The FCC will vote this month on its latest deregulatory proposal under FCC chair Ajit Pai's Modernization of Media Regulation initiative, according to Pai.
This one will replace some MVPD--cable and satellite--paper notifications to TV stations with electronic ones.
Currently, cable operators must give notice on paper when they begin service in a market or reposition or delete a broadcast channel and satellite operators have to kill a tree or two to notify about launching service or retransmitting some stations.
In blogging about the agenda for the upcoming Jan. 30 meeting, Pai said it was another effort to match the rules to marketplace realities, and pointed out that there was unanimous support for it in comments following the July vote to propose the change.
The July 10 vote on the proposal was also unanimous.
Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.
