GPB Launches Multi-Media High School Football Website

Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) and SCORE Atlanta launched a new website http://www.gpb.org/football dedicated to high school football.

Called “Football Fridays in Georgia” the multi-media website allows visitors to watch games online, view featured videos and receive real-time score updates. The first live webcast is Friday, August 29, at 7:30 PM featuring the Marist War Eagles and St. Pius X Golden Lions.

GPB viewers are invited to submit pictures, videos and stories to the website. The station said the website is also a great way for out-of-town relatives to view games live on the web or see it on demand at their convenience. Coaches can use the archives for player reviews and college scouts can see games from all over the state, the station said. GPB is also using the website to showcase breakaway banners, mascot antics, band formations and fan fun.

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More Americans Are Aware of the DTV Transition But Slow to Take Action

Consumer awareness of the digital television transition is at an all time high, but many over-the-air households are slow to take the steps necessary to continue to view television when analog signals cease, according to APTS latest digital transition awareness survey.

As of May 2008, 62 percent of over-the-air households said they would opt to buy a converter box or digital television, compared to 28 percent in November 2006.

But, the APTS study found that the majority of the 8.8 million over-the-air households who said they would buy a set-top converter box to continue to receive free over-the-air television have not done so.

The APTS study also found that as the transition date nears, fewer over-the-air consumers said they would sign up for cable, satellite or telecommunications service to receive digital television, while more are inclined to buy a converter box or digital TV set.

Read the complete release here

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Public Broadcasters Weigh-in With the Supreme Court on the Constitutionality of the FCC’s Indecency Policy
APTS, PBS, NPR and a host of leaders in the public broadcasting community are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the Second Circuit Appeals Court decision invalidating the FCC’s new indecency policy.

In a joint amicus brief filed with the high court in the case of the FCC v. Fox, the group said the FCC’s new indecency policy was arbitrary, capricious and unconstitutional. The public broadcasters provide compelling reasoning for why the FCC’s policy is over board and prohibits a substantial amount of protected speech.

The group suggested the FCC apply a standard more deferential to broadcasters’ editorial judgment. For example, the FCC denied a complaint against a Public Television station that broadcast the word “shit” as well as other “sexually oriented” content in a Masterpiece Theatre series, finding that did not resemble “verbal shock treatment." The FCC should defer to the good faith judgments of broadcasters and be far more dedicated to the First Amendment premise to air controversial programming than worry about an occasional four-letter word.

Finally, the group observed that the FCC’s new, aggressive enforcement policy “lacks clear and consistent standards [and] undermines public broadcasters’ ability to fulfill their public interest mission.”