Pai Proposes at NAB Show Review of Media Regulations
LAS VEGAS -- The FCC will vote on a proposed “comprehensive review” of its media regulations at its May 18 meeting, Chairman Ajit Pai said during his keynote Tuesday at the NAB Show. The review will include looks at rules for broadcast, cable and satellite and will be distinct from the FCC's quadrennial review of its ownership rules, Pai told reporters after his speech. Though Pai declined to provide details about the proposal, numerous broadcast attorneys told us they expect the review to focus on “regulatory underbrush,” smaller, outdated rules. “Our goal is simple: to have rules that reflect the world of 2017, not 2007, 1997, 1987, or 1977,” Pai told broadcasters.
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The FCC will also vote in May on an NPRM on eliminating the main studio rule, and the post-incentive auction FM translator application window will open this summer, Pai said. “He's a breath of fresh air,” said David Leeds, president of Montana-based New Media Broadcasting, in an interview after Pai's speech. “I hope he can do all that.”
Possible elimination or modification of the FCC rules involved in the review will be based on the feedback the FCC receives, Pai said. “We’ll also explore whether certain rules should be modified to provide relief to small businesses,” Pai said. Though Pai said the proposal had been circulated Tuesday to the other commissioners, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Tuesday he hadn't read it and couldn't comment on its contents. It's unlikely Pai would have announced the proposal unless he believed he had the votes to support it, a broadcast attorney said. Such a review could be very comprehensive, and may take a long time to resolve, an attorney said.
A broad review of FCC media regulations is “long overdue,” said broadcast consultant Preston Padden. An NCTA spokeswoman said the cable association looks forward to the FCC re-examining cable rules “adopted at a time when the media landscape looked vastly different than it does today.” The American Cable Association said it will offer the FCC “specific, data-backed recommendations” on rules that are past their prime.
Pai credited O'Rielly with pushing for the proposal to get rid of the main studio rule, plus Friday's declaratory ruling on the Equal Employment Opportunity rules. The NPRM will examine getting rid of the rule for both radio and TV stations, Pai said “Technological innovations have rendered local studios unnecessary,” Pai said.
“I’ll be looking to him for more good ideas on updating our rules,” Pai said of O'Rielly. Pai also thanked Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for launching AM Revitalization when she was the interim head of the commission, and effusively praised FCC staffers for their work on the incentive auction, asking them to stand and be recognized. KAAL, Austin, Minnesota, TV General Manager David Harbert told us Pai's praise of FCC staff was the thing that thrilled him the most about the chairman's speech, and Padden complimented Pai's “graciousness to his colleagues,” after the speech.
The FM translator application window Pai promised for this summer was authorized by the same AM Revitalization proceeding that opened the earlier translator relocation window. Unlike that window, this one would allow the creation of new translators. Though the window eventually will be open to all AM stations, it initially will be only for Class C and D AM stations that didn't take advantage of the previous window. The “necessary IT work is being done now,” to make the window happen, Pai said. He also said the FCC would work to advance pending AM radio proceedings.
Pai also repeated his expectation the FCC will approve ATSC 3.0 by the end of 2017. It's critical for the FCC in the incentive auction repacking to make sure “no protected television broadcaster is forced to go dark due to circumstances outside of its control,” he said. “You have my word that this FCC will go wherever the facts and the law lead us,” Pai told the broadcasters. They in turn should “keep an open mind and apply a presumption of good faith to the decisions we make,” he said.