Republican Commerce Leaders Ask FCC Chairman Pai to Close Set-Top Docket

New Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is a long and strong opponent of former Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal to revamp the set-top box marketplace to boost online video competition and would be unlikely to exhume that push, but the Republican leadership of the House Commerce Committee want him to put a nail in the coffin.

In a letter to Chairman Pai, House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Communications Subcommittee Chair Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Commerce Committee Vice Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX), and every Republican member of the Communications Subcommittee asked him to officially close the docket on the proceeding. "The regulatory overhang of the set-top box regulation has cast a shadow over investment and innovation in traditional video programming delivery," they said. "[W]e urge you to close the proceeding and permit the industry to innovate and serve consumers free from the restrictions of a government-chosen platform." They said it would generally be a good idea to close all inactive dockets and that in this particular case it should be closed as an "unnecessary regulatory threat to content creation and distribution industries" and to signal to video program distributors "that they can bring technological advances to set-top boxes and video delivery without fear that the Commission overturn them by regulation."