FCC Sets Comments for PEG Waiver Request

The FCC has set a comment schedule for the Alliance for Community Media's (ACM) request that PEG channel programmers, as a class, be exempt from some reporting requirements.

In issuing the request for comment, the FCC's Media Bureau said ACM had asked for the waiver from "certain Commission registration and certification requirements for video programmers that provide video programming exclusively to public, educational, and governmental access channels (PEG channels), to the extent that such channels are exempt from the provision of closed captioning under the Commission’s rules."

ACM says that since PEG channels generally are exempt from closed captioning rules—including for producing less than $3 million in revenues—and its programmers as a class should not have to register contact information with the FCC and certify that they are exempt, a requirement it says is a burden on "many thousands" of programmers.

The FCC will give commenters until Feb. 9 and replies until Feb. 24.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.