FCC Fines CN8 Over Sleep Segment
Operator Must Pay $4,000 for Running Video News Release Touting Nelson’s Rescue Sleep
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 9/24/2007 8:27:00 AM
Washington – The Federal Communications Commission wants Comcast to pay a $4,000 fine after an initial probe revealed that the cable company’s CN8 local news channel last year violated a sponsorship identification rule related the natural sleep aid Nelson’s Rescue Sleep.
The FCC found that although CN8 received no compensation, the network should have aired a sponsorship identification when it aired portions of a video news release (VNR) on the sleep remedy.
FCC member Jonathan Adelstein applauded the fine. “Commission rules are clear: viewers have a right to know who is trying to persuade them so they can make up their own minds about what they are presented. I applaud Chairman Martin’s leadership, and look forward to quick action on the many other pending video news release complaints.”
Comcast senior director of corporate communications Sena Fitzmaurice said the company is “perplexed by this Bureau action.”
The relevant statute does not cover cable programming, and even if it did, CN8’s programming was entirely consistent with the statute,” Fitzmaurice added.
The FCC -- which said the CN8 violation occurred on Sept. 11, 2006 during the “Art Fennell Reports” program – acted in response to complaints filed by the Center for Media and Democracy and Free Press.
Comcast, responding to a letter from the FCC, said that no sponsorship identification was necessary because no consideration was received or promised. Comcast also told the FCC that the agency didn’t have authority to regulate sponsorship identifications on cable.
The FCC said that in addition to having authority over Comcast in this area of the law, the sponsorship identification exemption based on the absence of consideration did not apply in this case because there had been “too much focus on the product or brand name in the programming.”
The Nelson’s Rescue Sleep VNR, the FCC said, contained “extensive images and mentions of the product and include[d] the statement that ‘If you are one of the estimated 70 million Americans who have trouble sleeping - Rescue Sleep may be what you’re looking for.’”
The FCC went on to explain that it did not “believe that this type of promotional material, furnished by a product manufacturer, can or should be considered within the scope of the [exemption], which is directed to material that contains only fleeting or transient references to products or brand names.”
Comcast may seek further FCC review of the fine, which was handed down by the chief of the agency’s enforcement bureau.
FCC member Jonathan Adelstein applauded the fine. “Commission rules are clear: viewers have a right to know who is trying to persuade them so they can make up their own minds about what they are presented. I applaud Chairman Martin’s leadership, and look forward to quick action on the many other pending video news release complaints.”
Comcast senior director of corporate communications Sena Fitzmaurice said the company is “perplexed by this Bureau action.”
The relevant statute does not cover cable programming, and even if it did, CN8’s programming was entirely consistent with the statute,” Fitzmaurice added.
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