PTC Blasts TV Ratings Board Inaction
Actions by the TV Oversight Monitoring Board after a critical FCC report aren’t enough to address the board’s failings, said Parents Television Council President Tim Winter in an interview Monday. TVOMB’s actions, which include announcing plans to implement spot checks…
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of content and issuing its first “annual report” in January, are “only to get federal regulators off their back, so they can say they did something,” Winter said. Since the board is controlled by the programming industry and serves as its own oversight, it can't be effective, Winter said. “The TVOMB had more than eight months to implement meaningful reforms that would demonstrate to parents the Board’s commitment to improving the ratings system and its oversight,” Winter wrote TVOMB. “If TVOMB does not see a problem, they are unlikely to find remedies." Winter wants Congress and the FCC to disband the board and create a more effective system. The spot checks, changes to the organization’s website, and the annual report were among FCC recommendations to Congress (see 1905160085). “The Monitoring Board took this feedback extremely seriously,” it said in January. TVOMB and its current chairman, NCTA President Michael Powell, didn’t comment now.