Set-Top Vote Still Scheduled for Sept. 29 FCC Meeting

The FCC has released the tentative agenda for the Sept. 29 meeting, and as promised, the set-top box proposal vote it on it.

There has been a flurry of activity at the commission in advance of the release of the agenda seven days before the public meeting, which triggers a seven-day sunshine period prohibiting communications with FCC commissioners on agenda items on the docket for a meeting vote.

It will be a busy meeting, with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on access to diverse programming and a report and order on the FCC proposal to streamline the rules for broadcasters seeking approval of sales of broadcast properties to foreign owners.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has been under pressure to delay the vote, but said last week that was not the plan.

The set-top box proposal is billed as: "A Report and Order that modernizes the Commission’s rules to allow consumers to use a device of their choosing to access multichannel video programming instead of leasing devices from their cable or satellite providers."

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.