Fox Increases V-Chip PSA Airings

In response to Washington’s indecency crackdown, Fox is running its V-chip/ratings public-service announcement more frequently.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who pushed for the adoption of the system, has been calling on the networks to increase their educational efforts.

The Fox PSA is a retro-looking slide show that explains the ratings system and V-chip channel-blocking technology. One slide assures it’s "easy to use." That characterization may clash with the V-chip’s pages-long instructions in new TV-set manuals. Still, Fox stands by its claim.

The spot was written in-house, and we’re told the network’s head of creative marketing, who oversaw the spot’s creation, has used the device. The Fox exec insists that setting the V-chip isn’t difficult–no harder than setting the parental controls on AOL.

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.