The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted Dish Network’s petitions for review Tuesday in its case against the FCC to determine whether the commission has jurisdiction to adopt encoding rules for all multichannel video programming distributors, including…
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satellite broadcasters. The court concluded that the FCC “lacked statutory authority to impose these rules,” the opinion said (http://xrl.us/boax54). Dish argued that Section 629 of the Communications Act doesn’t give the commission jurisdiction to adopt encoding rules (CD April 3 p8). The statute doesn’t, by its terms, prohibit the requirement of encoding rules, said Harry Edwards, a senior circuit judge. Rather, any challenge to the agency’s exercise of its direction under it “must take into account the circumstances presented and the commission’s explanation for the action in question,” he wrote in his opinion. It said the commission failed to explain how requiring satellite carriers to adopt encoding rules “was necessary to assure the commercial availability of converter boxes and other equipment pursuant to Section 629.” The court said the filing from NCTA supporting the commission’s position isn’t persuasive. NCTA “adopts a more circumspect view of the FCC’s authority,” acknowledging the obvious implausibility of interpreting Section 629 “as empowering the FCC to take any action it deems useful in its quest to make navigation devices commercially available,” it said.