Commissioners Get More Time to Change FCC DTV Education Order
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin delayed for at least a third time a deadline for commissioners to vote on an order that would require broadcasters to air digital transition public service ads, as his colleagues consider whether to exempt a wide swath of stations from the mandates, said agency and industry sources. The latest extension runs through Thursday, said an agency source. The last extension gave Commissioners Robert McDowell and Deborah Tate until last week to vote (CD Jan 28 p2). FCC Chairman Kevin Martin voted for the order Oct. 16 when he circulated it. It quickly got the support of Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps as well.
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The latest delay lets the FCC’s two Republican commissioners decide whether to propose revisions to the order to add a Dec. 28 proposal by NAB, said agency sources. NAB said stations participating in its DTV education initiative -- the vast majority of broadcasters -- deserve “safe harbor” from the order’s mandate on public service ads. Besides McDowell and Tate, other commissioners also are considering whether to back NAB’s proposal and scale back Martin’s draft of the order, said an FCC source. An FCC spokeswoman declined to comment.
Neither McDowell nor Tate have proposed revising the order to exempt stations already airing PSAs, FCC officials said. It’s unclear if a majority of commissioners will back NAB’s proposal, made after Adelstein, Copps and Martin voted for the DTV consumer education order, they said. Also unclear is whether lawmakers would be amenable to such changes, said an official. Martin has said he circulated the order on the FCC’s top floor after House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., asked him about PSA requirements.
Other commissioners want Martin to call a final vote on the item and don’t support NAB’s changes, an agency source said. Martin’s continued extensions may mean he favors the NAB plan, said the source. If the chairman changes the order, the other commissioners would weigh those revisions, but right now they think NAB needs to require members to air more ads, said the official. NAB’s plan would require airing of 144 ads per quarter, or 1.6 daily. Broadcast networks ABC, Azteca America, CBS, CW, Fox, Ion, MyNetworkTV, NBC, Telemundo, Telefutura and Univision each have committed to airing two PSAs a week, said a Jan. 23 NAB filing. In the Washington, D.C., area, that means affiliates of eight of those networks would air a total of 192 spots weekly, said the group.
Since Jan. 29, NAB officials and members have praised the safe harbor plan in meetings with Martin, Media Bureau Chief Monica Desai and Adelstein, Copps and McDowell, ex parte filings show. In separate meetings last week with Adelstein, Copps and McDowell, NBC Universal officials said the agency should let the industry handle PSAs. “A one-size- fits-all plan will not be as effective as plans tailored to specific markets and audiences,” said an ex parte filed Monday by the company. “A safe harbor plan raises less litigation risk and allows the Commission to focus its limited resources on those broadcasters, if any, who don’t do their part to educate the public.”
In a Tuesday letter to Martin, the Media Institute said the order constitutes “intrusive regulation” that may violate the First Amendment. “Requiring all television broadcasters to disseminate a state-sponsored massage would constitute a wholly unwarranted intrusion into broadcasters control over program content,” it said. Benton Foundation’s Charles Benton said the NAB should welcome FCC PSA mandates. “They are simply not going to be able to force their members to do this, they don’t have the power, the FCC does, that’s the point,” said Benton, a member of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee and its DTV subcommittee: “If there was ever a time that the NAB should embrace regulation, this is it.”