CNN Teams With FAA To Help Develop Rules For News Drones

It may not provide deeper journalism, but at least it will be higher. CNN says that it just reached what it calls a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration to “integrate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into newsgathering and reporting.” Several TV news organizations are eager to use drones to inexpensively offer hard-to-get camera angles of breaking news events.

Regulators need to come up with rules that will enable the fast-growing array of flying devices to share the skies with other aircraft. CNN will provide the FAA with information it has been gathering in a partnership with the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

“Unmanned aircraft offer news organizations significant opportunities,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta says. The work his agency is doing “will help safely integrate unmanned newsgathering technology and operating procedures into the National Airspace System.”

CNN SVP David Vigilante adds that the Time Warner news network wants to “get beyond hobby-grade equipment” and help to develop “a vibrant ecosystem where operators of various types and sizes can safely operate in the US airspace.”