1STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL O’RIELLY
Re: Commission Launches Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative, MB Docket No. 17-
105
This item exemplifies the Commission’s newfound openness to stakeholder input and its shift 
toward reality-based decision making.  As has been often noted by myself and others, our regulations in 
the media space are strewn with anachronisms more appropriate for a different set of circumstances.  A 
wholesale review is necessary and, indeed, long overdue.  So, I support this initiative and fully expect that 
it will generate some quick results to follow on to our previous successes in this space, including updating 
the dissemination requirements for employment openings, and eliminating the main studio rule, as 
proposed today.  
Broadcasters, cable operators, and other media stakeholders I have spoken with are familiar with 
my frequent calls for ideas about specific regulations that are outdated or no longer necessary.  In the 
previous Commission, I was often able to champion these changes that were suggested to me, and get 
them moving in one form or another.  Now that we are opening this proceeding, the entire Commission 
stands ready to hear your ideas and act on them, which is a refreshing change of pace.  The Commission 
should not be in the business of generating busywork or collecting reams of data no one ever looks at.  
Since the beginning of the year, I have already heard a number of ideas that I am hopeful could be 
implemented as part of this process, including updates of many of our reporting requirements.  For 
example, all TV stations are required to file an Ancillary DTV Report annually regarding the 5% DTV 
ancillary fee.  The report must be filed even if the answer, as is often the case, is simply “no fee due.”  
This form can and should be eliminated for parties that do not owe a fee.  Similarly, form 397 requires 
simply a name and a copy of the annual EEO reports for the last two years.  But now that EEO reports are 
filed with the Commission in the parties’ online public files, this form is duplicative.  
Notification requirements are another area where many updates should be made, now that so 
much communication has gone digital.  For example, our rules often require broadcasters to give public 
notice of certain applications in local newspapers.  But with newspaper circulation often dwarfed by the 
broadcaster’s own audience, or nonexistent in some localities, these notices would be much more 
effectively provided on a station’s website.  Our rules also require broadcasters to send notice of their 
decisions to opt into retransmission consent versus must-carry to cable operators via snail mail, a process 
that could be more easily accomplished online.  
These and other ideas now will have an effective fast track to consideration and, if appropriate, 
action.  I certainly will do my part to help obtain consensus and move as many as possible.