You KNEW they'd have to do it, didn't you?
And, you know the complaints to the CRTC are coming as soon as he goes on.
Prediction: we are going to find out how much jurisdiction regulators have over paid radio and TV services sometime in 2006. You know that the politicians will relish the opportunity. It may take the courts to answer that question once and for all.
7 years ago
1 comment:
Something I didn't think about until today is how portable offensive material is now. When talking about FCC regulation, it's easy to compare satellite radio to cable tv. When you pay for cable, you are making a choice to accept its content, as opposed to network tv, which is broadcast for free on public airwaves. Your cable is linked to your home and therefore the "offensive" content stays behind closed doors too.
Satellite radio is different though. The content is more portable. A person can be subjected to its content on the street or at a park when
another person cranks their car stereo or portable radio.
Do I think we need the government to regulate public broadcasting of
satellite radio? No. But I could see where politicians with an agenda might argue that subjecting non-subscribers to offensive satellite radio against their wishes somehow violates their rights. And, in some sense,
isn't that still using "public airwaves" to disperse offensive content.
I see some validity to the observation that satellite radio is not safe from future government regulation and my prediction is this: laws and ordinances
will be passed to regulate public airing of satellite radio and those guidelines will be similar to ones regulating content for dvd players in cars. There's a story in the paper today about people arrested in Texas for viewing porn in their car dvd player and other similar incidents have happened before. I see the possibility that satellite radio users will soon face similar restrictions.
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