Media Chiefs Breathe Sighs of Relief as Pai is Promoted to FCC Chair

Pai acted as the most consistent nemesis to former Chairman Tom Wheeler and was often the loudest voice against every other word Tom uttered Wheeler wanted to dictate his competitive agendaamp160 Pai wanted to listen to the FCCamp8217s constituents and regulate with a light handamp160 He also understood the difference among big bigger biggest and little companies and wasamp160perhaps loudest of all in opposition to Title II mandated amp8220net neutralityamp8221 and the settop box initiative in favor of the edge players over the ISPsamp160 His main argument always was against heavyhanded regulation per seSo whatamp8217s he going to doamp160 And how quickly can he do itThe courts backed the FCCamp8217s Title II decisionamp160 All the public comments emphasis on public by players in the modern media ecosystem have pledged allegiance to the concept of net neutrality Theyamp8217ve all made varying levels of pledges to honor it no matter whatamp160 The problem Title II almost demands rate regulationamp160 Thatamp8217s a nice hammer the FCC could use should it decide to do soThe best outcome and the one that Pai who truly understands communications law might be able to engineer is a return to former FCC Chairman Michael Powellamp8217s light hand amp8230 less ominous threats to those who might not keep their word about net neutralityamp160 Also Pai has launched his chairmanship promising to close the socalled digital divideamp160 That should play well with everyoneMeanwhile the new Congress might find the time to give him a handamp160 Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune is trying to craft a bipartisan no kidding legislative solution to protecting the open Internet short of relying on Title IIamp160 He amp8220isnamp8217t there yetamp8221 but has made it a priorityPai will also soon get to weigh in on proposed media merger activityRandom NotesSpeaking of media mergers as I have watched Comcastamp8217s success with its corporate marriage of distribution and content Iamp8217ve suggested that others would begin to mimic its modelamp160 The first move I thought would be Verizon acquiring AOL et al and then moving to acquire Yahoo complete with hacking overhangsamp160 I wrote a few months ago that after Charter fully absorbed both Time Warner Cable and Bright House it should move to acquire Time WarnerOf course ATampampT beat me to that by actually agreeing to buy Time Warneramp160 Proved the point but not as I expectedSo then I mused Charter should acquire LionsGate along with Starz both with a little LibertyI shouldamp8217ve thought about Verizon again amp8230 why shouldnamp8217t it grab Charteramp160 Maybe Verizon should have waited for Charter to get TMobile or Sprint before movingThe longterm new major media model is a very few companies with major holdings in every aspect of media content production and packaging plus distribution via any means fiber cable paired wire Internet satellite cellular wifi lofi and whatever comes next light waves anyone Can you say media oligarchyAbout the amp8220running waramp8221 on media by the new Administrationamp160 Letamp8217s see just what that means When the President decries the amp8220dishonest mediaamp8221 he just means amp8220They reported what I said yesterday not last weekamp8221When top advisor Stephen Bannon says the media should amp8220shut upamp8221 he means the media should just amp8220write what we tell youamp8221When the Administration says amp8220running waramp8221 it means amp8220weamp8217re going to shoot back amp8230 alwaysamp8221When the Administration says amp8220The media here is the opposition partyamp8221 it means what it saysOh by the way the Doomsday Clock moved a little closer to midnightamp160 Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wrote in Time amp8220Politicians and military leaders sound increasingly belligerent and defense doctrines more dangerous Commentators and TV personalities are joining the bellicose chorus It all looks as if the world is preparing for waramp8221Hereamp8217s when WWIII will start On February 11 2018 at the ski jump in PyeongChang South KoreaThough I pray notClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this article are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggersamp160

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Media Chiefs Breathe Sighs of Relief as Pai is Promoted to FCC Chair

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Paul S. Maxwell

Jon Miller | Cofounder Marketo, Engagio | The Gumball Machine is Broken - Rethinking B2B Marketing - By Mike Linton

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Media Chiefs Breathe Sighs of Relief as Pai is Promoted to FCC Chair

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