Broadcasters can better decide when to air public service ads on ...
Broadcasters can better decide when to air public service ads on the DTV transition and how many spots to run than the FCC, Commissioner Robert McDowell said. A draft order from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin long circulating on the…
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FCC’s top floor includes PSA requirements, but industry and some commissioners dislike the idea. The order has long had three votes and McDowell and Commissioner Deborah Tate are expected to vote soon so the document can be released (CD Jan 28 p2). The FCC should adopt NAB’s plan for broadcasters already participating in the group’s PSA campaign to be excused from DTV requirements, McDowell told a Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable webcast Wednesday. “We ought to give broadcasters a choice of doing what their own industry” plans to do or facing FCC mandates, he said. “There are some potential legal challenges otherwise, some potential First Amendment questions.” Requiring programmers to sell channels to cable operators on an a la carte basis, subject of an FCC rulemaking notice, seems an unwise idea, McDowell said. “I understand that the pricing of pay video services and all the inputs that go into it is really sort of a fragile ecosystem, and I don’t think anybody really understands it, so you have to be very careful” in changing it. “It could adversely impact consumer prices.”