Cardenas, Other House Dems Urge FCC Against Record Refresh on MVPDs
House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Tony Cardenas of California is leading a letter with almost two dozen other chamber Democrats urging the FCC not to refresh the record in docket 14-261 on reclassifying linear streaming services as MVPDs. FCC Chairwoman…
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Jessica Rosenworcel has maintained the agency doesn’t have the authority to reclassify streaming services, and the FCC said her thinking hadn’t changed after a June letter from Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., (see 2306230062). Twenty other Senate Democratic caucus members pushed last month in favor of a proceeding refresh (see 2310180067). “It was clear even in the 2014 FCC proceeding on this issue that video streaming and the video streaming marketplace were different, and therefore the FCC decided not to proceed,” Cardenas and the other Democratic lawmakers said in a draft of the letter to Rosenworcel we obtained Monday. “Aside from being an inappropriate standard to apply to the streaming marketplace, there is also reason to believe that these issues may be outside of FCC’s scope. The 2014 FCC proceeding record shows that there were issues with the FCC asserting jurisdiction. Ultimately, it is the role of Congress to determine changes to the streaming marketplace, and for these reasons, we urge you to close the 2014 proceeding.” Other House Democrats signing on to the letter include Innovation Subcommittee ranking member Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Communications member Yvette Clarke of New York.