The FCC has not given up on its retransmission consent proposals, although it has been more than a year since it first proposed them.
Asked after a speech at the Media Institute whether the FCC had decided to let sleeping items lie, as it were, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake was emphatic. "No, we haven't decided anything."
He said the they had reviewed all the comments that had been filed and were "watching the marketplace to see whether there is a need for further intervention, but we haven't decided anything."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has been reluctant to get into retrans disputes, but Lake said that the bureau had not reached any conclusions. He pointed out the FCC had received some complaints this year. Although he conceded that the number of viewers and football games impacted may have been smaller this year, "but we still see a lot of churn in that market and are watching it closely."
