V-Chip Remains an Enigma
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/10/2006 6:43:00 PM
The FCC blasted the V-chip/TV-ratings system last week, declaring in a court brief defending its profanity crackdown that "most of the televisions currently in use have no V-chip capability at all."
Really? As of 2000, all TV sets sold in the country are required to be V-chip–capable. Figuring that consumers buy new sets every eight years or so, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) estimates that there are
180 million V-chip–enabled TVs in the U.S., or 60%-65% of the universe of 300 million TVs—a majority where we come from.
The commission cited various statements, studies and hearings from 2003 and 2004 in a footnote in the brief, but it was still trying to pin down the exact source of its assertion at press time.
CEA, for its part, bases its figures on a market-analysis database that tracks TV shipments from manufacturers to retailers. Any discrepancy between units shipped and sold is statistically insignificant, says a CEA spokesman, noting that its figure represents the number "installed"—as in up and humming in the home.
But the FCC may be onto something. There really is no V-chip, per se, according to CEA and at least one First Amendment attorney with a dog in this profanity fight.
The so-called V-chip is the same bit of circuitry that governs closed-captioning and other data—such as ratings codes—delivered via the broadcast signal’s vertical blanking interval, says CEA Director of Engineering David Wilson.
So where did the notion of a separate chip come from? Says Wilson, "It was something easy to throw around Capitol Hill."
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