Chairman Wheeler Eager for Start of Charter-TWC Shot Clock

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, in a press conference following the FCC's August public meeting, says the FCC will start its informal shot clock on the Charter-Time Warner Cable deal as soon as the commissioners vote the protective order for confidential documents submitted for review in that deal. But, in the interim, it is not "sitting around sucking eggs," that the process "is underway" and he is eager to start the clock. The protective order was submitted for a commissioner-level vote because it deals with broader access-to-information issues in response to the court's remand of the FCC's protective orders for the Comcast/TWC and AT&T/DirecTV deal reviews.

Asked why he was waiting to start the shot clock until the item was voted -- Republicans have issues with it and have yet to vote it -- he signaled that was not stopping the FCC from reviewing the deal. "We have a team working on it. There is material that Charter has already filed. This is a process that is underway." The protective orders circumscribe how confidential information submitted in that review is treated and shared with third parties. Chairman Wheeler said the reason the shot clock had not started, which would then trigger the establishment of a public comment cycle -- was that there was information people needed to see before they can file, information for which protective orders were needed before it could be shared. "Why should you start a shot clock in which in the early stages people won't have access to information necessary to inform their comments." He said he hoped they would soon have a set of processes for how specific confidential information would be handled.