Fox Stations Complain About DTV Mandates

FOX STATIONS COMPLAIN ABOUT DTV MANDATES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Fox Television Stations, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., is objecting to proposed federal rules that would require the broadcast of public service announcements designed to educate American TV viewers about the impending digital TV transition. Mandating PSAs would not only be bad policy and exceed FCC legal authority but would also violate the First Amendment because the federal government can't tell TV stations what content to broadcast, Fox outside counsel Clark Wadlow argued in a letter filed at the FCC on Nov. 7. Fox’s lawyer also suggested that if mandating PSAs were so important, the federal government should step up and buy advertising time from TV stations and cable companies rather than shift the expense elsewhere. In his letter, Fox lawyer Wadlow said FCC rules were unnecessary because NAB has already announced a $697 million DTV education campaign that addresses the consumer education issue on a number of fronts, including PSAs.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6499844.html?rssid=196