Senate bill offers 'carrot' to networks

The formal end of the family hour came in the 1980s when a code
of conduct adopted by the National Association of Broadcasters was
partly struck down by a court on antitrust grounds. The code, which
had been in place for years, included guidelines on restricting
advertisements, which the court found objectionable.
But it took competition from the networks' provocateurs on cable
and at the Fox network to corrupt the family hour for good. In April
1987, Fox introduced its first prime-time lineup that included the
anti-family sitcom "Married With Children" at 7 p.m. Fox
would later introduce a lightning rod of a soap opera, "Melrose
Place," also at 7.
By 1995, when ABC was airing "Roseanne" and NBC "Friends" at
7 - two very popular and very adult sitcoms - the notion of the TV
industry regulating itself seemed hopelessly passe.
But now it appears the notion, however quixotic, is alive, in
part no doubt to the success of CBS and a mini-network, the WB, in
introducing family programs to the family hour.
Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman,
Connecticut Democrat, are leading the charge in Washington. They are
co-sponsors of the Television Improvement Act of 1997, a bill that
will grant an antitrust exemption to broadcasters if they will return
to a voluntary code of conduct that the senators hope will include a
safe haven in the 7 p.m. hour.
The bill is very much in the spirit of a similar bill by former
Sen. Paul Simon, which passed in 1990, except that this law will not
expire in three years as Simon's did. It also will mention all adult
content on TV, not just violence, according to Howard Waltzman,
general counsel to Brownback.
Unlike the recent crusade to force the networks to adopt a TV
ratings system, the bill offers broadcasters a carrot, said Waltzman,
not a stick.
"We want the industry to be on their own ground on this,"
Waltzman said. "We want the government to be apart from this. We're
removing a perceived government-imposed obstacle to voluntary
action."
Nevertheless, CBS Entertainment President Leslie Moonves told The
Kansas City Star on Wednesday that he had assurance from
congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott,
that Brownback's bill would not pass.
Moonves also responded angrily to the news that Reed Hundt had
endorsed the bill and said that had the FCC chairman made his views
known earlier, CBS would have refused to sign on to the TV ratings
compromise.