Question: The FCC and broadcast media
The latest National Nanny News has me wondering something.
Though Bubba the Love Sponge and Howard Stern have plenty to complain about, FCC head Michael Powell’s crackdown on indecency began with Janet Jackson’s boobing appearing on broadcast television. And it has stayed alive thanks to recent (largely questionable) complaints about the network broadcast of Saving Private Ryan and, er, the GODDAMNED MOTHERFUCKING OLYMPICS. So, by and large, it has focused on broadcast television.
Yet broadcast television is very nearly an anachronism. Only the few major networks and their affiliates are “broadcast” and thus still subject to the FCC’s regulation of the free, public airwaves. Much as Howard Stern can broadcast anything he wants to his subscribers on satellite radio, and I can (and do) view all manner of degenerate filth over my paid-for wireless internet connection, the FCC has no statutory power to regulate cable television, which is subscription-based.
So I’m tossing this question out there for anyone with more knowledge:
I have no antennae set up to receive Rick Dancer. All of my “broadcast” reception comes via my paid cable service.
Given that I, and an ever-increasing number of viewers of “broadcast” television, actually receive my / our “broadcasts” of “broadcast” television networks via cable, why don’t the major “broadcast” networks simply bid traditional broadcasting a fond farewell, join entirely with cable and satellite services, and invite the FCC to kiss their receding asses?
Either unpaid-for “public” broadcasting still counts for enough of the major networks’ viewership that it would be economically foolish to abandon the format, or there is some legal restraint I’m unaware of.
Since I’m too busy to research this myself, I invite knowledgable comments. Non-knowledgable but amusing comments are also invited.
