House Dems Eye Telecom Review

HOUSE DEMS EYE TELECOM REVIEW
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
The Democrats' innovation agenda, released in November by now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), will be woven into upcoming telecom legislation. The agenda calls for universal, affordable broadband access within five years. The Bush administration has pledged to achieve that goal by 2007, but critics say it is not on track. House Democrats are planning a thorough re-examination of telecommunications and media policies that will feature multiple oversight hearings and fresh legislation. Fostering high-speed Internet deployment, ensuring an open and accessible Internet, and overhauling the federal universal service program that subsidizes telecom connections in rural and impoverished areas are among the key issues to be addressed. The competitiveness of the video, telephone and radio marketplaces also will be explored, along with protecting the privacy of phone records and promoting efficient use of spectrum. House Democrats plan to scrutinize several FCC policies, include the agency's review of media-ownership limits and its authority to investigate allegations that the National Security Agency conducted surveillance of phone records without warrants. Also to be examined is a recent FCC decision relaxing local video-franchising guidelines. The telecom subcommittee also plans oversight hearings on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is playing a central role in the transition to digital television, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which the White House has targeted for budget cuts.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-MJSN1172609975538.html

DINGELL POUNDS NTIA, FCC ON DTV TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) took shots at the Bush administration’s oversight of the digital-TV transition Tuesday, especially the converter-box program designed to keep old analog-TV sets running when only digital signals are available from local TV stations after early 2009. To the dismay of Chairman Dingell and other House Democrats, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration is proposing to exclude cable- and satellite-TV homes from the program. It also indicated that it might support limiting coupon eligibility to low-income broadcast-only homes. “Their initial notice showed rather shocking ignorance of the congressional debate and little attention to the attitude of the American people,” Chairman Dingell said in a speech to 500 members of the National Association of Broadcasters. Rep Dingell also questioned whether the Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Kevin Martin was up to the task. "I have some additional and serious concerns with the FCC's desire and ability to handle the overall transition,” he said. Chairman Dingell is concerned that a poorly managed transition would anger millions of consumers, who would make their displeasure felt at the polls. He is debating whether a bill crafting a new transition scheme is needed.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6420008.html?display=Breaking+News
* Dingell Questions FCC Ability To Oversee DTV Transition
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6419961.html?display=Breaking...
* Read his remarks: http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/110st9.shtml

MARKEY PLANS SIRIUS/XM, CONVERTER BOX HEARINGS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey told broadcasters he will hold a hearing on the proposed Sirius XM merger -- and other radio issues -- on March 7. He noted that broadcast TV faced new challenges from broadband competition but said he was still a fan of over-the-air TV and would work to keep broadcasters at the center of the digital revolution. Commenting on the Univision $24 million fine, he said that most broadcasters were fulfilling their obligations when it came to educational kids TV programming but that the FCC must enforce the law against violators. Rep Markey was the driving force behind the 1990 Children's Television Act, which mandated the three-hour minimum programming for educational kids TV, which Univision allegedly violated. Chairman Markey said he expected to deal with the DTV public-interest obligations issue this year.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6419779?display=Breaking+News
* Read text of speech
http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2638&I...
* Markey plans push in telecom
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/02/27/markey_plans_pu...
* Will Chairman Markey allow "competition" of views on future of the Internet policy?
[SOURCE: Scott Cleland, Precusor]
[Commentary] Will Chairman Markey allow free and open "competition" of views on what is best for "the future of the Internet" during Thursday's House Telecom Subcommittee hearing?
http://www.precursorblog.com/node/307

BROADCASTERS GET RETRANS SUPPORT FROM MARKEY, DINGELL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
At a National Association of Broadcasters State Leadership Conference Tuesday, Colin Crowell, veteran House Commerce Committee staffer to Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA), said broadcasters have the right to withhold their signal if they cannot come to terms with cable systems over carriage. Crowell said that he would be surprised if the issue of retransmission consent was not raised in a "future of video" oversight hearing the subcommittee planned to hold sometime in the spring. On the issue of multicast must-carry, Crowell suggested that a broadcaster commitment to DTV public interest obligations would allow Chairman Markey to support multicast must-carry. In another speech to the conference, broadcaster and Telecommunications Subcommittee member Greg Walden (R-OR) warned that activist Democrats might extract so much in the way of DTV obligations that multicast channels would look more like a cable public access channel than a commercially viable enterprise.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6420007.html?display=Breaking...

* Dems Won't Wait for Bills To Grill Industry
More on the developing telecom agenda for the new Congress: media ownership; the future of radio, TV, wireless and broadband; the digital TV transition -- including the NTIA's converter-box program and the need for a consumer education campaign.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6419873?display=Breaking+News

* Walden: Supreme Court Could Nix FCC's Indecency Authority
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Rep Greg Walden (R-OR), member of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, told broadcasters Tuesday that he wouldn't be surprised if the Supreme Court ultimately throws out the FCC's authority to regulate indecency. Rep Walden, himself a broadcaster -- though he is selling his five radio stations -- supported raising the FCC's indecency fines tenfold and giving the commission more indecency authority but says the FCC's "patchwork" of confusing rulings has opened the door for the courts. He cautioned broadcasters to educate Congress about drug and alcohol advertising issues -- and violent programming on TV. He also put in a plug for loosening media ownership rules.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6419863?display=Breaking+News