Amazing how corrupt these guys are. The Tom Wheeler FCC had eliminated the
anachronistic and totally nonsensical UHF discount, in an era in which UHF may
even be easier to receive than VHF, especially for those with the small
so-called "digital antennas."
And this current FCC Chairman, ever devious and disingenuous, reinstated the
UHF discount, while stating that the UHF discount can only be discontinued by a
policy that simultaneously addresses the national cap.
First off: nonsense. The UHF discount was established for a specific purpose.
Not to try to circumvent any national cap, as pointless as those national caps
are. When that UHF discount was invented, UHF did have a disadvantage, compared
with VHF. Now it does not. So, in your libertarian zeal to abolish any and all
regulations, why not abolish one that makes no sense?
But more importantly, and more predictably now that we know how this Chairman
operates, he has no intention of either addressing the validity of a UHF
discount, OR doing so in tandem with a relook at the 39% national cap.
"Senior FCC officials speaking on background said the review would not include
either the 39% cap on national audience reach or the UHF discount from that
cap. The reason is that they were not among the rules the Congress requires it
to review. They said the cap and discount would continue to be reviewed on a
parallel track."
In other words, when it suits him, do nothing. Reinstate the UHF discount
first, put everyone to sleep with oily rhetoric about having to review it along
with the national cap, and then let it all be forgotten.
"Also at the meeting, the FCC will vote on a declaratory ruling that wireless
text messages are information services, not telecom services, so that service
providers can continue to protect their customers from span and scam robocalls,
said senior FCC officials.
That ruling would deny petitions to declare text messages a telecom service."
Already commented on this. It's another blatant attempt to screw people, while
at the same time making it sound like you're doing them a favor. The "do not
call list" worked well enough, until this crook became in charge. By making
texts an "information service," the FCC is washing its hands of that too,
allowing telecom providers to decide on their own what spam texts users will be
subjected to.
Bert
-------------------------------------------
https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/update-fcc-to-kick-off-quadrennial-broadcast-reg-review-next-month
Update: FCC to Kick Off Quadrennial Broadcast Reg Review Next Month
John EggertonNov 21, 2018
Will not include national ownership cap or UHF discount
WASHINGTON--As expected the FCC on Dec. 12 will officially launch its latest
congressionally mandated "Quadrennial" review of broadcast ownership rules.
FCC chair Ajit Pai did the unveiling Tuesday (Nov. 20) in his monthly blog post
on the items the FCC plans to vote on at its next public meeting, which he does
when the tentative agenda is released 21 days before the meeting.
"On the media front, we'll be kicking off a review of our media ownership rules
- a review we're required by statute to conduct every four years," he said.
"The 2018 Quadrennial Review, as it's called, will begin with a Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking which seeks public input on the relevant rules, such as the
Local Radio Ownership Rule, as well as several diversity-related proposals."
Senior FCC officials speaking on background said the review would not include
either the 39% cap on national audience reach or the UHF discount from that cap.
The reason is that they were not among the rules the Congress requires it to
review. They said the cap and discount would continue to be reviewed on a
parallel track.
The rules up for review in the Quad are the local radio ownership rules, local
TV ownership limits and the dual-network rule. But they said it was an
open-ended review with no tentative conclusions.
It will ask whether the rules should remain, be modified, or eliminated.
The FCC will also review a trio of diversity-related proposals--one is whether
to extend the cable procurement EEO regs to broadcast, whether to identify a
"tipping point" of source diversity in lieu of ownership rules and on tradeable
diversity credits, all issues MMTC has raised.
Chairman Ajit Pai had told Congress that the review was coming by year's end,
so it was no surprise that it was teed up for the meeting. The FCC has let the
quadrennial deadline for concluding the review slip in the past for a variety
of reasons--including having to repeatedly respond to court decisions on rule
challenges--only wrapping up a combined 2010 and 2014 review in November of
last year.
So the chairman is getting what could arguably be called an early start even
though the lookback will clearly be primarily a 2019 review. A senior official
said they did not want this review to drag on for years, but would not put a
deadline on it.
Also at the meeting, the FCC will vote on a declaratory ruling that wireless
text messages are information services, not telecom services, so that service
providers can continue to protect their customers from span and scam robocalls,
said senior FCC officials.
That ruling would deny petitions to declare text messages a telecom service.
Texts had not previously been classified and the petitions gave the FCC a
chance to weigh in.
The FCC says a text messaging service provides for storing and retrieving
information, so it is like email. It also finds that text messaging, like
wireless broadband service, is a commercial mobile service, not a private
service, because it is not connected to the public-switched service.
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