FCC to Ease License Snarl: Martin to Extend Stations' Indecency Liability

Last week, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said the agency is moving to ease a huge backlog of TV license renewals caused by unresolved complaints about coarse broadcasts -- if station owners agree to extended liability from indecency or other complaints. Such deals would give Chairman Martin, a longtime critic of coarse broadcasts, continued leverage over network programming while still allowing station sales that would be precluded by a stalled license renewal. Chairman Martin has yet to issue any indecency sanctions in a tenure that has passed the six-month mark. At least 309 of the nation’s 1,368 commercial TV stations are operating with expired licenses, according to the FCC. Industry and agency sources say the FCC has routinely refused to grant license renewals so long as indecency complaints are unresolved. Some licenses are stalled by other disputes, so it is not possible to attribute all past-due renewals to indecency complaints. Unresolved complaints include those levied by the Parents Television Council against CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox -- meaning affiliates of those nets could face difficulties renewing their licenses. Recently, the PTC has complained that ABC allowed the airing of the F-word on July 2 during the Live 8 broadcast and that Fox aired themes of sodomy and sadomasochistic fetishes in a showing of The Inside on June 15.
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]