FCC's O'Rielly: Change to Quadrennial Rule Review Led To 'Near-Complete Paralysis

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New Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly plans to tell House Communications Subcommittee members that the FCC has fallen down on the media ownership review job and needs to get moving.

That's according to his testimony for a Dec 12 oversight hearing. "The Commission has failed to comply with the obligations required by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which were subsequently amended by Congress, to review and repeal or modify any of its media ownership rules that are no longer in the public interest as a result of competition," he says. Commissioner O'Rielly also outlined his keys to a successful incentive auction, which he also knows a little something about from his former job. "I helped shape and craft the text of the incentive auction statute, in partnership with the able Republican and Democratic staff from the House and Senate," he points out. As he sees it, the FCC needs to "entice enough broadcasters to participate, reasonably protect those broadcasters that choose otherwise, and convince wireless companies to bid on the spectrum made available."


FCC's O'Rielly: Change to Quadrennial Rule Review Led To 'Near-Complete Paralysis