The FCC's ATSC Tuner Rules are No Longer Economically Necessary

The Federal Communications Commission, based on a rule adopted in 2002 to facilitate the transition to digital broadcasting, requires by regulation that television sets sold in the United States have an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) tuner. The ATSC tuner rule is still in effect even though the transition to digital broadcasting was largely completed several years ago and the vast majority of American households do not rely on the tuner. Current ATSC tuners enable television sets to receive over-the-air digital signals, although the vast majority of American households do not view television from such signals. The ATSC tuner rules are no longer economically useful.