By Keith Reed, Globe Staff
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.