FCC Reexamines Need for Cable Data Collection Form

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on whether to eliminate Form 325, which collects information about cable system operations, or, in the alternative, on ways to modernize and streamline the form to reflect technological and industry changes since the form was last updated in 1999. Form 325 must be filed annually by all cable systems with 20,000 or more subscribers and by a sample of small cable systems with fewer than 20,000 subscribers. The Notice asks whether the costs of the Form 325 data collection now exceed the benefits of the information collected and whether there are less burdensome ways for the Commission to obtain this data. This is the third rulemaking that the FCC has begun as part of its Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative launched in May 2017. The goal of the initiative is to reduce unnecessary regulation that can impede competition and innovation in media markets.