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FCC regs on LPTV

S

Scotpfv

Perhaps this topic should be on the national TV tread. But, Last weekend I was moving the antenna around and came upon 50.1 here in Dallas that airs MTV th3s. The show "From G's to Gents" was airing with spanish subtitles, no suprise there, makes sence, no prob. What did suprise me was the lack of bleeped words in english. Heard quite a few F-Bombs, never heard that on broadcast tv before.

Myself, I have no problem with language used on a lousy show on an LPTV channel that three people are watching. Just wondering what the FCC, who who seems to be more concerned with content these days as opposed to signal strength would have to say about this.
 
What time did the program air? If it was before 10PM local time, all its affiliates in the affected time zones could face fines.

I think the reason why MTV3 air the show unbleeped is that they were under the assumption that Hispanics don't know anything about English profanity. Nevertheless, there's a chance that there are anglophones watching.

Either way, I still call it a double-standard, as even on cable late at night, the same show (and similar programs) airs bleeped on the main MTV channel.
 
Anglophones do watch MTV Tr3s (especially since DFW lost TheCoolTV). Everytime I've watched they've been bilingual: if the audio is in Spanish the subtitles are English and vice versa.

I'm with you - I couldn't care less about a few F-bombs. But with a national network, there's a good chance someone less tolerant was listening somewhere.
 
I don't think that the FCC monitors content on every OTA station in every market, looking for naughty words. With the celebrated cases where stations are fined for airing profanity, it's because enough people called in to complain. (I don't know what the threshold is for the FCC to take action.) Not a lot of chance there with an LPTV MTV3 station, as the LPTV station is likely not carried on cable, so the potential audience is very small, and even if it is on cable, most people would not be aware that it is also an OTA station.

MTV3 is not a "typical" Spanish-language network, where few Anglophones even have its stations programmed into their station presets and the Spanish-speaking audience doesn't understand English-language profanity. MTV3 is a bilingual network where few people of any language have it programmed into their station presets. Those precious few who actually watch the station are typically in high school or college and either don't care about profanity on TV, or they like it. Even if they don't like it, they probably don't know that they can complain to the FCC, and even if they do, they aren't going to waste their time doing so.
 
I think you're probably right, dhett. In all probability, MTV Tr3s's affiliates will get by with this. Even if I'd heard the f-bombs personally, I wouldn't have complained.

But there are those who feel it's their duty to monitor stations they don't like and complain about any violations, so I'm not sure the affiliates can relax just yet. If MTV Tr3s escapes unscathed, it'll be because they aren't yet a high-profile target of organized "morality" groups. That may change if word of this faux pas spreads beyond this rather technical forum.

Regardless of f-bombs, it would be interesting to learn how many cable systems carry MTV Tr3s. Dish Network doesn't (unless they carry KATA as a local channel - I wouldn't know since I get my local channels OTA) although they do carry MTV and MTV2.
 
MTV Tr3s is available on both Dish Network and Directv in their Spanish language packages. Here in Austin we also get in on a LPTV.
 
I remember several years ago MTV2 aired a show featuring music videos that had been banned or censored from MTV. I remember seeing uncut videos with cursing and nudity such as "closer" by nine inch nails (the one that says f--- you like an animal) "slap my bitch" and the original uncut Madonna video with the lesbians and various s&m images. at the time MTV2 was broadcast free over the air on low power stations. It was quite a shock to see boobs, f-bombs, and various other debauchery on broadcast TV. It did however air late at night.
 
fredcantu said:
MTV Tr3s is available on both Dish Network and Directv in their Spanish language packages. Here in Austin we also get in on a LPTV.
Click to expand...

That makes sense; it's not available in Dish Network's English packages but I didn't think to check the Hispanic ones. Guess Dish doesn't know MTV Tr3s is bilingual.
 
flytrap said:
I remember several years ago MTV2 aired a show featuring music videos that had been banned or censored from MTV. I remember seeing uncut videos with cursing and nudity such as "closer" by nine inch nails (the one that says f--- you like an animal) "slap my bitch" and the original uncut Madonna video with the lesbians and various s&m images. at the time MTV2 was broadcast free over the air on low power stations. It was quite a shock to see boobs, f-bombs, and various other debauchery on broadcast TV. It did however air late at night.
Click to expand...

In addition to a) it being a low-power station that would have a limited audience, b) the FCC takes action against stations based on complaints of inappropriate content, and c) the target audience for MTV2 would be unlikely to complain, as long as the "debauchery" airs after 10 pm and before 6 am (IIRC) then then FCC doesn't impose penalties.
 
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