PTV GUIDELINES BEING REVISED FOR USE OF EXCESS DIGITAL SPECTRUM
Faced with criticism of “creeping commercialism” in public broadcasting following FCC decision to allow PTV stations to solicit ads on their excess nonbroadcast digital capacity, Assn. of PTV Stations (APTS) is reviewing voluntary guidelines for PTV stations’ use of their digital ancillary and supplementary services. APTS intends to revise guidelines to ensure that PTV stations use their “new freedom” responsibly, Pres. John Lawson told us. Guidelines would be strengthened with 2 objectives in mind, he said: (1) To assure that stations use their new funding streams to plow back revenue into developing noncommercial content. (2) To demonstrate to critics that PTV stations will use their freedom to solicit ads on nonbroadcast digital channels responsibly.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Under voluntary guidelines adopted in anticipation of FCC decision, PTV stations had committed that: (1) Provision of ancillary or supplementary services wouldn’t derogate PTV stations’ free, over-air digital program service. (2) Ancillary or supplementary services wouldn’t interfere with station’s primary noncommercial educational broadcast service in terms of either quantity or quality. (3) Entities that had interest in PTV’s ancillary of supplementary services such as advertisers or sponsors wouldn’t influence content of licensee’s primary noncommercial educational broadcast service. (4) Licensees would exercise regular oversight over their ancillary and supplementary services and file annual statement with FCC certifying they were using their digital channel primarily for noncommercial educational services and that ancillary and supplementary services weren’t interfering with stations’ primary noncommercial educational services.
As for criticism by group of House Commerce Committee leaders, including Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.), that FCC decision to allow public broadcasters to accept ads would “accelerate the trend towards creeping commercialism,” Lawson said opposite was true. “We believe that public television stations’ ability to use some of their nonbroadcast digital spectrum to produce revenue would serve as an antidote to creeping commercialism,” he said, because in present analog environment stations were under pressure to run underwriting that brought in nonfederal revenue on prime-time programming, resulting in some stations’ airing “enhanced” underwriting spots, Lawson said. “Allowing stations to tap some of the nonbroadcast streams will take some of this pressure off,” he said. Public broadcasters got the impression that most Congress members understood that PTV stations had “right” to develop new funding streams, he said: “We will do everything to demonstrate to them that we intend to use the new freedom responsibly.”
As many as 172 PTV stations are expected to begin broadcasting digital signal by end of 2002, according to latest revised projections by APTS. By FCC-mandated deadline of May 2003, 292 stations are expected to be digital ready, Lawson said -- 82% of PTV stations. At present 48 PTV stations are broadcasting digital signal. He said projections were based on estimates by stations themselves, taking into account anticipated state, local and federal funding. Stations had raised $762 million as of Oct. at state and local levels compared with estimated total cost of $1.7 billion for PTV’s digital conversion. Current economic slowdown that has led state govts. to cut back on spending could hurt those projections, Lawson conceded. It also is possible that some stations in rural areas could go off air without federal assistance, he said. APTS did not have figures on PTV stations’ seeking waiver of FCC digital conversion deadline. However, Commission had made it clear that it would not grant waiver lightly and that economic hardship might or might not be justification for waivers, he said.
Lawson said he had met FCC Chmn. Powell and Comr. Martin Dec. 19 to give them updates on PTV’s digital transition and explain plans to use DTV for education, especially to provide broadcast service to rural America. He said $25 million approved by Congress for PTV’s digital transition costs for FY 2002 coupled with release of $20 million in appropriated FY 2001 funds and Public Telecom Facilities Fund (PTFP) grants gave public broadcasters more than $100 in federal funds for digital conversion for FY 2002.
As for dual carriage on cable, Lawson said that notwithstanding commercial broadcasters’ decision not to press for dual carriage, public broadcasters were sticking to their demand for dual analog/digital cable carriage during transition. “But if we reach some threshold of carriage with MSOs, we would be more than willing to communicate to the FCC and Congress that government intervention is no longer necessary,” he said. Negotiations with cable operators on voluntary carriage agreements similar to one signed with Time Warner haven’t made much progress, Lawson said. In part, reason for lack of progress is local nature of PTV stations and their varying DTV program strategies, he said, and both industries were “complicated” and “it will take a lot of time to understand each other’s business interests.”
Lawson clarified that PTV carriage deal with DirecTV was limited to analog channels and said he hoped it would hold even if merger with EchoStar were approved. If merger takes place, there would additional capacity, he said, and he hoped it would lead to carriage of local PTV stations in additional markets. Public broadcasters are negotiating carriage deal with EchoStar, he said.