FCC, FTC Reports on Media Are Far Along
Drafting by career staffers is far along on FCC and FTC reports about media, after both studies missed internal goals to have been released earlier, officials of the agencies told us. Recent work on the FCC’s Future of Media report has concentrated on the final part, which will offer policy recommendations, commission officials said. Some media executives have said they'll study the reports closely to see how the agencies will approach their industry, and that’s especially true with the FCC report, because the agency is also reviewing media ownership rules.
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The reports will differ, officials said: The FCC is looking at many areas of media, including conventional broadcasting and the Internet, whereas the FTC is concentrating on journalism, including the Web’s effect on it, officials said. Director Susan DeSanti of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning is spearheading work on the agency’s report, officials said. The document -- which the FTC has said may cover the Internet’s effect on news on radio, TV, cable and other outlets -- was expected to be released in late 2010. The commission hopes to release it this spring, said an FTC spokesman. He wouldn’t elaborate.
At the FCC, Steve Waldman is leading work on the Future of Media effort. The report is “a very high priority,” he said. “We're still seeking input, and we are still talking to a lot of people” in the media industry and “analyzing and working through the best approaches” to the document, Waldman said. “We're still thinking through and working through the recommendations and still getting input on it.” The goal is to “get it right,” he said of the final report. “It’s complex, and we just want to put a little more time to make sure the recommendations are really sensible."
Waldman and his colleagues may be spending a good deal of time completing the recommendations section because it will be closely scrutinized by industry and lawmakers, said agency officials watching the work. The report will have a section about the industry and another on the policy and regulatory environment facing media, Waldman has said (CD May 28 p5). Some of the work being done on the recommendations section is to make sure that the contents are practical, another agency official said. Because the report isn’t a regulatory effort like a rulemaking or an order, the commissioners probably won’t vote on it, the official said. The National Broadband Plan wasn’t voted on, but the commissioners did issue a statement about high-speed Internet goals.