Should Similar Public Interest Obligations Apply to All Forms of Media?
With multiple ways of obtaining audio and video content, Andrew Shapiro, fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center and director of the Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project, observed that it was becoming harder for audiences to differentiate between audio and video providers who are using the spectrum (such as traditional television and radio broadcasters) and those who are not (such as Internet broadcasters). Shapiro expects that in the next five to ten years there will be a hybrid television-computer network. Where some media are subject to public interest obligations and others are not, he voiced his concern about “regulatory arbitrage.” But Julius Genachowski, general counsel of HSNi Broadcasting, pointed out that every other medium is subject to some form of public interest regulation. For example, cable systems have public access requirements and direct broadcast satellites (DBS) have a set-aside requirement for noncommercial educational programming. In his view, the releva
