Matt Wood Added As Witness in STELA Hearing

Matt Wood, policy director for Free Press, has been added to the witness list for the March 12 STELA hearing in the House Communications Subcommittee.

House Republican leadership last week released a discussion draft of a bill reauthorizing the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act.

Already lined up for the hearing are National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Michael Powell, Marci Burdick, senior VP, Shurz Communications; Mike Palkovic, executive VP of operations, DirecTV; and Matt Zinn, senior VP and general counsel of TiVo.

Among the proposals in the draft bill is one to end the FCC's ban on integrated set-tops, a move TiVo is concerned could put them at a competitive disadvantage because it relies on the CableCARD regime for separating the security and surfing functions to deliver cable digital services. NCTA, by contrast, has been pushing the FCC to end the ban.

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.