So it appears that the FCC has reported that the number of complaints dramatically decreased recently. Overall, the number of radio and television complaints went from 317,833 in the end of 2004 to 157,650 in 2005 (of which only 634 were complaints about “obscene” or “indecent” content). Now keep in mind that the majority of these complaints are done by special interest groups sending out mass emails to the FCC. It’s not really all of America up in arms, just the vocal minority who wants the media to do the parenting for them.
But it appears that Cable and Satellite complaints are on the rise. Not sure how much of this is actually broken down to Satellite Radio (if any), but this FMQB article hints at the “future home of Howard Stern” as being the new target.
Unfortunately there seems to be a rising number complaints by parents to SIRIUS about certain channels - and with the Sprint partnership on the horizon requiring clean content - it seems that SIRIUS may have to clean up it’s act a bit. This isn’t something that is going to away anytime soon, there’s always going to be these whining groups of wackjobs out there who have far too much free time.
Moble Satellite Radio is going to happen, sooner than we may think, and with cellphones there’s a larger number of kids now listening - and as a result more cranky parents waiting to complain. So both Satellite Radio companies are going to need a solution. Sure, you can have channel blocking enabled for parental control, but it seems like there could be a better way to have our cake and eat it too - especially for these content deals. Something like an “EXPLICIT” button that would switch to content that has curse words bleeped out. If the receivers could have multicasting abilities that allow switching between a “clean feed” and an “explicit feed” we could have a solution for both parents and us adults who want to listen to adult content (part of the reason why satellite is growing so quickly).
Just a thought. What do you all think?
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