WASHINGTON: Broadway and professional sports organizations are dropping their challenge of the Federal Communications Commission’s white-space rules. The groups have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to dismiss their petition for review of the rules. Petitioners include the Alliance of Resident Theatres in New York, Broadway League, Educational Theatre Association, ESPN, the NHL, NBA, NFL, News Corp., Major League Baseball and others.
They follow the National Association of Broadcasters in dropping the request for review. All the organizations petitioned the court for a review of the FCC’s 2008 Second Report and Order on white-space devices, referred to in the documents as “TV band devices,” or TVBDs. The NAB withdrew in early May, citing the FCC’s subsequent Third Report and Order, released in April, which addressed the organization’s concerns with certain technical parameters.
The theater and sports entities did not specify why they were withdrawing, only that they would not “pursue this petition for review.”
~ Deborah D. McAdams
