FCC Chairman Genachowski is being interviewed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.. I must confess, while he’s being responsive to every question, he isn’t going very far beyond the basic things he has said for months.

He spends some time talking about making the FCC more open, responsive and transparent. The new Reboot.FCC.Gov is interesting.

However, discussing the convergence of the internet with devices, he says there is a tremendous desire to make sure devices are open for innovation and the FCC is looking at obstacles to convergence issues. He adds that it can be a good way to drive adoption and deployment.

Genachowski also said: “The Fairness Doctrine is dead.”. No word on whether the FCC could put its finger on the content scales through other regulatory mechanisms.

Genachowski says spectrum scarcity is a very real issue. Bob Frankston is not going to be happy about that.

CEA President Gary Shapiro asks whether the eventual ubiquitous broadband distribution means broadcast regulation should go away. Genachowski doesn’t answer directly, but he does say that traditional issues will often need to be addressed in a new way.

Shapiro asks whether so much regulation is really necessary? Genachowski says universal broadband changes a lot of things…..but he stakes out no position beyond leaving that door open. That’s a positive opening. Kevin Werbach wrote an FCC report in 1997 making exactly that point: when technology evolves, don’t look first at regulating new technology. Instead, look at deregulating old technology.