Remarks of Commissioner O'Rielly, Annual Broadcast Television Conference of the Advanced Television Systems Committee

Much like the rapid rate of increase in processing power noted by Moore’s Law, the broadcast standard has been developing more and more capabilities with each subsequent generation. What is, or should be, the Federal Communications Commission’s role in the transition? Now is the time to start coalescing around a set of principles and goals to guide our approach to the April petition and further Commission actions going forward. Here, I’d like to outline a few of my thoughts at this early juncture.

We must carefully consider how best to encourage and enable innovation, an especially important principle given the increasing pace of development and disruption in technology. And in considering any rule changes to allow for a completely optional new standard, we should open the door as much as possible to future permissionless innovation in this space. Minimizing disruption for consumers and broadcasters is another guiding principle, one that may be even more of a challenge given the lack of backward compatibility in the new standard. Lastly, I trust the good people working hard on all of the components of the new package of standards to be contained in an overall 3.0 version are seeking to produce the greatest technological advancement.