FCC Weighing Free TV Time for Candidates

Federal regulators Wednesday launched a controversial investigation into whether television stations should be required to offer free air time to political candidates.

The public inquiry by the Federal Communications Commission is the latest salvo in an uphill battle by media watchdogs and campaign finance reform groups to broaden political discourse in the United States and slow the skyrocketing cost of running for political office.

It is also part of a larger inquiry by the FCC into whether to impose new public-service obligations on broadcasters as television makes the transition to the digital age--with its sharper pictures and CD quality sound.

Licenses to broadcast digital TV are valued at as much as $70 billion, and public pressure is building to force broadcasters granted the licenses to increase public-interest services. In addition to free air time for candidates, reformers want more closed captioning of public affairs shows and more hours of educational programming.

It’s “the right time to consider whether the public-interest obligations are appropriate and sufficient for the digital era,” FCC Chairman William Kennard said at Wednesday’s meeting.

The FCC will solicit industry and public comments on the public-interest issue over the next several weeks. After that, the agency must decide whether to push ahead and draft new public-interest rules. Even if the FCC takes that step, any new rules probably will not go into effect until the middle of next year.

Broadcasters have been subject to public-interest rules since 1934 when Congress broadly regulated the industry by passing the Communications Act. Those public-interest rules, however, never have required broadcasters to offer free air time to candidates.

A broad base of consumer and civil rights groups has urged the FCC to require stations offering digital TV to give political candidates free air time, among other new obligations.

Their push for more candidate coverage comes one year after a presidential advisory panel issued a 159-page report recommending that broadcasters voluntarily provide five minutes a night of free air time for political candidates.

FCC Chairman Kennard noted Wednesday that broadcasters on the presidential panel endorsed the free-air-time proposal but said few have followed through and made such time available.