The FCC has voted to reorganize its Media Bureau, specifically shuttering its Engineering Division and folding the work and staff of that division into the bureau's Industry Analysis Division (IAD).
The vote was unanimous, though Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel concurred, which is short of a full-throated yes.
The IAD's focus is media ownership and the economic aspects of rules and policies, as well as reviewing license transfers with policy implications and to develop reports on industry and market data. With the creation of the FCC Office of Economics and Analytics, some of KIAD's economists and a portion of its responsibilities were relocated there.
The Engineering Division has been focused on cable regulatory filings and requests for rulings that have become less frequent due to the transitions from analog to digital and from paper to electronic filings, as well as process deregulation, said the FCC.
"We find that there are notable benefits to bringing the Engineering Division team within the larger IAD," the FCC order said. "Simplifying the organizational structure of the Bureau will streamline its operations, improve the supervisor-to-employee ratio thereby reducing redundancies in management, and encourage more extensive staff interaction and collaboration."
