[opendtv] News: Cable Ops Offer Family Tiers, Says McSlarrow
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- Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 08:35:56 -0500
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6290528.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&nid=2228
Cable Ops Offer Family Tiers, Says McSlarrow
By John Eggerton & John M. Higgins -- Broadcasting & Cable,
12/12/2005 9:43:00 AM
It was a case of tiers to head off fears.
National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle
McSlarrow Monday outlined preliminary plans for a number of cable
operators voluntarily to start selling "family tiers." The move is an
attempt to head off government-mandated tiering or a la carte cable
lineups.
In a Senate Commerce Committee indecency hearing Monday, McSlarrow
said that operators representing over half the nation's subs are
ready to offer some family-friendly tiers. They are: Comcast, Time
Warner Cable, Advance-Newhouse, Brennan, Insight and Midcontinent.
He said there would be announcements from one or two of those in the
next couple of weeks and that more operators were considering similar
moves. He also said first-quarter 2006 is a target for launching some
of these tiers, though he said there were still technical issues to
be worked out.
Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said the sooner the better
because Congress is under pressure from family groups to move
legislation that would mandate tiering.
McSlarrow said the individual operators would define family-friendly
differently, saying there would be anti-trust issues involved in
coming to group decisions on those.
He said he could not say exactly what the tiers would look like but
that it would be a case of the mandatory basic service--broadcasters
and public-access channels--rather than a choice of the traditional
70 or 80 channels of expanded basic or a digital family tier, though
he did not know what form that would take or how it would be priced.
McSlarrow said he hoped that government-mandated tiers would now
be off the table because the government would "get it wrong."
He also cautioned that the decisions by the individual operators
"were not easy decisions, nor is this an easy place
because marketplace negotiations have produced the greatest single
engine for diversity or compelling content in the world. That should
not be lightly trod upon."
It's not clear what networks might be included in the tiers,
particularly whether the most popular ones -- Nickelodeon and Disney
Channel -- will be sold in small tiers that could dramatically limit
their reach.
At the same hearing, former Motion Picture Association of America
President Jack Valenti said he had held three meetings with
industry folks in the past two weeks (since an earlier indecency
forum) and that the conclusion was to simplify the TV ratings and
give parents more information about them.
Valenti said he had been working on behalf of cable, broadcast and
movies "trying to make the American parent understand that they
have total control over all the visual programming into their home."
Valenti said the industries would take several steps to improve the
TV ratings, including:
1. Trying to show a closer rapport between the TV and movie ratings
(it wasn't clear how much that would mean changing the TV system to
more closely reflect the movie ratings and how much educating about
the extent of the current similarities it would involve).
2. Offer more information and educational presentations.
3. Reaching out to TV retailers and manufacturers so that, when a
customer comes in to buy a TV set, they realize there is a V-chip in
there.
4. Make sure TV icons are readable and on screen for a sufficient
length of time.
5. Reach out to community centers and churches to distribute
information that shows parents they have control over programming.
6. Enlist the Ad Council's help in spreading the word.
Valenti said what government mustn't do is step in and try to tell
people what to see and hear.
Commerce plans to hold another hearing Jan. 19, and Stevens said he
hoped McSlarrow could by then be able to hold a demonstration of how
the family-friendly tier would work.
Stevens thanked McSlarrow for taking what he called a "leadership
position" on the issue, and Valenti for coming out of retirement to
head up the ratings effort.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who has been stumping for voluntary family
tiers, was also happy.
"I am pleased that some cable companies may respond to consumer
demand and begin to voluntarily offer family tiers," he said in a
statement. "For several years, I have been urging the cable and
satellite industry to give parents additional tools to help them
address the increasing amount of coarse programming on television.
Offering a family-friendly package has always been one of the options
I supported.
"I look forward to hearing more about the details of their plans and
hope that it will provide parents with real options to address
parents' legitimate concerns with having to purchase programming that
they believe is unsuitable for their children."
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