Call for Comments Resumes On Chicago Dish Ordinance

摘要

The FCC's Media Bureau has resumed seeking comment on a petition for declaratory ruling filed by the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association, Directv LLC, and Dish Network LLC in 2012, challenging Chicago's satellite dish antenna restrictions. In May 2012, "SBCA and the City of Chicago filed a joint motion with the Commission to stay the public comment period" set for the petition "until after the Commission renders a decision in the proceeding involving SBCA's challenge to a similar ordinance enacted by the City of Philadelphia," and the bureau granted that request. In 2018, the bureau found that the Philadelphia ordinance violated the FCC's over-the-air reception devices (OTARD) rules, which is aimed at ensuring competitive choice for consumers with respect to video services. "Since then, the Bureau contacted the parties to this Petition, to ascertain whether a dispute over the Chicago Ordinance still exists," the bureau said in a public notice released Sept. 1 in MB docket 20-284 and CSR-8624-O. "Because the parties have indicated that the issues raised in the Petition require resolution, we now resume seeking comment on the Petition. We note that while not identical, the Philadelphia and Chicago Ordinances are similar. We ask that commenters opposing the Petition be mindful of the Bureau's Philadelphia Declaratory Ruling and address why the Chicago Ordinance should be distinguished from the Philadelphia Ordinance, and why the Chicago Ordinance does not similarly violate the OTARD Rule."