• by Mitch Oscar , Op-Ed Contributor, August 14, 2007

There are a couple of key issues on the table that our regulatory agencies are presently scrutinizing which  will affect how U.S. citizens fare with their media options in the coming years. Top priorities, in my opinion, would probably focus on the 2009 broadcast transition from analog to digital -- those 14.7% of the U.S. that will be without TV because they didn't see the digital wave coming; and the impending auction of the spectrum vacated by the broadcast stations for digital wireless platforms, which hopefully will free wireless content and service providers from the dictates of the carriers, much like the creation of monolithic movie studios' content and movie theatre verticals anti-trusted in the first half of the 20^th century and the control the TV distribution platforms have over content present day. Oh yeah, did I mention net neutrality. I won't. Not an easy assignment when considering all of the other things that the Federal Communications Commission has up in the air -- no pun intended.

 For instance (in non-hierarchical order):

1)      Multiple ownership of TV stations in the same market

2)      National television station ownership (single market and multiple)

3)      Dual broadcast network ownership

4)      Broadcast/ newspaper/ radio cross-ownership

5)      V-chip utilization/ parental controls for TV

6)      Radio station group ownership (single market and multiple)

7)      Cable systems operators' ownership of programming on their systems

8)      Cable systems operators and broadcast stations' cross-ownership

9)      Cable systems operators' penetration of national viewership

10)  Cable subscription fees

11)  Satellite operators' ownership of programming on their system

12)  Satellite operators and broadcast stations' cross-ownership

13)  Satellite subscription fees

14)  Satellite/ cable/ broadcast cross-ownership

15)  Telco/ cable/ satellite cross-ownership

16)  Net neutrality

17)  Enforcing cable card deployment

18)  Must carry broadcast transmissions for all digital terrestrial channels

19)  Program availability via fair and equitable licensing arrangements

20)  The sanctity of copyright

21)  The efficacy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

 

So when I read that the Senate Commerce Committee has approved legislation asking the FCC to oversee the development of a "Super V-chip" that would screen content on cell phones and the Internet -- does everyone remember how study after reported study denounced the waste of time, money and efficacy of the TV V-chip debacle - coupled with the FCC's laser-like focus on defining indecency as it relates to TV programming, I'm thinking one thought. I get how a small device like a V-Chip fits inside a big TV set. But how will something as monstrous as a Super V-Chip be crammed inside something as small as a cell phone, or the possible implications of it clogging my broadband pipe.