s claims. “Surprisingly, in these documents and in the brief filed with them, the government continues to claim that plaintiffs cannot prove they were surveilled without state secrets and that therefore, a court cannot rule on the legality or constitutionality of the surveillance,” EFF said in response (http://bit.ly/1jBE22C). “For example, despite the fact that these activities are discussed every day in news outlets around the world and even in the president’s recent press conference, the government states broadly that information that may relate to Plaintiffs’ claims that the ‘NSA indiscriminately intercepts the content of communications, and their claims regarding the NSA’s bulk collection of ... metadata’ is still a state secret."

The FCC Media Bureau reiterated that Jan. 1 is the compliance deadline for apparatus covered under closed captioning capabilities. The rules governing closed captioning requirements for video programming delivered using Internet protocol “specify what apparatus are covered by the new requirements and how they must implement closed captioning,” the bureau said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1ciD4D1).

The multiyear iPhone deal that Apple signed with China Mobile will also have “implications” for Sprint, Wells Fargo Senior Analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said Monday. The iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c will be available via China Mobile’s network of retail stores and at Apple retail stores across mainland China starting Jan. 17, Apple said Sunday in a news release. It’s “clearly a meaningful” announcement for Apple, said Fritzsche. China Mobile is the world’s largest mobile operator, with more than 760 million customers, making it seven times larger than Verizon, she said. China Mobile, like Sprint, is deploying the TDD LTE 4G service on the 2.5 GHz spectrum, she said. Until now, the iPhone hasn’t supported the 2.5 GHz band, she said. With the “significant scale” that China Mobile “brings to the table, it is our understanding that future versions of the iPhone device will now support this band,” she said. That’s a “significant positive” for Sprint shares, she said. Apple, however, didn’t immediately comment on its plans. Of the “Big 4” carriers, Sprint is the only one using the TDD version of LTE, she said. The iPhone “continues to be the most embraced high end” smartphone in the U.S., so having the device support the spectrum band and the TDD LTE technology “should strengthen Sprint’s competitive position in future quarters,” she said. Sprint shares, however, closed 1.8 percent lower Monday at $9.68.