The FCC should launch a rulemaking on the ATSC 3.0 transition by Oct. 1, said numerous broadcasters in reply comments posted Monday and Tuesday in docket 16-142. “Time is of the essence,” said a joint filing from petitioners NAB, CTA, America's Public Television Systems and the AWARN Alliance. “Broadcasters, the consumer electronics industry and broadcast equipment manufacturers are ready to move forward if the Commission will just let them.” Initial comments included a cable focus on carriage burdens from 3.0 (see 1605270054).
The Multicultural Media, Internet and Telecom Council narrowed its list of proposed media ownership diversity initiatives to five that should be included in the order FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler committed to circulating June 30 (see 1606240076), in a letter filed Friday in docket 14-50. The five proposals include creating a civil rights division within the Enforcement Bureau, extending cable rules governing procurement from minority-owned businesses to broadcasting, and examining minority ownership effects from all FCC general rulemakings. Other proposals are formulas for calculating diversity, and a proposal to replace the eight-voices test with “Market-Based Tradable Diversity Credits.” A market-based system “would be analogous to the operation of carbon trading as a market-based means of reducing pollution,” MMTC said. It set aside 19 other diversity docket proposals as being impractical or no longer applicable, though some could be refiled later.
The House Rules Committee deemed 70 of the 139 amendments filed to the Financial Services bill in order Tuesday and up for floor consideration, including all telecom amendments except the Lifeline budget cap amendment. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., withdrew that Lifeline amendment. The Obama administration “strongly opposes” the FY 2017 funding bill and President Barack Obama’s senior advisers would recommend a veto, the White House said in a statement.
Numerous interstate telecom service providers and related industry groups want reform of FCC interstate telecom service provider (ITSP) regulatory fees, but there isn't consensus how. Much of the debate involves an ITTA set of proposals to reassign Wireline Bureau full-time equivalents (FTEs) to the Wireless Bureau, to combine commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) and interstate telecom service provider (ITSP) regulatory fee categories, or to create a new CMRS fee subcategory under ITSP. Monday was the deadline for comments on FCC FY 2016 proposed regulatory fees, with replies due July 5. "Whatever solution the Commission chooses, it is past time ... to rationalize the amount ITSPs pay in regulatory fees," Frontier Communications said Tuesday in docket 16-166.
Opinions vary on whether a new Supreme Court ruling will affect the net neutrality case and the deference courts show regulatory agencies. Justices vacated and remanded Monday a decision of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had deferred to the Department of Labor on regulation under the Fair Labor Standards Act dealing with overtime pay, which was challenged by an automotive dealership (Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro et al., No. 15-415). The high court found the 9th Circuit hadn't adequately required the department to justify a change in policy, particularly in light of the dealership's "significant reliance interests" on the previous policy. Telcos and cable providers also argued FCC didn't adequately justify its policy change and account for their reliance interests in reclassifying broadband from Title I to a Title II telecom service under the Communications Act.
The FCC is viewed as farther away from approving its proposed changes to the set-top box market in the wake of comments from Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel that are seen to indicate interest in a pay-TV backed compromise offer, industry officials told us Monday. The FCC needs to find “another way forward” Rosenworcel told Reuters, in comments confirmed by her office. Rosenworcel was widely believed to be referring to the NCTA and AT&T backed compromise proposed at the FCC last week (see 1606160059). Pay-TV industry officials told us they see her comment as an indication that she won’t vote for the original proposal laid out in the NPRM.
Six telcos called on the FCC to strike "flawed" cable industry data from the record in the business data service proceeding aimed at overhauling its special access framework. The FCC should also remove the report of its consultant, Marc Rysman, and other studies that were based on the data, and rescind those portions of a Further NPRM that relied on the data and analyses, said AT&T, CenturyLink, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, FairPoint Communications and Frontier Communications, in a motion Friday in docket 16-143.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, succeeded at quietly watering down the Senate’s set-top box rider attached to the FY 2017 Financial Services funding bill, which advanced through the full Appropriations Committee Thursday in a 30-0 vote. The rider, which would force a pause to the FCC's set-top rulemaking for further study, never came up directly during the long markup, encompassing FY2017 FCC and FTC funding. But Schatz changed the wording of the set-top rider through the bill’s manager’s package, unanimously accepted as part of the bill.
Two House lawmakers voiced concern this week about the possible effects the FCC set-top box rulemaking may have on small businesses, echoing those they included in a bipartisan letter to the agency (see 1605050044). “I’ve heard from several of my rural cable operators, and they are worried the FCC is failing to fully understand the impact these rules will have on small providers,” said Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., in a statement for the record, saying the FCC “should reconsider” imposing the rules on small providers. “In the last few months, more than 175 members of Congress -- on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers -- have expressed concerns about the FCC’s proposed set-top box rules,” Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said on the floor. “From member requests for cost-benefit studies to congressional set-top box working groups, it’s clear that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal is causing more problems than it’s solving. … Instead of getting into another lengthy legal battle, I urge Chairman Wheeler to drop these proposed rules because of the harm it will inflict on small rural operators and the industry as a whole.” Wheeler repeatedly has defended the proposal.
Tuesday’s court ruling upholding the FCC net neutrality order likely forecloses any legislative movement on the topic this Congress, lawmakers in both chambers and from both parties told us after the ruling. The 2-1 U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1606140023) ruling frustrated Republicans and thrilled Democrats, many of whom released statements and expressed interest in the expected appeals process. Capitol Hill offices had been watching closely for the long-awaited D.C. Circuit ruling and weighing legislative possibilities depending on the ruling (see 1606090064).