Norman Leventhal is a Partner in our
Washington D.C. office
The FCC Commissioners and Staff are busy at work trying to come
up with another solution to the clutter that is broadcast
ownership. In our
December 28 blog post, we noted that it was unlikely such a
solution would be presented in early 2013. So far, it looks like we
were right.
Nevertheless, no one benefits by having the uncertainty continue
for much longer. The stakeholders' positions are well known:
broadcasters want far fewer restrictions and public interest and
community-based groups want the status quo maintained or even
tightened. A recent event that did not help the broadcaster cause
was the CBS flap over CNET, one of its properties. While a hotly
contested litigation with DISH over the "Hopper DVR' was
ongoing, CBS allegedly nixed a CNET award for the advertising
skipping Hopper recorder. The Public Interest Group, Public
Knowledge, threw this up to the Commission as a demonstration of
why
