Indecency Complaints Delay TV Station License Renewals
A spate of FCC indecency complaints has delayed renewals of TV licenses because broadcaster requests can’t be granted while a station is under investigation, said industry officials. Hundreds of renewal requests from ABC, Fox and NBC affiliates have been hung up at the Commission because of active complaints, an industry source said. “There is a significant number” of such cases, said an FCC official, but detailed statistics aren’t available. Some of those cases stem from a backlog of complaints that Chmn. Martin wants to clear up through orders like the recent indecency fines of about $4 million (CD March 17 p1), said another FCC official.
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The delays prompted grumbling from broadcasters at NAB’s show last week in Las Vegas (CD April 26 p4). A station can’t be sold if its license hasn’t been renewed, said industry officials and the FCC source. Daily operations aren’t usually affected by the delays, and stations can apply to the Commission for what’s known as a tolling agreement to sell a station. Under those deals, a station’s license is renewed in exchange for an agreement not to contest a pending indecency investigation, said the FCC official.
“The broadcast business is built on FCC licenses, so any delay in renewal is going to cause some anxiety,” said Stanford Washington Research Group’s Paul Gallant: “Once the Commission addresses the pending indecency complaints, the renewals should not take long.” That might not happen soon. Commissioners took months to vote on the recent batch of indecency fines totaling about $4 million (CD Dec 27 p5). Further delays in pending cases are likely, said industry officials and analysts.
The FCC’s focus on indecency complaints has a silver lining for broadcasters. Chmn. Martin, his hands full with controversial indecency orders, is unlikely to continue to push a voluntary family friendly first hour of prime time, said analysts and industry sources. Broadcasters have reacted warily to the proposal, and Martin hasn’t pushed them hard in public settings. He didn’t mention the plan in his NAB keynote (CD April 26 p2). Asked about it later, he said: “I will continue to tell all the broadcasters they should implement a family viewing hour.” Martin continues to support the family hour, talking about it “often and whenever he talks about indecency on broadcast TV,” said an FCC official.
Hurdles to family hour goals include increased use of VoD, PVRs and other untraditional TV viewing, said analysts and broadcast officials. Nonlinear viewing makes the prospect of a kid-friendly hour moot, they said. “It doesn’t really make sense to develop a policy that is dated before it is implemented,” said Yankee Group’s Adi Kishore: “The impact of a family hour, if it was implemented and enforced, would still have an impact on the consumer, but the trend is going the other way.” About 1/6 of U.S. homes have a PVR, a proportion expected to increase, he said.
Broadcasters may not heed Martin’s family plan because it would give cable a further edge in its ability to air racy programming that can’t be shown on broadcast networks, Gallant said: “The networks may be reluctant to do a family hour because competition is so fierce and they feel they can’t give cable channels a greater competitive advantage in terms of content.”