Ten Years Ago... Gore Calls for Digital TV Public Interest Obligations

U.S. Wants Public Interest Rules For New Digital TV Channels
[SOURCE: New York Times 2/6/1997, AUTHOR: Mark Landler]
Ten years ago, Vice President Al Gore announced that the President Bill Clinton planned to appoint an advisory group to recommend guidelines within a year on new public interest programming requirements on broadcasters as a condition of awarding them extra channels for use in digital television. "Digital technology will greatly enhance the opportunities available to broadcasters to utilize multiple channels," VP Gore said in a session with reporters in which he observed the one-year anniversary of the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. "the public interest obligations should be commensurate with these new opportunities." FCC Chairman Reed Hundt has been pushing for broadcasters to turn over a full 5 percent of the programming schedules of their digital channels to public interest programming. After Gore's announcement, Chairman Hundt hailed the Administration's proposal as a way to drive home his proposal. "These digital licenses should not be given out unless and until there is an absolutely clear, quantifiable and meaningful commitment to serve the public interest," Chairman Hundt said.
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F00F15FC3C580C758CDDAB0894DF494D81
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* Of course, we're still waiting for the FCC to act on the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee. For more info, see http://www.benton.org/pioguide/index.html