Wow, the FCC turned up in the news allot over the past 10 days. This could lead to displacing the latest news from Brangelina…nah! The impact will be felt across all media. Well, maybe not print…but they have enough to worry about.
Satellite Radio. Big surprise, they approved the merger of XM and Sirius with very few stipulations attached. Much to the chagrin of the NAB, MPR, NPR, PRI, and many other letters of the alphabet except MEL. Mel Karmazin has successfully gotten his wish and, once he fights off the inevitable appeals, will oversee one unprofitable satellite radio service instead of two. So far the only way this business has made any money at all is from investors who keep hoping that the promises made to them that “it will be profitable” actually come true.
To be fair, this was inevitable. To deploy that many birds, maintain studios and staff, keep up with operating expenses, pay content fees and royalties, as well as create new content while patiently waiting for enough subscribers to make it all profitable is no simple task for one company, let alone two.
Internet. In it’s July 20th Notice of Proposed Rulemaking the FCC is looking to mandate filters “That filters or blocks images and text that constitute obscenity or pornography…” on free broadband. It’s a bit of a slippery slope, especially when you come across the infamous “as measured by contemporary community standards” line. This has to do with the new spectrum that the FCC is auctioning off known as the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) Spectrum. Does this start us down the road of censorship of internet content? Take note: this talks about filtering services that make internet content available to the public for free, not the removal of content from the internet. Like I said a slippery slope. Info here and here.
TV. I remember distinctly the day Janet Jackson’s nipple became half-time entertainment because of that “wardrobe malfunction”. I’m still trying to figure out if the way I explained it to my kids was even close to effective. I also remember the half million dollar fine the FCC threw at CBS for airing it. Keep in mind a 30 second ad costs 2.7 million clams so really, the fine was chump change. No matter, it all got overturned on July 21. Look for more nipples coming soon to half-time shows near you. Now if we can get somebody to tell the N(nipple)FL to lighten up on the use of the words Super Bowl. C’mon guys, don’t make everyone in media say “the big game.” For the love of Pete…why would you want to limit someone from using your brand by name. Find something else for your lawyers to do. But I digress…
Radio. All of the above.
Your subject remind me of a “buyer beware” piece I saw recently on the evening news. Now this is about why I don’t watch much evening news anymore, but they sent 11 year olds into the Boston Public Library with hidden cameras and had them check out rated R movies. They even had the one outraged mother to rant about what a tragedy this was (and this wasn’t even Fox news.) Of course, the interim library director, focused on freedom of information, appeared to find the coverage rather preposterous (but managed to make her smirk not too obvious for the interview.)
It appears that the community does not always appreciate the slippery slope we are facing, nor is there a clear understanding of the difference between a practice, a law, and a regulation. The outraged mother from the news, in my opinion, should keep her children’s library cards in her wallet if she wants to limit what they can and can’t see. She should probably not let the children use amazon.com either.
Maybe soon, we’ll see pan-agency policies in the USA and the FCC can monitor internet users to ensure that the filters are working, and torture them when they try to get around them.