FCC Public Meeting Start Delayed ... Big-Time
Still on Docket: Renewing Program-Access Rules, Tightening 'Viewability' Definition
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/11/2007 5:35:00 PM
In what has become a predictable start -- make that nonstart -- to Federal Communications Commission public meetings, the FCC's Sept. 11 meeting did not begin at 9:30 a.m. as scheduled, with none of the commissioners seated by 5 p.m..
Numerous meetings have been delayed, sometimes for hours, as commissioners worked on statements or tried to resolve last-minute differences.
Several items were deleted from the agenda as late as Monday night, but still on the docket are votes on renewing the program-access rules and tightening the defnition of the "viewability" of the TV-station signal, or signals, that cable operators must carry.
Both items contain contentious elements that apparently have made marshalling a majority for the chairman, who controls the agenda, problematic.
FCC spokespeople were unavailable for comment on a possible start time.
