Rep Eshoo to FCC’s Pai: Don't Reinstate UHF Discount or Raise Cap

Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA), former chair of the House Communications Subcommittee, says she has serious concerns about Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal to reinstate the UHF discount. A vote is scheduled April 20 on that proposal. Rep Eshoo said she had worries about preserving viewpoint diversity following what she said would be the resulting consolidation and added that broadcast TV represents a "bulwark" against fake news, but only a media with "vibrant and diverse ownership."

Part of rescinding the UHF discount's elimination, Chairman Pai signaled, was to review the rules more holistically. Chairman Pai has said the discount may have outlived its usefulness, which Eshoo noted, but he took issue with the FCC, under predecessor Tom Wheeler, eliminating it without at the same time raising the national ownership cap or perhaps adding a VHF ownership discount. Rep Eshoo also has issues with Pai's consideration of raising that national ownership cap. She warned that a proceeding to consider increasing that cap "runs contrary to congressional intent."