The FCC hopes the Office of Management and Budget will approve a ...
The FCC hopes the Office of Management and Budget will approve a request that its DTV consumer education order take effect Thursday. On March 12, the agency sought “emergency” March 27 OMB approval of the order, a step it…
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called “essential to the responsible and effective implementation of the Commission’s mission, and the avoidance of public harm.” The OMB has 120 days to process the order under Paperwork Reduction Act “information collective review” procedures. The order requires broadcasters to file detailed quarterly reports at the FCC starting April 10 on their compliance with the new rules on public service announcements. March 27 OMB approval will ensure that the first reports due are “effective and available for filing” no later than April 10, it said. The order gives cable and satellite providers 30 days to begin mailing bill “stuffers” warning customers of the DTV shift. CEA, the CE Retailers Coalition, Panasonic, Pioneer and Sony have asked the FCC to give CE makers the same 30-day grace period and narrow what they call the order’s “overly broad scope.” Current language would have printed advisories ship with new DTV sets and any equipment that hooks up to them. Meanwhile, Rural Cellular Corp. asked the FCC to expedite its petition for reconsideration, or a waiver, of the rule’s mandate to mail Lifeline and LinkUp customers notices about the DTV transition in their monthly bills. “RCC would prefer to mail monthly postcards to its Lifeline and Link-Up customers,” the company said in its filing.