by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Following Janet Jackson’s breast-baring performance at the Super Bowl, broadcast consumers have increasingly sought ways to keep material that they find offensive out of their homes and away from their children.
Locally, a Tampa disk jockey has lost his job and the mayor’s office has received complaints about the bikini-clad women featured on Venus swimsuit billboards. One Orange Park Comcast customer was concerned enough to enlist the aid of a Jacksonville City Council member to ask the cable distributor to offer a “family-friendly” package, consisting of only wholesome channels.
Comcast officials say there is neither the technology nor the demand to offer such a package now. However, they say concerned parents already possess the means to keep offensive programming out of their homes.
Digital Cable offers a parental control feature that allows subscribers to block out shows or entire channels, said Comcast Vice President of Operations Bill Watson. For those with traditional cable boxes, or no cable, Watson said every television made since 2000 includes a V-chip, that allows parents to edit the content available on their sets.
Using these features may seem daunting to those who still haven’t figured out how to set their VCR clocks, but Watson said Comcast is trying to make the process as user-friendly as possible. The company has trained its customer service operators to talk subscribers through the process and provides instructions on its web site and in a series of instructional videos.
“We’ve provided the ability to address objectionable programming today, that’s right now,” said Watson. “People have the capability and the technology to filter what comes into their homes. That’s where it should begin, with the family. The number one place for those decisions to be made is in the home.”
The debate over cable content has been caught up on a national level in the Senate’s ongoing review of the cable industry. The Senate is considering legislation that would fine broadcasters for airing objectionable programming. There’s also growing support on the Commerce Committee for cable operators to allow subscribers to pay only for the channels they want.
Watson said the so-called “a la carte” subscriptions would be difficult to manage in the current contractual environment that exists among cable outlets and broadcasters. Comcast’s Director of Government Affairs Bill Ferry said the current system of packaging channels together keeps a variety of niche programming available.
Narrow-focused channels like Speed, a channel devoted to racing, and Home and Garden Television, could disappear in an environment where subscribers paid only for the most popular programming, he said.
“It’s like when you get the newspaper and you only read the front page and the funnies and you think that should only cost 15 cents. But that paper’s advertisers want to be assured that their ads, no matter where they are, reach a certain circulation. If subscribers are only getting a portion of the paper, the ad revenue is going to go away, and they can’t operate without advertising.”