Digital Policy Institute Speakers Call for Video Laws Overhaul
Panelists at a Digital Policy Institute webinar Wednesday called for the next Congress to undertake a major overhaul of laws dealing with the video market. "These video laws are from a while ago; they are not aging all that well," said Brent Skorup, a fellow at the George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. Echoing the sentiment by calling a rewrite "a no-brainer," Nicol Turner-Lee, a Brookings Institution fellow who recently left the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, said a rewrite could be one rare area of bipartisan support. Some similarly have seen Congress as having a window for bipartisan action on such efforts as an overhaul of the 1996 Telecom Act (see 1611150038).
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The current regulatory video framework primarily favors traditional broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors, with the challenge being to open up that regulatory system to let in new players, Turner-Lee said. Skorup said the FCC needs to pivot from intervening in the video market and focus more on the broader issues of spectrum policy and fostering competition.
Skorup said FCC Title II reclassification of broadband put the agency in the middle of the TV market since video watching is inexorably moving to mobile and Title II gives the agency "sweeping power" to regulate broadband. However, Title II rules governing zero rating are vague, meaning it's not clear when the agency "will swoop in and potentially hit you with a fine," he said, pointing to the Wireless Bureau's warning to AT&T earlier this month that its AT&T Mobility offering could unduly disadvantage unaffiliated video providers through sponsored data fees and the zero rating of AT&T's DirecTV offerings. With the FCC taking an increasingly hands-off regulatory stance on the video market as competition has increased, Skorup said he hopes the agency will take the same "light touch" on pay-TV and broadcasters that it has with online video.
Speakers pointed to spectrum bandwidth and infrastructure as being huge needs. Morgan Reed, executive director of ACT | The App Association, said the burgeoning virtual reality and augmented reality worlds have huge potential, but they also lead to massive demands for bandwidth that have to be met. "Everyone is trying to figure out how to use [VR and AR] and in what way," he said. Reed said policymakers looking at the app market have to keep in mind "the giant iceberg underneath" apps as they tie into cloud networks and integrated systems. With the incoming Trump administration talking about infrastructure investment, it's important spectrum be treated as an infrastructure asset, Turner-Lee said.
While consumer video choices are increasing, that doesn't automatically translate into access to higher quality content, Turner-Lee said. Content creators need sustainable business platforms, which actually could be jeopardized by that proliferation of access ramps, she said: That changing market also should bring more diverse media ownership and content and increased representation.