Don't Touch That Dial (or Remote)!

Satellite and cable providers promise family-friendly TV this year. In an effort to help parents weed out the amount of sex, violence and rough language their kids see on TV, providers of the country's largest direct-broadcast satellite services disclosed plans in mid-January to offer "family friendly" programming to their subscribers.

The announcements by EchoStar Communications Corp. and DirecTV were made one day apart and came less than a month after the three top U.S. cable providers had unveiled similar plans.
According to Twice.com, EchoStar's DishFamily package was to be available Feb. 1. DirecTV announced it would offer its family package starting in mid-April. Both services are to include approximately 40 channels, with family-oriented programming such as Boomerang, Disney, PBS Kids Sprout, National Geographic and Noggin. Also included are public-interest channels featuring scientific, political and religious content, Twice.com reported.

EchoStar and DirecTV followed steps taken by cable companies Time Warner, Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications in December and early January to make more family programming available to their subscribers.

Time Warner was the first of the three cable providers to make public its plans for family "tier" programming.

Its announcement in mid-December stated plans to introduce in early 2006 its Family Choice Tier of 15 mostly sex-and-violence-free services that will include Disney Channel, Weather Channel, CNN Headline News and HGTV.

"We selected channels that were G-rated in nature, did not include 'live' entertainment programming and which contained content that was generally perceived as acceptable for the entire family to view," stated Time Warner CEO Glenn Britt, according to USA Today.

A week after Time Warner's announcement, Comcast Corp. revealed it would offer a family-tier package of 16 channels of "mostly G-rated programming" that include Disney Channel, Discovery's Science Channel and religious programmer TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network).
According to Mediapost.com, Comcast's package will be available to 99 percent of all its subscribers who have access to its "Digital Cable" service. The company also offers a Hispanic-language tier of programming as well as a sports-tier package.

In early January, Cox Communications became the third cable-television provider to unveil family-friendly programming packages. The Cox tier, planned for the first quarter of this year, will offer a package of approximately 40 channels, as well as a religious network and additional Spanish-language networks on a per-location basis, Mediaweek.com reported.

Proponents of "à la carte pay-TV programming," which encompasses both cable and satellite TV, say family-tier programming is an effort to stop their attempts to force providers to sell programming by the individual channel.

For most consumers, it has been impossible, for example, to subscribe to kid-friendly Nickelodeon without also getting the college- and young-adult programming of MTV. Jim Metrock, head of the Birmingham, Alabama-based child advocacy organization Obligation Inc., believes viewers shouldn't have to pay for a package of stations to get the one they want.

"Let's say … if I wanted the Disney Channel I would have to buy 59 other channels. They say you don't have to watch them. Well, yeah, but I don't have to pay for them either—or I shouldn't have to," Metrock told Religion News Service (RNS), according to Christiancentury.org.

Brian Dietz, a spokesman for the National Cable Television Association, told RNS it's not that simple. "Several economic analyses have all concluded that à la carte would likely lead to higher prices, less choice and less diversity in programming," he said.

Industry analysts generally agree the companies all are responding to a warning in December by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin for the industry to deal with concerns about indecent programming.