NAB2004 Special: Reports From the National Association of Broadcasters Show April 17-22, 2004 - Las Vegas, Nevada
By Eric Taub
Powell Defends FCC Crackdown
Fresh from dealing with the breast heard ‘round the world, FCC Commissioner Michael Powell defended his agency’s actions in dealing with indecent programming as a natural reaction to the nation’s concerns.
In a discussion with ABC anchor Sam Donaldson at this week’s NAB show, Powell said that between 2002 and today, the number of complaints the agency has received about indecency on the airwaves has increased forty fold. However, Powell acknowledged that there was no effective way to determine if those communications were from individuals or part of a broader partisan campaign.
For those producers now fearful of having an on-screen character mutter even a slightly off-color remark, Powell offered no solace. It was not the Agency’s job to come up with a proscribed list of words and actions, he said. In fact, such a list might only increase censorship.
"You don’t want the government to write a Red Book of what you can and cannot say," Powell argued. "That would be like federal sentencing guidelines; it’s a lot clearer, but it would remove the ability to weigh unique facts and make adjustments."
People who argue that racist and xenophobic speech is at least as "indecent" as the discussion of sexual and excretory functions are missing the point. In response to Donaldson’s query as to whether a radio announcer should be allowed to say "kill all Muslims," Powell argued that "the restriction of free-flowing discussion would be unconstitutional. However offensive that sentence is, it’s not part of the indecency statute."
When it comes to indecency, the community can’t have it both ways, demanding that the government mandate "family" programming at one point, while decrying its attempt to stop indecent speech and behaviors. "If you want us to promote positive content, don’t be surprised when we stop negative content," he said.
Rabbit Ears Make A Comeback
Now that most Americans have given up their TV antennas in exchange for a cable or satellite connection, the broadcast industry has a new message for consumers: come home, we were only kidding.
Stung by the success of cable TV, a technology that was originally designed for those who could not receive a decent over-the-air signal, a consortium of major broadcasters announced at this week’s NAB show that they were ready to go mano a mano with their competitor, by offering a less-costly package of broadcast and cable channels, all received with a standard TV antenna.
For a $25 monthly fee, customers will receive the local broadcaster’s HDTV channel, plus a package of at least 30 of the "must-have" cable services. The signals will be sent over the air; thanks to digital transmission, every picture will arrive without the previous ghosting and snow that encouraged many viewers to subscribe to cable in the first place.
This "digital antenna system" is being proposed by a consortium of broadcasters, including Emmis Communications, Clear Channel Communications, E.W. Scripps Co., and others.
Due to anti-trust rules, cable companies will be forced to license their channels to the consortium, argues Jeff Smulyan, the initiative’s founder and chairman of Emmis Communications. And studies indicate that, if the required digital converter box is given away, 49% of respondents would quit cable or satellite for this new offering. "This model works well with a 10% subscriber rate, and we think we’ll get 15%," Smulyan said.
When a subscriber to the service tunes in to Los Angeles’ channel 4, they could see NBC’s HDTV feed on the main channel, Bravo on the 2nd sub-channel, and perhaps CNN on the 3rd. While current technology allows broadcasters to send one HDTV and up to 3 standard definition channels at the same time, new MPEG-4 compression technology could increase that tenfold.
Capital costs to create the service should be low, around $300,000 per station. Projections call for the venture to accrue $4-6 billion in revenue within 5 years, with a 20% profit margin. Broadcasters will make money from subscription fees as well as revenue from the local ad slots on each cable channel.
A launch date has not been set, nor has a business plan yet been written, as the group continues to try and attract more members angry at other companies making money from their services. The consortium was created, Smulyan said, to stop the giveaway of the broadcasters’ assets to cable and satellite providers. "We created the value. This time, we’re going to own it."