MAP Welcomes FCC Action on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Broadcasters
Posted: Wednesday December 15, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Access Project (“MAP”) applauded the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) for releasing a Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”) today on the duties digital broadcasters owe their local communities and the American people.
“This is a good beginning in requiring broadcasters to give the public the service it deserves under the law,” said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, President and CEO of MAP. For over sixty years, broadcasters have received free use of the airwaves in exchange for providing services to the public.
In 1996, Congress gave broadcasters billions of dollars in free spectrum to help broadcasters transition from analog transmission to digital “DTV”. Associate Director Harold Feld added: “Now that broadcasters have double the spectrum, they should provide at least twice as much service.” Feld noted that DTV allows broadcasters to “multi-stream” a variety of content and services simultaneously, increasing the value of the spectrum give-away still further.
The NOI implements the report of a commission chaired by Vice President Gore, which examined the public interest obligations of broadcasters in the Digital Age. As the Vice President reminded FCC Chair William Kennard, the Gore Commission found that broadcasters who eagerly accepted this windfall have a duty to the American people, who financed it.
“The Gore Commission devoted significant time to considering the obligations of digital broadcasters,” said Schwartzman. “I am particularly pleased at the consideration given to improved public disclosures by broadcasters, as proposed by the Gore Commission.”
Schwartzman said MAP will press the FCC to require broadcasters to give free time to all candidates for public office. Schwartzman pointed to growing support among the public and among scholars for the adoption of rules requiring free time. Schwartzman also noted the Gore Commission’s recommendation that broadcasters be required to sell time to local candidates. Many broadcasters refuse to sell advertising time to local candidates and spend little time covering local politics. Last year’s appallingly bad coverage of a hotly contested governor’s race in California provides but one example of the need for increased local coverage
Said Schwartzman: “The cost of political advertising and the perception by programming executives that politics doesn’t ‘sell’ has reduced us to a sound-byte electorate. Hopefully, the Commission’s action today will force broadcasters to re-evaluate their priorities and live up to their obligations to the American people.”
MAP tempered its praise with caution, noting that the NOI represents only a first step. “The Commission must have the political will to carry forward in the face of stiff resistance,” warned Schwartzman. “This NOI represents a promise to the American people, a promise we expect the Commission will fulfill in the months ahead.”