Briefs in an appeal of the FCC’s order allowing its...
Briefs in an appeal of the FCC’s order allowing its viewability rules to expire were filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week. The FCC, NTCA and Time Warner Cable defended the agency’s decision to…
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let the rule expire. The National Hispanic Media Coalition and a group of broadcasters sued over the order and that includes the NAB, Agape Church, London Broadcasting and Una Vez Mas filed final briefs opposing the FCC’s order. The broadcasters said the FCC’s order was in conflict with Congress’s intent that pay-TV operators distribute TV stations to all subscribers. The National Hispanic Media Coalition urged the court to reverse the FCC’s order on statutory grounds raised by the broadcasters. But it said the order also failed on procedural grounds because FCC didn’t provide a proper notice and comment period on the plan to let the rule expire and that its decision to do so was arbitrary and capricious. The FCC defended the order (http://bit.ly/12G5JcM). It said the commission reasonably concluded “there was no longer a threat to the viability of must-carry stations that justified the burden on cable-operator speech imposed by analog carriage.”. The agency interpreted the relevant section of the Communications Act reasonably, and its interpretation is consistent with “text, structure and purposes of that provision,” it said. “Statutory interpretations are not set in stone, otherwise agencies would be powerless to respond to rapid changes in technology.” The FCC said it provided reasonable notice of its plans. NCTA and Time Warner Cable said the agency was right to let the viewability rule expire. “There can be no serious dispute that on the record before the FCC, the Government may not compel cable operators to devote their limited capacity to carrying broadcast stations in two different formats,” they said in a joint brief.