Broadband Providers Tell FCC To Reject Fuse Diversity Data Petition

Broadband providers are telling the Federal Communications Commission in no uncertain terms to reject calls by cable programmer Fuse Media and public advocacy groups to mandate that those providers collect data on the diversity of the video content vendors they buy programming from, including for their owned or affiliated streaming services which, they point out, are not regulated by the FCC. And as for unaffiliated streaming companies like Netflix, Apple TV or Roku, they argue that without putting diversity data collection requirements on them, too, the FCC certainly won't be getting a view of the marketplace. NCTA-The Internet & Television Association and USTelecom made those points in comments. “Any report purporting to say anything about the video marketplace without covering these major participants [Netflix, Apple TV, etc.] would be of questionable value,” the groups told the FCC. “[I]t would be inappropriate to place regulatory burdens only on certain online providers that happen to be affiliated with FCC regulatees.” But NCTA and USTelecom aren't looking to have the FCC put diversity reporting requirements on any of the major participants. ”Nothing in the Communications Act authorizes the Commission to collect the broad sets of proposed data from the entities it actually is authorized to regulate or those regulatees’ affiliates that are not regulated by the Commission,” they said, “much less from third-party programming vendors over which the Commission has no authority to mandate such data collections.”