FCC chair Ajit Pai's prepared testimony for the House Communications Subcommittee's FCC oversight hearing Wednesday (May 15), which he said he was updating on "the work of the Federal Communications Commission to advance the public interest," was notable for what he didn't say as what he did.
The chairman talked about the race to 5G and cybersecurity and freeing up spectrum for wireless broadband and blocking robocalls and closing the rural digital divide and public safety. But there was scant mention of broadcasting or cable, and none about the FCC's efforts toward the ATSC 3.0 advanced transmission standard, or the status of the post incentive auction repack, or the FCC's consideration of further broadcast deregulation as part of the congressionally-mandated quadrennial review, or the removal of some of the legacy cable and broadcast reporting requirements the FCC has jettisoned.
In fact, the only mention of broadcasters and one of only two brief mentions of cable, was hardly a glowing one. It was in relation to the emergency alert testing the FCC has been conducting--the requirement that broadcasters and cable operators notify the FCC if they have messed up and sent a false alert. The other cable mention was in a list of Connect America Fund applicants.
