McSlarrow Slams Content Regs
NCTA Chief to Testify at House Hearing
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 6/21/2007 3:34:00 PM
Laws banning or restricting violent and indecent content on cable-TV systems while filtering technology is readily available to parents would violate cable’s constitutional free-speech guarantees, National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow will say in testimony to be delivered Friday morning on Capitol Hill.
McSlarrow, expected to appear before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, is planning to deliver a straightforward message to Congress that the courts won’t tolerate content-based regulation when less-restrictive alternatives with sometimes-imperfect results are at hand.
“In light of blocking tools available to cable households and the steps taken by cable operators and program networks to ensure that those tools are easily understood, usable and effective, legislation that bars the availability of indecent or violent programming to all adults and children would violate the First Amendment rights of cable operators and programmers,” McSlarrow’s prepared remarks said.
McSlarrow’s testimony comes as Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin, along with some House and Senate lawmakers, continues to call for content regulation of cable, to limit the exposure of young children to inappropriate content, including sex and violence.
Martin’s preference is to force cable operators to allow subscribers to buy channels one at a time in an a la carte regime, or to provide consumers with bill credits for blocking channels within a package.
In his testimony, McSlarrow warns that the economic havoc unleashed by a la carte mandates could actually increase the amount of sex and violence seen on television.
“In order to survive in an a la carte environment, networks would be forced to spend substantially more money to constantly market their channel and emphasize programming that attracts subscribers. This could result in an increase in edgier, sensational programming, which, ironically again, could lead to more sex and violence on TV,” McSlarrow says, adding that a la carte mandates also run afoul of the First Amendment.
The subcommittee hearing on "Images Children See on the Screen,” coming Friday morning, might be lightly attended if the House wrapped up business for the week Thursday night.
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