Future of Media Project Details Being Worked Out
Details of the FCC’s Future of Media project are being worked out after being formally introduced last week to commissioners at their monthly meeting, according to the project leader and to agency officials observing the planning. Steve Waldman, an aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski who’s heading up the review, said he’s working out details such as whether his project will be completed before or after the 2010 media ownership review. In his presentation at the commission meeting -- which ended around 6:30 p.m. Thursday (CD Feb 19 p2) -- he said a report will be completed sometime this year.
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“We're obviously coordinating closely with” those working on ownership, including Media Bureau officials, Waldman said Friday. “We have not kind of figured out who goes first. ... We'll be figuring it out soon. Right now it’s just kind of on parallel tracks and we're not sure when different parts will pop.” Those working on the project are from across the commission and include Elizabeth Andrion from the Office of Strategic Planning and Associate Chief Bill Freedman of the Media Bureau. Another FCC official noted Freedman is also closely involved in reviewing Comcast’s plan to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal. The media group will have “strong input from commissioners’ offices,” a slide from Waldman’s presentation said (http://xrl.us/bgwfq).
Involvement of those offices has been limited thus far, so Thursday’s meeting served as an introduction of sorts of the overall goals of the project, agency officials said. “We had sort of a soft launch, and I wanted to have a little bit more of a formal introduction, show some of the progress we've made,” Waldman said. He could continue working at the commission for a time after the project is completed to see some of what his report mentioned through in rulemakings, an agency official said. Waldman said he hasn’t figured out his plans. “The presentation of a report doesn’t actually do anything,” he said. “It has to turn into action by someone.”
Tuesday’s bureau workshop in Columbia, S.C., on broadcasting (CD Feb 18 p15) will be of use to the ownership review and the media project, said Waldman, who’s moderating. “Part of what we're trying to figure out is to get a basic sense of the status of local TV and radio news.” Another upcoming bureau workshop on the Internet’s impact on TV will also guide the initiative, whose full name is the Future of Media and the Information Needs of Communities in a Digital Age, he said. The http://reboot.fcc.gov/futureofmedia site is getting input on the quality of media people use, and Waldman seeks more, he said. “We wanted to make it so that it wasn’t just the industry trade reps or groups that do this for a living that will be giving input into this process.”
TV stations’ websites and their broadcast programs “go hand in hand -- you can’t look at them as separate platforms,” said Technology Vice President James Ocon of Gray Television, which operates 36 properties. “Having Internet- connected TV, I think, is what people are after. But there have been different approaches that have been very clunky. Set-top boxes are getting smarter.”