FCC Chairman Wheeler Set-Top Plan Gets White House Shout-Out

Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, took the opportunity of a speech on competition policy in Chicago Sept 16 to endorse Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's new set-top plan. Furman pointed out that the first action taken under an executive order last April calling on agencies, including the independent FCC agency, to identify "creative" ways to promote competition, was to file comments in support of the FCC's original (unlock the box) set-top proposal. Furman said that the White House was pleased that Chairman Wheeler had "actively" listened to stakeholders to "improve the proposal." "[We] believe that [chairman Wheeler] is charting out a responsible way to address their meaningful concerns while being responsive to Congress's explicit directive to ensure a healthy set-top marketplace." That shout out comes as House and Senate Democrats, studios, unions, ISPs, and others are calling for a reboot citing concerns about the FCC's authority over a proposed app standards licensing body and the impact on copyrights and contracts.