Watchdogs Pitch DTV Obligations

In a letter to House and Senate Commerce Committee leaders Thursday, Common Cause, Media Access Project, the Campaign Legal Center, among others, pushed the legislators to require "meaningful public interest obligations" if they grant broadcasters multicasting must-carry. The groups recommend three hours per week--mirroring stations' educational kids TV requirements--of civic or electoral programing on "[their] most-watched channel. It also says that six weeks before any election, some minimum number of hours such programming airing "when most adult viewers were watching," which would translate to prime time. As the FCC has with educational/informational programming, the groups also want it to come up with a definition of what would qualify as civic and electoral programming.
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