C-SPAN Will Make Fox Vs. FCC Availabe On Demand

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

C-SPAN will make Wednesday's (Jan. 13) Second Circuit oral argument in the Fox vs. FCC profanity case available on-demand, online starting around 8 p.m. Wednesday night, according to spokesman Peter Kiley. It will air on C-SPAN 2 starting at 9 p.m. In both cases, the language will not be bleeped.

According to Kiley, logistics and cost and other coverage responsibilities prevented live coverage of the argument, which deals with the FCC's indecency finding against swearing during Fox awards shows.

The court initially concluded that the FCC's finding based on fleeting profanity was an arbitrary and capricious change in an earlier policy, but the Supreme Court disagreed and remanded it back to the court to take another crack at it.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.