PTC Pulls Punches

PTC PULLS PUNCHES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The broadcast and cable industries can expect to take at least a couple more shots from the Parents Television Council in the coming weeks, according to a copy of a PTC-commissioned poll. In a press conference two weeks ago, PTC attacked the media, calling the nine-month-old “TV Boss” V-chip/ratings-education campaign a failure and touting three questions it had asked about use of the blocking technology. But it failed to share with reporters the results of two other questions that suggested the respondents wanted à la carte cable and to pull the licenses from “indecent” broadcasters. PTC did share them with staffers at the FCC, however, which has proved an ally in PTC's war on indecent programming. Why then did PTC choose not to disclose to the press information that plainly supports its stance on content control? Dan Isett, PTC's director of corporate and government affairs, says that was because the three questions it did release were aimed directly at the TV Boss campaign. The remaining ones will be publicized over the coming weeks. According to one of the two missing questions, 81% of respondents said they should not be “forced” to pay for channels they don't want just to get access to programming they do want. As for the second withheld question, when asked, “Do you agree or disagree that television stations that repeatedly ignore the broadcast decency law should lose their licenses to broadcast over the public airwaves?,” 68% said yes.
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