WASHINGTON—The FCC announced this week that it will “streamline” its Media Bureau by eliminating the Bureau’s engineering division and moving its responsibilities to its Industry Analysis Division (IAD), citing a decline in paperwork as it moves to digitize filing processes.
“The Engineering Division processed cable industry regulatory filings (such as registrations and their updates, and signal leakage and proof of performance results), Cable Television Relay Service (CARS) applications and requests for rulings on technical matters,” the FCC said in its announcement. “As the industry has transitioned from analog to digital and from paper to electronic filing processes, and as the Commission has engaged in dozens of proceedings to modernize its rules, the Engineering Division’s tasks have diminished.”
The FCC said the Engineering Division’s work is now primarily focused on consulting with other FCC divisions on media-related technical rulemakings and enforcement and providing analysis of the commission’s cable industry data, as well as maintaining the Cable Operations and Licensing System (COALS) database, which includes the CARS licensing process.
“Simplifying the organizational structure of the Bureau will streamline its operations, improve the supervisor-to-employee ratio thereby reducing redundancies in management and encourage more extensive staff interaction and collaboration,” the FCC said. “The IAD staff has extensive experience analyzing the media industry and incorporating such analysis into the Bureau’s rulemaking and regulation. Therefore, they are well positioned to effectively utilize the technical resources of the Engineering Division.”
