presented by any retroactive application of any such significant policy change in the definition or application of FCC indecency policy. In this context, NBC fully supports the current legislative proposal to assess higher maximum forfeitures in future indecency proceedings against those broadcast stations that already have been compelled to pay multiple forfeitures for serious violations of established indecency standards.

Of course, NBC will abide by any legal action taken by the Commission to enforce established indecency standards. NBC is not aware of its network entertainment programming being the subject of any indecency complaint involving more than a single allegedly indecent word since the FCC first announced this prospective change in policy, but has not challenged the FCC's intention to impose monetary penalties per indecent utterance rather than per broadcast program in future indecency cases. As for other enforcement proposals, NBC lacks sufficient information to comment usefully at this time, but agrees that broadcast stations that repeatedly and seriously violate established indecency standards should be held accountable for their intentional and serious misdeeds under the standards in place at the time of the relevant broadcast.

Please contact Robert Okun, VP of NBC Washington at 637-4532, if we may be of further assistance.

I am writing in response to your letter of January 27, 2004 on behalf of Fox Broadcasting Company, which operates the FOX Television Network ("FOX"). FOX appreciates your interest in ensuring that America's children are not exposed to objectionable content during live television entertainment events. Indeed, we have long shared this goal, and that is why we have diligently attempted since FOX's inception to keep objectionable content out of live television.

1. FOX does not believe that it is acceptable to transmit entertainment programming, live or otherwise, that contains the "f word" or similarly objectionable language. The only exception to this general policy would be in the very rare instance where necessary for artistic reasons, in programming which does not target children and which includes clear parental advisories. The network believes that it has a responsibility to its viewers to attempt to prevent the broadcast of objectionable content, particularly during the broadcast of live entertainment events. FOX takes this responsibility very seriously and has in place procedures designed to achieve this goal. Even though these procedures historically have been, on the whole, quite successful, we recently implemented several key changes to bolster our efforts in this regard.

2. With the immediacy of live television comes the possibility that performers will spontaneously deviate from the script and do or say something that is offensive to some viewers. This, in fact, was what happened with the Billboard

FOX ENTERTAINMENT GROU Fax:310-969-0546

Feb 5 2004 13:33 P.02

The Honorable John D. Dingell
February 5, 2004
Page 2

Music Awards broadcast on December 10, 2003. During that broadcast, FOX was
utilizing a time delay procedure, as it does for all live entertainment programming.
This five-second delay provided that viewers saw "live" programming on their
television screens five seconds after the events actually occurred. That delay
allowed a member of FOX's Broadcast Standards division to edit out objectionable
content before it aired on viewers' television through use of a "delete button."

Although these procedures have been in place for a number of years, their
effectiveness depends ultimately on the actions of a human being. The Broadcast
Standards employee working during the 2003 Billboard Music Awards broadcast did
manage to use the delay button to successfully edit out the first spontaneous
expletive spoken by Nicole Richie during the show. Unfortunately, however, he did
not catch the other two objectionable words spontaneously spoken by Ms. Richie
immediately after the first objectionable word that had been deleted. We emphasize
that the objectionable words contained in Ms. Richie's remarks were spontaneously
delivered, and departed from the script prepared for the show.

FOX immediately edited the tape of the Billboard Music Awards show to remove the objectionable content before the material aired on tape delay in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. In addition, FOX has taken steps to try to prevent this type of error from occurring again (see below).

3. FOX has implemented several significant enhancements to its time-delay system and operational protocols in an effort to reduce the risks associated with human error during future live entertainment broadcasts. We are adding personnel to permit simultaneous but parallel and separate review processes by up to four separate teams, each with their own separate sub-systems to independently remove audio and video. Further, the entire system will include redundant hardware to protect against equipment failure. We believe these steps will help ensure objectionable content does not air during live entertainment events.

4-6. Questions 4, 5 and 6 ask whether Congress and the Federal
Communications Commission ("FCC") should increase the sanctions applicable to
the broadcast of indecent programming. We believe that the FCC has historically
followed a cautious approach to indecency regulation - and for good reason. The
FCC's indecency standard is inherently vague, yet it constitutes a restriction on
creative content protected by the core of the First Amendment. Whenever content
creators are faced with governmental interference, particularly if the standard for
oversight is vague, there is a serious risk of chilling free speech. That having been
said, we will comply with laws passed by Congress, or regulations implemented at
the FCC, that pass constitutional muster.

In sum, FOX understands and appreciates your interest in ensuring that
America's children are not exposed to objectionable content on live television. We

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believe that the changes that we are implementing will greatly reduce this risk on our network.