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Broadcasters Offer New Initiatives to Help Make TV Family-Friendly

Posted on: Thursday, 19 January 2006, 21:00 CST

WASHINGTON _ Hollywood and broadcasting and cable executives volunteered Thursday to bankroll a multimillion-dollar campaign to teach parents how to filter out raunchy television. They also said that new family-friendly channel packages for cable TV would give parents a clean-viewing option.

The initiatives, aired at a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing, are intended to discourage senators from endorsing stiff new fines for broadcast indecency or supporting a la carte programming, a pay-by-the-channel cable option that broadcasters oppose.

Family values advocacy groups want government intervention, but lawmakers are reluctant to act, in part because they fear curbs would violate free speech rights.

Former Motion Picture Association of America President Jack Valenti, who presented the broadcasters' plan, said, "The beauty of this is we don't torment and torture the First Amendment." Network and cable executives, along with Valenti, said current ratings systems and V-chips that enable parents to control kids' viewing are good enough, and it's simply a matter of showing parents how to use them. Critics say those options are too hard to use. To fix that, Valenti said, broadcasters are willing to spend as much as $300 million to:

_Air readable ratings logos before shows and after commercial breaks.

_Create, in conjunction with the Ad Council, and widely broadcast ads showing parents how to control what their children watch using existing technology and systems.

_Distribute information in retail stores and to parent advocacy groups.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, Commerce's chairman, praised the approach, but said the panel wouldn't rule until its series of hearings on decency is over. The family-oriented program packages, which bundle 30 to 40 channels of family fare, are the cable industry's latest initiative to appease critics and carve out a new niche market. The packages cost $20 to $35 a month. Senators appeared intrigued by them, but several complained that sports channels such as ESPN weren't included. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., also criticized the skin level of some ads aired during NFL games.

"I don't think parents should be nervous wrecks when watching a football game," he said. Stevens noted that sports channels aren't rated, so they can't be included in packages of kid-friendly cable channels. Parents Television Council president Brent Bozell, an advocate of tighter controls, urged the Senate to follow the House's lead and pass higher fines for broadcast indecency. Under the House measure, violators could be fined up to $500,000. The current maximum is $32,000.

Bozell also dismissed the industry position that current broadcast decency rules are adequate.

"You're being told that the TV rating system is enough to protect children, that it's ultimately up to parents to do something about the problem caused by Hollywood," Bozell said. "This to me is an amazing dodge. The ratings system has been an inconsistent, inaccurate, arbitrary and capricious mess."

Valenti asked the Senate to give the education initiative a chance before trying to legislate on decency.

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For more on the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings system, go to www.mpaa.org. and click on "Film Ratings." For more on the Parents Television Council's criticism of broadcasting standards, go to www.parentstv.org.

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(c) 2006, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Knight Ridder Washington Bureau

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