FCC Urged to Spell Out Indie/Diverse Programming Policy Goals
A key FCC priority in its independent/diverse programming proceeding should be determining the agency's ultimate policy goals in those directions and whether they should include maintaining the existing number of such programmers and/or ensuring more programming diversity, Goodfriend Government Affairs…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
said in meetings with Media Bureau and commissioner staffers, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 16-41. Goodfriend in the meetings also presented a list of questions that, if incorporated in any programming diversity NPRM, "would send a positive signal" both to indie programmers and the capital markets the FCC is committed to preserving and promoting such programming and diverse ownership and content. The questions include whether the FCC should set a goal for survival of indie programmers and what policy actions it could take to achieve that goal; how the agency would define "independent programmer"; whether its diversity goals should include race, ethnicity, religion, gender or other demographic characteristics; and whether channel set-asides and nondiscrimination requirements help increase programming diversity. According to the filing, Goodfriend spoke with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's chief of staff and media policy adviser, David Grossman, and separately met with multiple Media Bureau staffers including Policy Division Chief Martha Heller. Goodfriend has represented indie programmers.