Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 3, 1993 TAG: 9307030062
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The issue of whether such stations are in the public interest has been so touchy that Congress sidestepped it by delegating the decision to the Federal Communications Commission in the new cable TV law passed last year.
After reviewing whether the stations fulfilled the government's requirements for broadcast licensing, the FCC ruled 2-1 that a home shopping broadcast is as much in the public interest as any local broadcast when it comes to the right to be on cable.
"I've had over 150 letters by people saying they've helped them with charity and civic works," said FCC Chairman James Quello. "We've also had letters from nursing homes and a few disabled saying this is one way they can shop."
In his dissent, Commissioner Ervin Duggan asked: "Has our concept of the public interest become so denatured - so attenuated - that virtually anything goes?"
He accused the other commissioners of "blurring the distinction between programming and commercial content."
However, Quello said the main reason for granting home shopping stations the same status as other broadcasters was to preserve the "must-carry" section of the new cable law. Other stations would be vulnerable if program content was used as the reason for denial, he said.
He also noted that many of the stations are minority owned and that the FCC has been trying for some time to increase minority ownership in the broadcast industry.
The new cable law requires local cable TV operators to reserve one-third of their channels for local broadcasters who provide their signals for free.
Independent stations seeking wider audiences are using this option, but cable operators don't like the rule because it limits the number of channels they have left for other, more popular cable networks.
The cable industry specifically opposed being forced to carry home shopping stations, saying they don't provide enough news, public information or diversity of programming.
In an effort to kill the "must-carry" section of the cable law, the National Cable Television Association and member cable companies asked the Supreme Court on Friday to review whether the rule infringes on their First Amendment rights to program channels as they see fit.
The Home Shopping Network is broadcast full time by 38 stations around the country and part time by about 60 others.
Gerald Hogan, the network's president and chief executive officer, said the stations broadcast more public service than other independent TV stations by offering five minutes an hour of public-interest programming - "discussions of anything from drugs, to traffic to crime to the price of cable television." Non-commercial educational children's programming airs on weekends.
"We are aggressive capitalists," he said. "However, we have documented through numerous letters that we provide a number of significant services. To the elderly and the handicapped who are either unable or do not feel comfortable in the typical retail environment, our ordering system has both Braille capability and hearing-impaired capability."
The products sold on the Home Shopping Network through its toll-free telephone line are owned by the network. "We test every product," said Hogan, who compares his inventory to that of Wal-Mart stores.
It has been a $2 billion-a-year business shared almost equally by Hogan's network and QVC, a cable-only shopping channel.
A communications specialist says he will appeal the FCC's decision because there is too much selling on these stations and not enough programming that advances different viewpoints or artistic expression.
"We are not arguing for a flat ban," said Andy Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm specializing in communications issues." What we were looking for was for the FCC to say 12 hours is enough."
Quello said he understood concerns about commercialization of the public air waves and said the commission would review a 1984 decision that removed limits on how many commercials a broadcaster could air.
by CNB