If a station airs a disclaimer before the broadcast that clearly characterizes the program as fiction and the disclaimer is presented in a reasonable manner under the circumstances, the program is presumed not to pose foreseeable public harm. News Distortion. The Commission often receives complaints concerning broadcast journalism, such as allegations that stations have aired inaccurate or one-sided news reports or comments, covered stories inadequately, or overly dramatized the events that they cover.
For the reasons noted previously, the Commission generally will not intervene in these cases because it would be inconsistent with the First Amendment to replace the journalistic judgment of licensees with our own.
However, as public trustees, broadcast licensees may not intentionally distort the news. Of particular concern would be evidence of the direction to employees from station management to falsify the news. However, absent such a compelling showing, the Commission will not intervene.
Political Broadcasting: Candidates for Public Office. Obscene, Indecent, or Profane Programming. Obscene Material. Obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment and cannot be broadcast at any time. To be obscene, the material must have all of the following three characteristics:.
Indecent Material. Indecent material is protected by the First Amendment, so its broadcast cannot constitutionally be prohibited at all times. However, the courts have upheld Congress' prohibition of the broadcast of indecent material during times of the day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience, which the Commission has determined to be between the hours of 6 a. Profane Material. Profane material also is protected by the First Amendment so its broadcast cannot be outlawed entirely.
This material may be the subject of possible Commission enforcement action if it is broadcast within the same time period applicable to indecent programming: between 6 a. In order to allow our staff to make a determination of whether complained-of material is actionable, the Commission requires that complainants provide certain information, including:.
Submission of an audio or video tape, CD, DVD or other recording or transcript of the complained-of material is not required but is helpful, as is the specific name of the program, the on-air personality, song, or film, and the city and state in which the complainant saw or heard the broadcast.
Violent Programming. An issue of concern to the public over the years has been violent television programming and the negative impact this broadcast material may have on children. At the request of 39 members of the U. In April , the Commission delivered a Report to Congress recommending that the industry voluntarily commit to reducing the amount of this programming viewed by children.
Since , all sets manufactured with screens 13 inches or larger must contain the V-Chip technology. This technology, which must be activated by parents, works in conjunction with a voluntary television rating system created and administered by the television industry and others.
It enables parents to identify programming containing sexual, violent, or other content that they believe may be harmful to their children. All the major broadcast networks and most of the major cable networks encode their programming with this ratings information to work with the V-Chip.
However, some programming, such as news and sporting events, and unedited movies aired on premium cable channels, are not rated. Station Identification. Stations must air identification announcements when they sign on and off for the day. They also must broadcast these announcements every hour, as close to the start of the hour as possible, at a natural programming break. TV stations make these announcements on-screen or by voice only. It may also include any additional community or communities, as long as it first names the community to which it is licensed by the FCC.
Commercial Limits. The Commission applies these limits to all video programming, free or pay, directed to children 12 and under. Commercial TV broadcasters must maintain records to verify compliance with commercial time limits and make these records available for public inspection. Display of Internet Website Addresses. Public service announcements aired on behalf of independent non-profit or government organizations — or media companies in partnership with non-profits or government entities — that display websites not under the control of the licensee or cable company, are exempt from the website display rules.
In addition, station identifications and emergency announcements are also exempt. Host Selling. The goal of this policy is to help children distinguish between commercials and program content. There are three applications of this separation principle: 1 bumpers between program and advertising content e. The Commission has applied the host selling policy to the display of Internet website addresses as follows. Entities subject to commercial time limits under the CTA may not display a website address during or adjacent to a program if, at that time, on pages that are primarily devoted to free noncommercial content regarding that specific program or a character appearing in the program: 1 products are sold that feature a character appearing on that program; or 2 a character appearing in that program is used to actively sell products.
Educational and Informational Programming. Under Category A of the processing guidelines, television licensees are eligible for routine staff-level approval of the children's television programming portion of their renewal applications if they air either i three hours per week as averaged over a six month period of Core Programming or ii hours of Core Programming annually, including at least 26 hours per quarter of regularly scheduled weekly programming of at least 30 minutes in length and up to 52 hours annually of Core Programs of at least 30 minutes in length that are not aired on a regularly scheduled weekly basis, such as educational specials and regularly scheduled non-weekly programming.
Under Category B of the processing guidelines, television licensees are eligible for routine staff-level approval of the children's television programming portion of their renewal applications if they air hours of Core Programming annually, including at least 26 hours per quarter of regularly scheduled weekly programming of at least 30 minutes in length.
The remaining Core Programming hours under Category B up to 52 hours annually may consist of Core Programs that are not aired on a regularly scheduled weekly basis, including educational specials, other non-regularly scheduled programming, and regularly scheduled non-weekly programming, and short-form programming, such as public service announcements and interstitials.
In addition, commercial stations must provide information identifying these programs to the publishers of program guides. Station-Conducted Contests. A station that broadcasts or advertises information about a contest that it conducts must fully and accurately disclose the material terms of the contest and must conduct the contest substantially as announced or advertised over-the-air or on the Internet. Contest descriptions may not be false, misleading, or deceptive with respect to any material term.
Material terms, include those factors that define the operation of the contest and affect participation, such as entry deadlines, the prizes that can be won, and how winners will be selected. Federal law prohibits the broadcast of advertisements for a lottery or information concerning a lottery. A lottery is any game, contest, or promotion that contains the elements of prize, chance, and "consideration" a legal term that means an act or promise that is made to induce someone into an agreement.
Many types of contests, depending on their particulars, also are covered under this definition. The statute and FCC rules list a number of exceptions to this prohibition, principally advertisements for:. In , the Supreme Court held that the prohibition on broadcasting advertisements for lawful casino gambling could not constitutionally be applied to truthful advertisements broadcast by radio or television stations licensed in states where gambling is legal. Relying upon the reasoning in that decision, the FCC and the United States Department of Justice later concluded that the lottery advertising prohibition may not constitutionally be applied to the broadcast of any truthful advertisements for lawful casino gambling, whether or not the state in which the broadcasting station is located permits casino gambling.
Soliciting Funds. No federal law prohibits the broadcast by stations of requests for funds for legal purposes including appeals by stations for contributions to meet their operating expenses , if the money or other contributions are used for the announced purposes.
However, federal law prohibits fraud by wire, radio or television — including situations in which money solicited for one purpose is used for another — and doing so may lead to FCC sanctions, as well as to criminal prosecution by the U. Department of Justice. Broadcast of Telephone Conversations. Before broadcasting a telephone conversation live or recording a telephone conversation for later broadcast, a station must inform any party to the call of its intention to broadcast the conversation.
However, that notification is not necessary when the other party knows that the conversation will be broadcast or this knowledge can be reasonably presumed, such as when the party is associated with the station for example, as an employee or part-time reporter or originates the call during a program during which the station customarily broadcasts the calls. Closed Captioning. Closed captioning is a technology designed to provide access to television programming by persons with hearing disabilities by displaying, in text form, the audio portion of a broadcast, as well as descriptions of background noise and sound effects.
Closed captioning is hidden as encoded data transmitted within the television signal. A viewer wanting to see the captions must use a set-top decoder or a television with built-in decoder circuitry. All television sets with screens 13 inches or larger manufactured since mid, including digital sets, have built-in decoder circuitry. As directed by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of , the FCC has adopted rules requiring closed captioning of most, but not all, television programming.
Entities that distribute television programs directly to home viewers, including broadcast stations, must comply with these rules. The rules also provide certain exemptions from the captioning requirements. Closed captioning is also required for video programming delivered via Internet Protocol IP that is published or exhibited on television with captions. Program owners must send program files to distributors and providers with all required captions and use an agreed upon mechanism to inform the distributors and providers of the programming that is subject to the requirements.
Distributors and providers must enable the rendering or pass through of all required captions to the end user. These requirements also apply to video clips that a video programming provider or distributor posts on its website or application, if the provider or distributor showed the video clip on television with captions. For devices, the Commission adopted functional display standards to specify how covered apparatus must implement closed captioning, and it required apparatus to render or pass through closed captioning on each video output.
Audio Description. As required by the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of , the FCC has adopted rules to require some, but not all, television programs to include audio description. Information about how to activate the secondary audio is available from the customer service department of the TV manufacturer or from your subscription TV provider. Networks, broadcasters, and subscription TV systems may provide information about the availability of programs with audio description through their websites and in program guides.
Some program guides may use the symbol D to indicate that the program is audio described. Access to Emergency Information. The FCC also requires television stations to make the local emergency information that they provide to viewers accessible to persons with disabilities.
Thus, if emergency information is provided aurally, such information also must be provided in a visual format for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing. The emergency information may be closed captioned or presented through an alternative method of visual presentation. These methods include open captioning, crawls, or scrolls that appear on the screen. The information provided visually must include critical details regarding the emergency and how to respond.
Similarly, if the emergency information is presented visually, it must be made accessible for persons who are blind or visually impaired. If the emergency information is provided in the video portion of a regularly scheduled newscast or a newscast that interrupts regular programming, it must be made accessible through an aural description of the emergency information. If the emergency information is provided visually during regular programming, such as through a screen crawl or scroll, the visual information must be accompanied with an aural tone to alert persons with visual disabilities that the station is providing this information, and that they should tune to the secondary audio stream where such information must be provided aurally.
Additional information concerning this requirement can be found on the FCC's website at Accessibility of Emergency Information on Television. The FCC requires certain apparatus that receive, play back, or record video programming to make available a secondary audio stream for providing video description services and accessible emergency information. Manufacturers of apparatus must provide a simple and easy to use mechanism for activating the secondary audio stream, such as a button or icon.
Accessible User Interfaces. Certain digital devices must make built-in functions that are used to receive, play back, or display programs accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. These devices must include a simple and easy to use mechanism for accessing closed captioning and video description.
Additionally, certain navigation devices must make on-screen text menus and guides used for the display or selection of video programming audibly accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.
These devices must include a simple and easy to use mechanism for accessing closed captioning. Business Practices, Advertising Rates, and Profits. Rates charged for broadcast time are matters for private negotiation between sponsors and stations.
Except for certain classes of political advertisements, station licensees have full discretion to accept or reject any advertising.
We also prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.
However, religious stations are permitted to require that some or all of their employees meet a religious qualification. Our EEO recruitment rules have three prongs. They require all stations that employ five or more full-time employees defined as those regularly working 30 hours a week or more to:. The requirements for the EEO portion of the public file are discussed further in this Manual. Finally, a prospective station licensee expecting to employ five or more full-time employees must file an FCC Form A Broadcast Model Program Report with its new station or assignment or transfer application.
The FCC reviews EEO compliance at the time it considers the station renewal application, when it reviews public file reports at the mid-point of license terms, when it receives EEO complaints, and during random station audits.
A full range of enforcement actions is available for EEO violations, including imposing reporting conditions, forfeitures, short -term license renewal, and license revocation.
Licensees were formerly required to file an EEO mid-term report -- FCC Form -- at the mid-point of the license term, but that requirement was eliminated in Stations that filed Form during their current license terms should keep the form in their public file until grant of their next license renewal application. Sponsorship Identification. This requirement is grounded in the principle that members of the public should know who is trying to persuade them with the programming being aired.
In the case of advertisements for commercial products or services, it is sufficient for a station to announce the sponsor's corporate or trade name, or the name of the sponsor's product where it is clear that the mention of the product constitutes a sponsorship identification. Underwriting Announcements on Noncommercial Educational Stations. Noncommercial educational stations may acknowledge contributions over the air, but they may not broadcast commercials or otherwise promote the goods and services of for-profit donors or underwriters.
Specifically, acknowledgements may not contain comparative or qualitative descriptions, price information, calls to action, or inducements to buy, sell, rent, or lease. However, these acknowledgements may not interrupt the station's regular programming. Loud Commercials. Television commercials must have the same average volume as the programs they accompany. Broadcasters and pay TV providers that demonstrate a pattern or trend of failing to comply can be subject to Commission enforcement action.
The FCC does not regulate the volume of radio programming, including commercials. How to File a Loud Commercial Complaint. The Federal Trade Commission has primary responsibility for determining whether an advertisement is false or deceptive and for taking action against the sponsor. The Food and Drug Administration has primary responsibility for the safety of food and drug products.
Depending on the nature of the advertisement, you should contact these agencies regarding advertisements that you believe may be false or misleading. Additional information about false or misleading advertising can be found at Complaints About Broadcast Advertising. A complaint can additionally be faxed to , or mailed to:. False or Misleading Advertising. Depending on the nature of the advertisement, you should contact these agencies regarding those you believe may be false or misleading.
Offensive Advertising. Unless a broadcast advertisement is found to be in violation of a specific law or rule, the government cannot take action against it. However, if you believe that an advertisement is offensive because of the nature of the item advertised, the scheduling of the announcement, or the way the message is presented, you should consider addressing your complaint directly to the station or network involved, providing the date and time of the broadcast and the product or advertiser in question.
This will help those involved in the selection of advertising material to become better informed about audience opinion.
Tobacco and Alcohol Advertising. Federal law prohibits the airing of advertising for cigarettes, little cigars, smokeless tobacco, and chewing tobacco on radio, TV, or any other medium of electronic communication under the FCC's jurisdiction. However, the advertising of smoking accessories, cigars, pipes, pipe tobacco, or cigarette-making machines is not prohibited.
Congress has not enacted any law prohibiting broadcast advertising of any kind of alcoholic beverage, and the FCC does not have a rule or policy regulating these advertisements. Subliminal Programming. The Commission sometimes receives complaints regarding the alleged use of subliminal perception techniques in broadcast programming.
Subliminal programming is designed to be perceived on a subconscious level only. Regardless of whether it is effective, the broadcast of subliminal material is inconsistent with a station's obligation to serve the public interest because it is designed to be deceptive.
If your location is close to a radio station's transmitting antenna, then you may experience impaired reception of other stations. This is called "blanketing" interference. Blanketing interference is a less common occurrence with television stations than with radio stations due to the location and height of TV transmitting antennas.
Since the s, however, the government has loosened restrictions on media ownership, and Congress passed the Telecommunications Act in to allow companies to own even more media outlets. Due to the loosening of ownership restrictions, more and more media outlets are falling under the control of a few giant corporations, a tendency called media consolidation. Large companies also own the major networks and other television stations.
They argue that consolidation is not competitive and that corporate owners might restrict or manipulate news coverage. Some critics also lament the homogenization of American culture due to media consolidation. Because radio and television formats have become increasingly uniform, people throughout the country receive the same broadcasts. It is not clear if the FCC has the authority to regulate cable television.
The FCC is entitled to regulate those who broadcast over the airwaves because the people not the broadcasters own the airwaves. Presumably this means that cable television cannot be regulated, but some members of Congress have still sought to do so.
SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Summary Government Regulation of the Media.
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