Senate Dems Call for FCC to Refresh VMVPD Docket

Twenty members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, including Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have signed a letter urging the FCC to refresh the record in docket 14-261 on reclassifying linear streaming services as MVPDs. The FCC “should be developing a record and recommendations to ensure that our regulatory system -- which has enabled a thriving locally focused broadcast system that is the envy of the world -- is not undermined by the explosion of new technologies that were not foreseen even a mere decade ago,” said the letter, which was helmed by Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has maintained that the agency doesn’t have the authority to reclassify streaming services, and the FCC said her thinking hadn’t changed after a June letter from Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. (see 2306230062). “We urge you to refresh the aging, unclosed record from the 2014 proceeding by seeking new public comments to provide updated video marketplace information,” Wednesday's letter said.