Washington Post 2010 Annual Report Download - page 40

Programming. Five of PNS’s six stations are affiliated with one or more of the national television networks, which
provide a substantial amount of programming to their television station affiliates. The expiration dates of these affiliation
agreements are set forth at the beginning of the Television Broadcasting section. The affiliation agreements for ABC
stations WPLG and KSAT expire on February 28, 2011. The Company is negotiating the terms of a new affiliation
agreement with ABC. PNS’s Jacksonville station, WJXT, has operated as an independent station since 2002. In addition,
each of the Company’s stations receives programming from syndicators and other third-party programming providers.
PNS’s performance depends, in part, on the quality and availability of third-party programming, and any substantial
decline in the quality or availability of this programming could materially affect PNS’s operations.
Public Interest Obligations. To satisfy FCC requirements, stations generally are expected to air a specified number of
hours of programming intended to serve the educational and informational needs of children and to complete reports
on a quarterly basis concerning the children’s programming that they broadcast. In addition, the FCC requires stations to
limit the amount of advertising that appears during certain children’s programs. In October 2009, the FCC initiated a
proceeding to consider changes to its children’s programming rules in light of technological developments and changes in
the video marketplace, but no specific changes to the children’s programming requirements have yet been adopted.
The FCC has considered imposing public interest programming requirements like those that apply to children’s programming
to broadcast television programming more broadly. In November 2007, the FCC adopted new “enhanced disclosure”
obligations for broadcasters that would require, among other things, reporting on public interest programming and online
posting for stations’ public files. However, these obligations are subject to administrative and judicial review and have not
gone into effect.
In a separate “localism” proceeding, the FCC received comments on whether to adopt additional proposals, including
license renewal guidelines that would establish minimum amounts of locally-oriented programming, require broadcasters
to establish permanent community advisory boards and require stations to locate their main studios in their communities of
license. The localism proceeding is pending at the FCC. It is not possible to predict what, if any, effect adoption of the
proposed new obligations would have on PNS’s operations, but a substantial increase in programming obligations could
adversely affect PNS.
The FCC has other regulations and policies to ensure that broadcast licensees operate in the public interest, including
rules requiring the closed captioning of programming to assist television viewing by the hearing impaired and the equal
employment opportunities rule requiring station licensees to provide equal opportunity in employment to all qualified job
applicants and prohibiting discrimination against any person by broadcast stations based on race, color, religion,
national origin or gender. In addition, in September 2010, Congress passed the Twenty-First Century Communications
and Video Accessibility Act, which, among other requirements, directs the FCC to initiate a proceeding to reinstate (with
certain modifications) its “video description” rules to assist television viewing by the visually impaired that were invalidated
on appeal in 2002. As adopted by the FCC in 2000, these rules generally required that (1) television stations affiliated
with one of the four highest ranking television networks in the top 25 markets provide 50 hours per calendar quarter of
audio description of key visual elements in programming aired during prime time or children’s programming and that
(2) television stations affiliated with any television network pass through video descriptions when the network provides
them. The FCC has not yet commenced a proceeding to reinstate the video description rules. Compliance with the new
rules could impose additional costs on the PNS stations that could materially affect PNS’s operations.
Political Advertising. The FCC regulates the sale of advertising by PNS’s stations to candidates for public office and
imposes other restrictions on the broadcast of political announcements more generally. The application of these
regulations may limit the advertising revenues of PNS’s television stations during the periods preceding elections.
Broadcast Indecency. The FCC’s policies prohibit the broadcast of indecent and profane material during certain hours
of the day, and the FCC regularly imposes monetary forfeitures when it determines that a television station violated that
policy. Court challenges concerning the validity of the FCC’s indecency policy are ongoing, and many broadcasters
have argued, among other things, that the FCC has failed to justify its indecency decisions adequately, that the FCC’s
policy is too subjective to guide broadcasters’ programming decisions and that its enforcement approach otherwise
violates the First Amendment.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision during 2009, in Fox Television Stations, Inc. v. FCC, in which it reversed a
decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The Second Circuit decision had held that the FCC violated its
procedural obligations when it found that certain television stations’ broadcast of so-called “fleeting expletives” was indecent.
Following the Supreme Court’s remand of the decision, the Second Circuit invalidated the FCC’s indecency policy in the
context of “fleeting expletives,” finding that the FCC’s policy was unconstitutionally vague. Following that decision, in ABC,
Inc. v. FCC the Second Circuit vacated a monetary forfeiture issued by the FCC against PNS station KSAT, along with 51
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