Senate Announces FCC Oversight Hearing

The Senate Commerce Committee has officially announced the
March 12 FCC oversight hearing, confirming a report last week in B&C/Multichannel News.

According to the committee announcement, all the
commissioners will be in attendance.

Look for Commerce chairman Jay Rockefeller (D- W. Va.) to
ask about the status of incentive auctions that will be used to fund the
emergency first responder broadband network he has championed.

He is also likely to include other broadband and phone
issues given that this week he reintroduced do not track online privacy
legislation and sent letters to the largest wireless carriers about wireless
"cramming" bill scams.

Rockefeller has also made gauging the impact of violent and
indecent content on kids a priority for his committee, so that issue may come
up as well.

The committee last held an FCCoversight hearing in May 2012, only days after commissioners Jessica
Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai were sworn in.

The chairman of the committee, Jay Rockefeller
(D- W. Va.) is Rosenworcel's former boss. They worked together when she was a
top committee aide to push for a broadband first responder network.

John Eggerton

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.