FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly is making a final push to further “modernize” many broadcast media regulations before his time at the FCC comes to an end.
O’Rielly’s renomination to the commission was withdrawn by President Donald Trump, reportedly after O’Rielly disagreed with the president’s attempt to regulate social media. This will conclude O’Rielly’s time at the FCC. Though his final day has yet to be announced, Trump has nominated his potential replacement.
In a blog post on the FCC website, O’Rielly lays out that while the commission has updated a number of what he believed to be outdated media regulations for broadcasters that “alleviate real burdens,” he finds that there is still work to be done and lays out a path to do so.
The first such effort would be to end the freeze on license modifications. O’Rielly says the freeze put in place a decade ago for technical updates or station modifications to help facilitate the Broadcast Incentive Auction and repack was the right move. But for stations that were not involved in the repack it has prevented them from investing in and upgrading their physical infrastructure. With the repack concluded, O’Rielly believes that lifting the freeze will allow stations to start the process of making critical updates that will help stations better serve their communities.
Read more at TV Technology.
