FCC Planning Upcoming NPRMs on Leased Access, Cable Rate Regulation, Says Media Bureau
The FCC is planning to issue NPRMs on kids' video rules, cable leased access and cable rate regulation as part of media modernization, Media Bureau staff said Tuesday at an FCBA event. A rulemaking on leftover questions from the ATSC 3.0 proceeding is still planned for sometime this year, as is the 2018 quadrennial broadcast ownership review, staff said. The post-incentive auction repacking, which hasn’t run into the resource crunch feared by broadcasters, has progressed, Incentive Auction Task Force Deputy Chair Hillary DeNigro said. “It’s fine,” she said. “We haven’t had any requests for additional time we haven’t been able to accommodate.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Policy Division Chief Martha Heller didn’t give precise timing for the upcoming media modernization items. The agency has been fielding one a month at commissioners' meetings, and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said a kidvid NPRM is expected over the summer (see 1805020063"> 1805020063). NCTA met with Heller and Media bureau staff Thursday to discuss leased commercial access, said a brief ex parte filing in docket 07-42. The FCC should reduce the burden of the rules on cable operators, NCTA said. Heller told the FCBA event the bureau is working on an order that would change notice requirements for broadcast applications, teed up by a previous NPRM (see 1801020044).
The repacking is 13 months into its 39-month life, and “going smoothly,” DeNigro said. Broadcast industry officials said that’s to be expected until the earliest phases are over, since work crews haven’t yet been stretched (see 1707310068). Phase 1 of repacking is to start in September, but 54 stations asked to move earlier in “phase 0,” DeNigro said. A “handful” of stations completed their post-auction channel changes, she said. Construction permit applications have been filed by 102 stations for channel sharing, and 69 implemented sharing, she said.
Invoices for repacking reimbursement funds are flowing steadily into the agency, DeNigro said. The agency expects to have access to the additional reimbursement funds for full-power stations in FY 2018, which should “give assurance” to broadcasters, she said. Repacking reimbursement requests are “very exacting” and “can’t be a penny off,” Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman said. “Get proofreaders,” she told the attending lawyers. “We all have to pass audits.”
The Media Bureau and IATF have begun working on reimbursement plans for low-power TV and FM stations affected by the auction, MB Chief Michelle Carey said. The agency has a year to create reimbursement rules, and will be issuing an NPRM that “includes as many proposals as possible,” she said. Though the NPRM will consider multiple options, the agency will look to take advantage of its experience from the full-power reimbursement process in the newer versions, she said. The agency wants to “leverage mechanisms that worked,” she said. In the ongoing displacement window, 1,400 LPTV stations have filed, Kreisman said, with a freeze on minor modification applications to be lifted when that window closes June 1.
The Audio Division could penalize more silent stations later, division Chief Albert Shuldiner said. The division will be “carefully looking at station operations,” he said in response to a question about whether silent stations could expect future hearing designation orders similar to the one recently issued against Family Voice Communications (see 1805070031).