The head-scratching inside the Beltway continues as the wait for a fifth Democratic Federal Communications Commission member — and for whoever is to be named the agency’s permanent chair — continues.

Initial delays were thought to involve a decision between acting chair Jessica Rosenworcel and current commissioner Geoffrey Starks. Starks had the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose leading figure, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) helped elect President Joe Biden with his key endorsement in South Carolina’s Democratic primary. (Clyburn is the father of Rosenworcel's predecessor as acting FCC chair, Mignon Clyburn.)

But the name of broadband backer and one-time Public Knowledge head Gigi Sohn has surfaced as a new possible alternative — and one for whom the buzz had been growing — particularly given Biden's decision to name progressive Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, over the more-centrist acting chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter.

Just as Khan‘s appointment was taken as a sign Biden had chosen a get-tough policy on Big Tech, Sohn's could be viewed as a sign Biden was going to get tough on internet service providers in the effort to achieve universal broadband under a definition that includes high speeds and low prices in the definition of broadband availability.

Adding fuel to the theory that Biden is going more progressive with some of these picks, the president on Tuesday (July 20) named Google critic Jonathan Kanter as chief of the Justice Department's antitrust division. The DOJ and the FTC divvy up antitrust merger reviews, with Justice usually taking the media mergers.

Former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, whose argument that closing the digital divide is the rural electrification issue of this century, is said to continue to have influence on Biden communications policy, and Sohn was his top adviser and broadband acolyte.

One former top FCC official was looking for some kind of movement on a chair this week or next, following the president's executive order urging the FCC to do a number of things it will almost certainly take a Democratic majority to do. “You‘d think [Biden] has to do something,” the official said.

Rosenworcel still has strong Capitol Hill backing, and one top Republican source said that, political differences notwithstanding, she was “terrific.” But Slaughter had the backing of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Khan still got the nod.

More than one FCC observer agreed that at this rate, a chairperson won't be installed until the fall. There is also the matter of the third Democratic commissioner to nominate, vet and vote on. If Biden picks that third commissioner, whether Sohn, Starks or someone else besides Rosenworcel, the acting chair might leave. Her term is already over and she must depart by the end of the year were she not to be renominated, though she would likely stay until a replacement was chosen so the commission would not fall back into a 2-2 tie.

In any event, things on the likely Democratic to-do list — like new net-neutrality rules or broadcast or cable reregulation — will have to wait until the chair/third Democratic commissioner situation shakes out.

Simington Could Be a Swing Vote

While the hot-button items are off the table for the moment, Rosenworcel has been able to move a number of items with 4-0 votes and there could be even higher-hanging fruit, given the bipartisan signals from the newest Republican member.

Commissioner Nathan Simington is a conservative but still something of an X factor himself. He is a policy wonk, agrees someone who has worked with him, and has not displayed quite as prominent a political stripe as his fellow Republican commissioner Brendan Carr. In fact, Simington was invited to and attended President Biden's signing ceremony for the executive order on competition.

With the FCC currently at a 2-2 political tie, courting Simington could be key to getting things done if Biden is not yet ready to name a permanent chair or pick a third Democrat.

The president‘s order includes urging the banning of early termination fees and mandating cost disclosures and encouraging the FCC and Federal Trade Commission to take a host of actions (the president cannot mandate action from those independent agencies). The White House is also encouraging the FCC to restore net-neutrality rules.

Simington is no advocate for network neutrality rules, but following the signing ceremony, he praised what he called Biden’s “vociferous commitment to capitalism and competition in service of consumer welfare and innovation,” and said he was confident the executive order, which drew lots of pushback from USTelecom and NCTA-The Internet & Television Association would be “thoughtfully implemented with due consideration of costs, risks and harms balanced against vital consumer interests.”

Carr, by contrast, said the order had missed the mark and was on the wrong path when it came to broadband competition. 

The Federal Communications Commission chairmanship is not usually among the first posts filled in a new administration. It can sometimes take months after the inauguration for a new chair to be installed, with a sitting commissioner — in this case either of two Republicans, Ajit Pai or Michael O’Rielly — serving as interim chairman in the, well, interim.

But a lot of names and scenarios have been bubbling up for the new chairman of the agency, particularly since it is hard to predict if the Trump administration will follow form or blaze new paths to various nominations.

Here is the current laundry list (with background input from various sources), with the caveat that someone could come out of left field to be named the FCC’s starting pitcher, as it were:

Pai: Senior sitting Republican. The last two Republican chairs — Kevin Martin and Michael Powell — were plucked from the ranks of sitting commissioners, though Powell had big name recognition as the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Martin had been a lawyer in Florida representing President George W. Bush in the 2000 recount court battle. Still, Pai has Senate connections: He once worked with Attorney General nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).

O’Rielly: A dark horse, but multiple sources said his name is in the mix, given his Senate connections as a former Hill staffer.

Jeff Eisenach/Mark Jamison/Roslyn Layton: They are the deregulatory think tankers leading the FCC transition team. Wheeler was an Obama technology and FCC transition team leader and got the big chair, as was former Republican FCC chairman Mark Fowler. Fowler confirmed for the Wire that he “was in charge of supervising the transition teams of all major regulatory agencies, including the FCC” back in the Reagan years, so there is precedent for the pickers becoming the picked.

David Fellows: A telecommunications industry vet spanning engineering and operations, he’s the co-founder and chief technology officer of Layer3 TV, the Denver-based, self-described “next-generation cable operator,” and is also serving as chief scientist of the cable-focused Energy 2020 initiative. Fellows has deep experience in various facets of the telecom and tech sectors, including past key roles at MSOs (Comcast and AT&T Broadband), major suppliers (Scientific Atlanta, now part of Cisco Systems), telecom (GTE) and as a venture capitalist (Genovation Capital and Pilot House Ventures).

Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.): He is a member of the House Communications Subcommittee, though he does not have a high profile there. Cramer was also an early Trump supporter, which appears to count a lot with the President-elect.

Brandt Hershman: An Indiana state senator with telecom deregulation chops and a degree from Harvard, he is said to be a suggestion from VP-elect and former Indiana congressman and governor Mike Pence, who is leading the transition. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the next chairman had connections with Indiana,” said one FCC transition watcher.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn: The Tennessee Republican is another early, and vocal, Trump supporter who is a member of the transition team executive committee, though she may be looking for a bigger post. She is vice chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and has been very active on communications issues.

Ann Coulter: OK, that’s a long, long shot. But the conservative commentator was another early (and late) Trump supporter and last summer all but campaigned for the FCC post, telling Business Insider she would take aim at big media companies she said had “just gotten very powerful and very unfair,” something Trump echoed in criticisms of the proposed AT&T-Time Warner and approved Comcast-NBCUniversal deals and his attacks on media news outlets in general.

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One World Sports, Facing Reported Woes, Looks to ‘Bright Future’

One World Sports, the niche sports network that has been the go-to channel for distributors locked into, or looking for alternatives to, onerous carriage contracts, is having some money problems of its own, according to sources last week.

Sports news website Awful Announcing first reported the channel had furloughed workers in an effort to cut costs, and in fact had considered bankruptcy and failed to pay employees and vendors for months. Sources said last week the network — with access to 43 million homes but mostly carried on lightly penetrated sports tiers — had lined up an investor that backed out at the last minute, prompting the need to take quick action.

One World CEO Sandy Brown said some of the reported signs of financial distress weren’t accurate but didn’t give specifics. He said talks were ongoing with a potential investor and he was optimistic a deal would be reached. “We’re very excited about where the network is headed,” Brown told The Wire. “We’ve got a very bright future and we’ve just got to get through this.”

The channel is owned by One Media Corp., a Dallas investment firm headed by Seamus O’Brien. He’s also the owner of the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League, and Cosmos games air on One World Sports. That team and the league itself are in financial difficulties, according to reports. OWS also airs international hockey, basketball and golf matches, along with table tennis and badminton competitions. It’s landed several deals with distributors that were otherwise locking horns with pricier networks.

— Mike Farrell