The tentative agenda for the FCC meeting Sept....

sports blackout rule item comes after FCC officials told us some commissioners strongly wanted to end the rule (CD Aug 4 p6). The FCC received thousands of letters from the public on both sides of the issue last month, including from the “Protect Football on Free TV” campaign. It’s time “to sack the sports blackout rules for good,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in an op-ed in USA Today (http://usat.ly/WMjUAW). There are nearly 20,000 letters from that campaign, led by former NFL player Lynn Swann, an NFL spokesman said. He also referred us to Swann’s August statement urging the FCC to “put sports fans interests above pay-TV special interests and keep the rules” (CD Aug 26 p15). The current system is “working a lot better for the league [NFL] and its owners than it is for the fans, who on average pay nearly $500 to take a family of four to a game,” he said. “If the league truly has the best interest of millions of American fans at heart, they could simply commit to staying on network television in perpetuity.” FCC rules shouldn’t reinforce a system “that works against viewer choice,” said John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge senior staff attorney. Private parties shouldn’t be able to use government regulations “as an excuse to limit what people can see,” he said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1tIqqHh). Also at the meeting, the commission will vote on a Further NPRM to streamline and update Part 25 rules on licensing and operation of satellites and earth stations, the FCC said. The comment period on the streamlining of more than 100 rules closed last year (CD Feb 15/13 p4). Also on the agenda are an NPRM revising rules for unlicensed operations in the TV bands and new 600 MHz band, and an NPRM on the needs of wireless mic users, it said.