Recommendation: Digital broadcasters should be required to make enhanced disclosures of their public interest programming and activities on a quarterly basis, using standardized check-off forms that reduce administrative burdens and can be easily understood by the public.
Effective self-regulation by the broadcast industry in the public interest requires the availability to the public of adequate information about what a local broadcaster is doing. Some valuable information is currently made available. For example, all television broadcasters must prepare and place in their public file separate quarterly reports on their non-entertainment programming responsive to ascertained community needs and on their children's programming.(2) The Advisory Committee recommends that the Federal Communications Commission require that these reports be augmented by the addition of more information on stations' public interest programs and activities. That information should include but not be limited to contributions to political discourse, public service announcements, children's and educational programming, local programming, programming that meets the needs of underserved communities, and community-specific activities. The Advisory Committee does not intend that such efforts should be onerous to broadcasters, but they should make readily available the most important information for community groups and other members of the public to assess. Information reporting requirements established for implementing the Children's Television Act (CTA) are a useful model. Under the CTA, broadcasters must identify and describe the programming, when it was aired, and how it meets the broadcaster's obligation to serve the public. They are encouraged to submit electronic reports of this programming via the Internet. A possible form using a checkoff approach is included in Appendix A.
At the same time, digital television broadcasters should take steps to distribute such public interest information more widely, perhaps through cooperation with local newspapers and/or local program guides so that viewers can more readily identify and evaluate the efforts local broadcasters are making to address their interests. Similarly, many local television stations now maintain Internet websites where they could post on a regular basis this kind of information.
Greater availability of relevant information will increase awareness and promote continuing dialogue between digital television broadcasters and their communities and provide an important self-audit to the broadcasters.
Endnote
2) See 47 C. F. R. §3526 (a)(8)(i), (iii) and 47 C.F.R. §3527 (a)(7).
On the Recommendation 2