Commissioner McDowell discusses FCC's 'public interest standard'

Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell appears on C-SPAN's "The Communicators" and discusses how the agency should approach the "public interest standard" it applies to merger reviews. He calls the standard "broad and amorphous," but that he approaches it by trying to address "harms" that could arise from a merger. "Are there any harms coming about as a result of the merger? What are the specific harms to consumers? If there are harms, conditions should be narrowly tailored to address those," he said. "The process should not be an excuse to implement rule-makings on issues that don't arise because of that particular merger," he said.

On spectrum auctions, he said that time was running out for Congress to act on incentive auctions, and that if broadcasters have to be repositioned after spectrum reclamation that would make that process not voluntary by definition. He said that if repacking happens, broadcasters need to be compensated "at a minimum to at least make them whole."