Outgoing FCC Chairman Disagrees With Extending Indecency Regulations to Pay Services

Submitted by Ian Rice
Arts and Lifestyle Editor


Courtesy of the Billboard Radio Monitor:
Despite endorsements by the nation’s top communications lawmakers, outbound Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell isn’t in favor of extending indecency regulations to satellite radio and cable TV.


“I personally don’t really support an extension,” Powell said during an interview on the Fox News Channel. “I think when the Congress takes a hard look at this, if they really study the constitutionality, that it’s difficult and unwise to extend it.”


The powerful chairmen of the Senate and House Commerce Committees, which oversee telecommunications and consumer affairs issues, are among those who favor leveling the indecency playing field between free broadcasting and its pay counterparts. But the leaders – Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas – haven’t called for hearings on the issue… yet.


The “all are equal” fuse, if ignited, would likely restrict the content currently available on pay cable channels and satellite radio.


Such an explosion would certainly erase the decades-old definitions that separate FCC broadcast rules from those of cable and satellite – based on the distinction that over the airwaves broadcasting is “pervasive” and “free,” while citizens choose to pay to bring cable and satellite into their homes.




Related Story:
XM Changes Program Structure, Faces New Indecency Standard Proposals