We noted earlier in the month that the FCC’s Open Meeting in January held little of interest to the broadcast community and that still is the case. Now we can say that the February Open Meeting agenda is looking like a broadcast snoozer as well.
The January meeting is usually devoted to leaders at various FCC bureaus and offices reflecting on both the year just passed and the one just starting. We suspect there may be ample time for that again when the commissioners sit down for the opening gavel at the 1/25/11 meeting. There is only one item on the agenda – one more than usual, but also one less than previously announced (one moved to February). The lone surviving item is from the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.
February’s meeting will be held just two weeks after the January meeting, on 2/8/11. A Data Innovation presentation originally scheduled for January is now listed on the February agenda, along with items on Broadband and Voice Data Modernization and another that purports to eliminate a reporting requirement on Bell Operating Companies.
RBR-TVBR observation: The biggest current events story at the FCC concerning broadcasting and cable was handled on circulation – that would be the approval of the Comcast/NBCU joint venture. At some point, we are expecting items on retransmission consent and the quadrennial review, along with other matters that have been kicking around underneath a broadband-dominated radar screen.
