Indecency, Obscenity Complaints Down In FCC's Most Recent Accounting

Q3 2009 shows dramatic decrease from previous three months

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/5/2010 12:15:00 PM

The summer of '09 was a slow time for indecency and obscenity complaints at the FCC, according to its most recent quarterly accounting.

For the third quarter--July, August and September--the FCC received 1,827 complaints, down dramatically from the 12,940 it received in the previous three months.

The FCC has well over a million such complaints in the pipeline dating back several years. Its indecency enforcement regime has been in legal limbo as federal courts continue to sort out various challenges to its content-control powers, although it has begun sending out letters of inquiries on some of those complaints, according to attorneys whose clients have received the letters.

In the second quarter, indecency complaints were more than two thirds of the 17,047 total radio and TV-related complaints to the FCC, while they were less than a third of the 6,700 radio and TV complaints registered in the third quarter.

Other such complaints were about marketing and advertising, general programming criticisms and DTV issues.