FCC's Tom Wheeler Defends Regulatory Moves

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler told broadcasters on Tuesday that they can move from “being the disrupted to the disruptor,” a call for them to pursue innovation even after many have grumbled that the agency is targeting them for additional regulations while favoring a broadband future, according to Variety.

Wheeler’s speech came a day after Gordon Smith, president of the National Assn. of Broadcasters, blasted the FCC for a “singular focus” on broadband, and said that the agency was imposing rules “as if the world is stuck in the 1970s.”

But the tone during Wheeler’s speech, and in a Q&A with Smith afterward, was much more about assuring broadcasters that they can be at the forefront of innovation. In fact, face-to-face with Wheeler, Smith was more conciliatory than he was on Monday, and made a “peace offering” by presenting him with a “Buckeye necklace,” as Wheeler is an alum of Ohio State.

“You know what the definition of a Buckeye is?” Wheeler asked. “A hairless nut of no practical value.”

Smith then quipped, “If the NAB had said that, it’d be a headline.”

One cause of strife between the FCC and the broadcast lobby is a recently passed rule that restricts stations from entering into joint sharing agreements to sell advertising time, so-called sidecar deals that Wheeler said constituted “end runs” around media ownership caps. Broadcasters complained that the rule will stifle station investment and ignores the realities of competition from cable and satellite.

But Wheeler said that stations could seek a waiver if they could show that such arrangements “facilitate statutory values such as a diversity of voices and ownership they will have no problem clearing the FCC.”

He defended the FCC’s action, saying that “some broadcast lawyers took a really good concept and manipulated it to their ends.”

Smith said that Wheeler called him for a meeting to have a “heart to heart talk” on tensions between the agency and broadcasters.

Among the topics discussed was Smith’s proposal that the FCC devise a National Broadcast Plan, which would lay out the future of broadcasting. Wheeler said that he takes the idea “very seriously,” and if “Congress will give us the funds, we will carry it out.”

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