What Are Broadcast Monitoring Services? Broadcast monitoring services are commercial services that provide selections of programs, compilations of programs and/or transcripts of news or public affairs programs, or commercial advertisements that are of particular interest to clients. Customers use the tapes made and sent to them by monitoring services to learn about, analyze and respond quickly and effectively to news and other relevant programming, wherever in the country it may be broadcast. Broadcast monitoring services flourish in over twenty states and, as the demand for their services increases, are growing in number. In major cities, such as New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston and Minneapolis, broadcast monitoring services are large businesses, some of which have their own regional offices. The largest such service has over 4,000 regular clients and employs more than 500 people. In smaller cities, such as Austin and Memphis, monitoring services are often owner-operated businesses run out of private homes. Wherever they are located or whatever their size, broadcast monitoring services provide similar services. Clients normally place standing orders for news programs concerning specific subjects of interest, for commercial advertisements or for other programming to be monitored. Clients also may request a synopsis of news coverage of their areas of interest, from which they select the program excerpts they wish to order. Monitoring services use videocassette recorders ("VCRs") to tape local and national news programs as they are just like home tapers tape off-the-air to time-shift or for other purposes. The services provided, however, go well beyond simple reproduction. Once a program is taped, the service then screens it for segments that respond to clients' requests. Where appropriate, programs from several local programs may be compiled into a single tape for the client. Most services keep logs of how often and by which broadcaster a subject is covered. Logs identify stations that air stories or cover a particular issue, include a synopsis of the story or interview, and indicate what time and in what manner it was broadcast. Monitoring services send selections of programs, compilations or logs to their clients, usually overnight. Beyond these, they provide a wide range of other services. Some monitoring services provide daily reports on news broadcasts from which their clients select programs they want to see. Some provide only audiocassettes of news programs. Some provide typewritten transcripts. Some provide translations of programs from English into Spanish or of Spanish language programming into English. Some provide an overview of coverage in a given region or on a given day. Contrary to some misperceptions, broadcast monitoring services never tape broadcasts for resale or for rebroadcast. Rather, by monitoring, they provide a set of useful services that adds significant value to broadcast programs. They offer these services on a timely and nationwide basis to a highly diversified audience. The services do not rebroadcast the programming that they make available to their clients. In fact, many services tape only on lower-quality tape, which is not suitable for rebroadcast. In accordance with the IABM Code of Ethics, monitoring services are careful to ensure that the selections or compilations of programs that they provide are used only by clients for their internal research and analysis. The IABM Code of Ethics states in part that: 1. Broadcast monitors shall record material as it is received without any alteration of the material as presented. 2. Broadcast monitors shall not knowingly assist anyone in violation of the copyright law or any other rights. Broadcast monitors shall provide to clients only those portions of broadcast reports which the client indicates he has a legitimate interest in obtaining. The clips so provided shall constitute discrete portions of the broadcast which are complete in themselves and shall identify the original broadcaster and the monitor providing the tape, and except for legends imposed thereon, shall be an accurate record of the material as broadcast. 3. Broadcast monitors shall place on each Association designed to prevent inappro priate or improper use of the material In the Sony Betamax case, the Supreme Court held that off-the-air taping for purposes of time-shifting is a legitimate use of broadcast programming that does not infringe copyright. Broadcast monitors perform a similar, but far more useful and productive, service for clients who either are unable to view a program when it is broadcast, or are geographically removed from the broadcast location. In short, broadcast monitoring services simply do for their clients what they have the right, but neither the resources nor the technology, to do for themselves. Broadcast Monitoring Services Provide A Valuable Public Service Broadcast monitoring services perform important functions in our society. They safeguard the public's right to have access to reports of newsworthy events of immediate public concern, which would otherwise be unavailable to large segments of the population. Since the advent of television, broadcast news has been a chronicle of the times, recording not only events as they occur but also shaping and reflecting how the public perceives and reacts to those events. Broadcast news programming, however, is powerful, but are widely seen and felt, news programs are not readily or permanently available for public study. |