Source: Senate Video Hearing Postponed

According to a source, the Senate Commerce Committee is likely to postpone a future of video hearing that was being penciled in for Sept. 30.

No word on why, but committee was said to be eyeing Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch and FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake as possible witnesses.

Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) last year joined with then Commerce Chair Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), who has since retired, to propose one view of the video future, the Local Choice proposal that would have allowed cable subs to opt out of TV station signals on an ad hoc basis if they did not want to pay the per-sub price for them that cable operators pay and pass along to their subs.

"The Committee has yet to notice hearings for next week," said a spokesman for the committee. "An official decision for a hearing on Sept. 30 would not have to be made until Wednesday."

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.