Tim Winter, the Parents Television Council’s executive director in California, said that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin “has been our hero,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Martin, who has sought to cleanse television of indecent and offensive programming, has…
Indecency and obscenity complaints fell from 4,368 in the second quarter of 2007 to 368 in the third quarter, according to a recent Federal Communications Commission report, Broadcasting & Cable reports. The FCC is still in a court battle over…
Writers Guild of America-West president Patric Verrone has asked the FCC to establish guidelines for product integration disclosure, Daily Variety reports. Verrone states in a letter to FCC chairman Kevin Martin that product integration interferes with the writers’ creative process,…
The FCC is preparing for a slew of complaints after TV’s mandated switch to digital next February, Broadcasting & Cable reports. The FCC anticipates different scenarios, such as viewer and broadcaster inquiries and lawsuits, and even included such preparations for…
In a sign that he’s lost the support of even his Republican colleagues, Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin was outvoted 4-1 on a ruling that prevents Verizon from using proprietary information to keep phone subscribers from switching their phone…
The Federal Communications Commission this week is expected to begin the process of creating new rules about letting viewers know when advertisers have paid for product placement in programming, the Wall Street Journal reports. “You shouldn’t need a magnifying glass…
Presidential Candidate Barack Obama says he favors steps to prevent media concentration, accord to an E-Mail interview with Broadcasting & Cable. “The effects of consolidation today and continued consolidation are well-documented,” Mr. Obama says. “Less diversity of opinion, less local…
An agreement between broadcast networks and their local affiliates involving preemptive programming and other issues will remove the Federal Communications Commission from having to arbitrate such cases, TelevisionWeek reports. Local stations have the right to preempt network programming without reprisal…
About a dozen independent cable networks, including WealthTV, HDNet, the Hispanic Information & Telecommunications Network and the Horror Channel, have joined to form the National Association of Independent Networks, Multichannel News reports. The group is asking the Federal Communications Commission…
DirecTV is opposing a proposed regulation by the Federal Communications Commission that would require the company to provide duplicative carriage of digital TV stations signals in high-definition and standard-definition formats, Multichannel News reports. The satellite provider argued that the rule…