As decency issue boils, Comcast sets a family tier

Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable provider, said yesterday it will offer a package of family-friendly channels in 2006, following increasing pressure on the industry from legislators and regulators to curb access to violent and sexually explicit content.

The family tier will be composed of 16 children's, news and other networks including the Disney Channel, CNN Headline News, Nickelodeon and the Food Network, but must be bought along with Comcast's basic package of about 30 local broadcast, Spanish-language and public access channels. It will also require a $4.50 per-month digital set-top box rental. In total, the package will cost roughly $29.45 per month in Massachusetts and will allow subscribers now taking more expensive Comcast packages to pay less and take fewer channels.

It might also help the cable industry stave off proposals to force it to offer a la carte pricing, which it has resisted, and could help Comcast and Time Warner Corp. complete a major deal that needs the approval of the Federal Communications Commission, analysts said. Together the companies have bid $17.6 billion for the assets of Adelphia Communications, in a deal that if approved could see one-tenth of the cable subscribers in the country get new providers.

Time Warner's cable unit said earlier this month that it would offer a family tier of its own.

''That's why the family tier is suddenly being announced by those two companies. This is a good way to get some brownie points" with regulators, said Adi Kishore, director of media research at Boston consultancy the Yankee Group.

Media companies broadly have faced a crackdown on sexual and violent content, led by conservative legislators and regulators, since singer Janet Jackson's breast was infamously exposed for a fraction of a second on live, prime-time television during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime performance.

The FCC has leveled stiff obscenity fines against TV and radio broadcasters who use public airwaves, but doesn't have the same authority over how cable companies package content for consumers.

That hasn't stopped its chairman, Kevin Martin, and some conservative senators, notably powerful Alaska Republican Ted Stevens, from suggesting legislation that would impose indecency standards or even a la carte on the industry if it did not address their concerns. Cable companies have scrambled to mount a response since a Nov. 29 hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, which Stevens chairs.

''They're trying to avoid regulation," said Bruce Leichtman, the president of Leichtman Research Group, a Durham, N.H., telelcommunications and media consultancy.

Calls to Stevens' Washington office were not returned yesterday. Martin released a statement on Dec. 12 praising several cable companies, including Comcast and RCN Corp., for saying they were considering family tiers. Martin said he hoped the companies would ''address parents' legitimate concerns with having to purchase programming that they believe is unsuitable for their children."

Yesterday, FCC spokesman David Fiske said Martin would not comment on Comcast's announcement.

''He has not gotten into the specifics in terms of what programming will be available and how it will work. We'll just have to wait and see," Fiske said.

Comcast spokesman Shawn Feddeman said the company had been considering a family tier of programming long before the FCC flap. Consumers will still be able to add premium channels like HBO or Cinemax, which both feature violent and sexually-charged programming and cannot be touched by the FCC.

Feddeman noted if a family getting the new package took one of those options, Comcast still offers parental controls that can block access to objectionable programming.

''Comcast provides families the tools to manage the viewer experience," she said.

Cable companies argue that a la carte pricing, under which consumers could pick individual channels from a menu and pay a set fee for each, would wreck cable economics. Cable providers pay networks between a few cents and several dollars per subscriber for the right to carry their programming, pairing expensive popular programs with less expensive fare to manage costs.

Some network executives believe a la carte pricing would cripple them financially, and first amendment advocates believe it would limit diverse voices on cable programming.

''The diversity of what we see today is directly threatened by family friendly tiers and a la carte," said Adam Thierer, senior fellow and director of the Center for Digital Media Freedom at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

He pointed to BET and The Black Family Channel, both networks that target black viewers but are excluded from Comcast's and Time Warner's family tiers. Thierer said he feared legislators will ultimately demand more control over programming.

''It's a delay tactic by cable to avoid the heat and by Congress to avoid pushing an issue that they know could potentially be declared unconstitutional if it ever went to court," he said.

While it wasn't immediately clear whether Comcast's plan would mute political criticism in Washington, the move was praised by the conservative religious right.

''A new family tier of programming responds to a deep and abiding concern among parents about a coarsening of the culture and growing indecent programming directed at children," read a statement from televangelist Reverend Jerry Falwell. He and others on the religious right had disagreed with Stevens and Martin over a la carte pricing, which they said would limit the reach of religious networks.

Keith Reed can be reached at reed@globe.com.