WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two key Members of the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee have drawn accolades from the President/CEO of the NAB, who singles out their calls for the FCC to modernize “outdated” ownership restrictions and to lift the national television ownership cap.
As Curtis LeGeyt sees it, Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican who serves as Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology; and Rep. Brett Guthrie, the Kentucky GOP Member who leads the Commerce Committee, are right on track when it comes to their support of a rule refresh for U.S. broadcast media.
“Their support reflects growing recognition that modernizing these rules is essential to ensuring local stations can compete, innovate and continue serving their communities with trusted information,” LeGeyt said. “We look forward to working with Chairman Carr and the FCC to move this issue forward.”
The call for ownership reform occurred during the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology’s FCC oversight hearing, held Wednesday morning in Rayburn HOB Room 2123. It saw FCC head Brendan Carr joined by Commissioners Olivia Trusty and Anna Gómez at an affair reaching two hours in length as of 12:10pm Eastern.
Congress last reauthorized the FCC in 2018. Selected issues during the hearing included electromagnetic spectrum, the “Build America” initiative to accelerate broadband deployment, the Universal Services Fund, and “media issues.”
The latter doesn’t refer to actions taken by the Commission against three of the “Big Four” TV networks with the reinstatement of complaints dismissed under delegated authority by interim bureau heads in the waning hours of the Rosenworcel Commission. Rather, the “media issues” Guthrie and Hudson wished to address point to the aforementioned need for rule relief from the FCC, saying the current National Television Multiple Ownership Rule currently prohibits a broadcast ownership group from owning television stations that have an aggregate national audience reach exceeding 39 percent.
“These outdated rules have made it more difficult for broadcasters to compete against the growing digital streaming industry and Big Tech platforms that are competing for advertising revenue, but are not subject to the same regulations,” the House Republican leadership on the Commerce Committee stated in its hearing memo, using language the NAB itself could have penned.
Other topics on the ambitious hearing agenda included modernizing satellite regulations, submarine cables, and the “Delete, delete, delete” initiative … as well as “rolling back Biden overreach.” That’s GOP lingo for ending Title II classification of broadband, a.k.a. “Net Neutrality.”
Among the key questions asked by GOP Members:
• How is the FCC’s regulatory agenda helping to expand the availability of communications services?
• What is the FCC’s progress in making spectrum available for commercial use?
• Does the FCC have proposals to reform the Universal Service Fund?
• How will the FCC enforce its media rules in ways that expand the ability of regulated entities to compete with Big Tech platforms?
