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PREAMBLE How should the "public interest, convenience, and necessity" be served by broadcasters? The government has allowed the nation's broadcasters to use at no cost the enormous power, potential and capacity of the publicly-owned analog and digital spectrum estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In return, the public expects - and our democracy requires - the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to define meaningful public interest requirements so that this grant of spectrum will benefit not only broadcasters, but also our national and local communities.
As the age of digital television dawns, the FCC has a fresh opportunity to create meaningful public interest obligations for broadcasters. One core component of these public interest requirements is that broadcasters provide opportunities for citizens to become informed about - and involved in - local civic affairs and elections. Another is to use digital broadcasting's enormously increased capacity to expand the diversity of viewpoints and voices available to the American public over its airwaves. In addition to the specific proposals below, we recognize that the public interest also requires that broadcasters air programming that serves the educational needs of children, Americans with Disabilities (i.e., closed captioning, video description, digital features that would provide for more access), and underserved communities, and generally promote local and community programming.
To assure that broadcasters are adequately serving the public interest, they should be obligated to report to the public on an ongoing basis if and how they are fulfilling these requirements. Ensuring that the grantees of the public's extraordinarily valuable spectrum adequately serve the public interest appropriately balances First Amendment interests and guarantees that the age of digital television will benefit both broadcasters and the American public.
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