Breaking News:

Religious Broadcasters Oppose FCC Pressure
To Force Cable into Pay-Per-Channel
“FCC’s A La Carte Model Would Devastate Religious Broadcasting”

For Immediate Release
Monday, November 19, 2007

Contact: Colby May
Faith & Family Broadcasting Coalition
(202) 544-5171

The Faith and Family Broadcasting Coalition, a coalition of the nation’s leading religious television broadcasters, today reiterated its opposition to the FCC using regulatory pressure to force cable companies to convert to a pay-per-channel or “a la carte” business model. Such a forced change would have a devastating effect on religious broadcasters and their mission to share the saving love of Christ to all nations.

Recent press reports indicate that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman intends to launch new regulations on the cable industry designed to force cable companies to radically alter their business model form tiered bundles of channels to a pay-per-channel, or “a la carte” business model. These regulations are scheduled to be the subject of an FCC meeting on November 27.

The news accounts indicate that Chairman Martin will claim that the “70/70” threshold has been met from a 1984-era statute meant to prevent cable from gaining too much market power. The rule kicks in when cable systems with 36 or more channels are available to 70% of U.S. households and achieve a 70% penetration rate of those households. Such a finding would grant the FCC the power to further regulate cable and force the a la carte business model.

Given the nature of today’s subscription video marketplace, which includes Direct Broadcast Satellite, Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV and AT&T’s U-verse TV systems, and the entry of new fiber-optic Internet-based offerings and program streaming, relying on a 20-year-old program-diversity and rate regulation statute is out of place. Perhaps this is why some news reports state the FCC’s real intention in asserting the “70/70” regulatory action is to pressure the cable industry to adopt a la carte regulations. Because the Faith & Family Broadcasting Coalition continues to believe an a la carte regime will limit and reduce the distribution of religious and faith-based inspirational programming, we must oppose this latest attempt to force it upon the marketplace by government fiat.

"Though its proponents may be well-intentioned, the fact is a la carte would threaten the very existence of religious broadcasting and the myriad of social and public service ministries it supports by reducing its distribution in the marketplace," according to Colby May, of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which represents the Faith & Family Broadcasting Coalition.

The GAO independently has concluded that the adoption of an a la carte model would likely raise prices for many cable and satellite subscribers and would surely mean the end of many of the smaller networks on cable today, from religious broadcasters to family-oriented networks.

“A per-channel charge would dramatically limit, if not kill, the availability of religious-based programming on cable” according to May, Director and Senior Counsel of the ACLJ’s Washington, DC office. ACLJ filed official comments to the Federal Communications Commission opposing a la carte regulations when they were first proposed in 2005. “For 25 years the bundled-channel model of cable distribution has allowed religious programmers to be a dynamic and important part of the cable marketplace, providing the unique Gospel message of hope, joy, and love, which has touched millions of lives over that time. A government mandate to force abandonment of channel-bundling and substituting-in a la carte regime is misguided and threatens that historic distribution,” May said.

In Memoriam Jerry Falwell 1934-2007:

Rev. Jerry Falwell has gone home to be with his Savior after many decades of service to the Great Commission of Christ. The following memorials of Rev. Falwell’s life are offered to readers, who are asked to keep him and his family in their prayers.

"As the founder of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., Jerry lived a life of faith and called upon men and women of all backgrounds to believe in God and serve their communities. One of his lasting contributions was the establishment of Liberty University, where he taught young people to remain true to their convictions and rely upon God's word throughout each stage of their lives."
President George W. Bush.

CBN.com – VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., May 15, 2007--My wife and I have sent our condolences to Macel Falwell and her family. Jerry has been a tower of strength on many of the moral issues which have confronted our nation. Liberty University is a magnificent accomplishment and will prove a lasting legacy. Jerry’s courage and strength of convictions will be sadly missed in this time of increasing moral relativism. I join with the tens of thousands of his friends to mourn the passing of this extraordinary human being.
Pat Robertson

Jerry Falwell was one of the most historic religious and political figures of the twentieth century. He transformed the life of our nation, even as he never wavered from his first love and calling, which was to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. When he founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church in 1957, fundamentalism was in the mid-throes of a half-century of withdrawal from American civic life, a self-imposed exile that had begun with the Scopes Trial of 1925. As arguably the leading fundamentalist pastor in the nation, he organized a network of independent Baptists and fundamentalists into a formidable force, moving fundamentalism back into the mainstream of American religious culture. The “fundamentals” of the Christian faith that he preached from the pulpit---the inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection of Christ, and the imminent return of Christ---came to heavily influence a movement back to orthodoxy within American Protestantism, most dramatically represented by the return of the Southern Baptist Convention to its conservative roots. This, along with a return to orthodoxy among pro-life, observant Catholics (especially under the Papacy of John Paul II, which began in 1978), marked perhaps the two most important changes in religious life in the United States in the last half century.

Falwell’s liberal critics saw him only through the prism of secularism, and so they never grasped what a groundbreaking progressive he was within fundamentalism. He insisted that the Moral Majority work with Catholics, Jews, charismatic Protestants and Mormons, who were anathema to some of his fundamentalist colleagues. But this break with the separatist, isolationist past of fundamentalism was critical to building cooperation across denominational and doctrinal lines in the pro-family movement. It is one of his most significant and lasting achievements. His support for Israel and his work with the Jewish community were legendary. Today, there is much talk about whether the pro-family community should work on a narrow band of issues such as abortion and protecting marriage, or whether it should broaden its concerns to include foreign policy and other domestic issues. Dr. Falwell grasped from the creation of the movement that the values of social conservatism spoke to every area of public policy, including foreign affairs and defense. He was a staunch anti-Communist, a strong supporter of Israel, and a believer in religious liberty around the world.

When he founded the Moral Majority in 1979, he awakened the slumbering giant of the evangelical vote. The marriage of that vote to an ascendant, confident Republican Party is among the most important political demographic changes of the last century. One could see the shadow of his presence on the stage at the South Carolina Republican presidential debate last night in Columbia, as the ten aspirants for the GOP nomination sought to connect with the evangelical voters who will decide the outcome of that primary, and probably the Republican presidential contest. The Republican majority that exists in states like South Carolina and other states across the South and Midwest would have been unthinkable without the voters that Falwell helped energize.

Though not without controversy, Jerry Falwell led an enormously consequential life. Few of us who are engaged in politics failed to be touched directly or indirectly by his leadership. Many of us were fortunate to count him as a friend. He will be greatly missed. He was also wise enough to leave no void of leadership, either at his beloved Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church, or at the helm of the pro-family movement he helped to birth. He is gone, but his vital work will go on, often in the hands of those he mentored and inspired, and the American people will continue to hear the clarion call of faith to which he devoted his life.
Ralph Reed, Jr.
Writing In National Review Online

About Us :

The Faith and Family Broadcasting Coalition is a group of religious broadcasters, programmers and ministers, as well as listeners and supporters joined together to voice support for religious and family-oriented broadcasting.

We oppose proposed Federal regulation know as “per-channel charge” or "a la carte" pricing that would have a devastating effect on the inspirational programming we currently provide.

The proposed regulation would require that consumers specifically order and pay for a channel rather than receive it as part of a basic cable or satellite package. This regulation, if implemented, would decimate both the audience and financial support for religious broadcasting. Faith-based and family-oriented broadcasting does not draw the same level of advertising as standard entertainment programming, and if thrust into an "a la carte" world it would either be dropped by many cable and satellite operators or their subscribers would be charged significantly higher fees. Both prospects are unacceptable.

Faith-based and family-oriented broadcasts provide a vital public service by providing wholesome, inspirational, and moral content within a media marketplace sorely in need of such an alternative.

Many proponents of a la carte are well intentioned, but they simply have not considered the effect such regulations would have on the availability and distribution of religious and family broadcasting.

Our aim is to do everything we can to increase the number of Americans who are able to tune into a religious and family-oriented broadcast. We hope that you agree, and that you will join the Faith and Family Broadcasting Coalition.

www.FaithandFamilyTV.com