September 22, 2000
                                
                                
        SEPARATE STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER MICHAEL K. POWELL

   Re:    Children's Television Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters, Notice of Proposed
   Rulemaking, MM Docket no. ##-##   (rel. September 14, 2000)  


My general policy is not to oppose Notices of Inquiry and Notices of Proposed Rulemaking
as long as they seek comments in a neutral fashion and are sufficiently broad in scope.  I write
separately in this NPRM to express some concerns I have with this Item.  

First, let me state the NPRM raises important questions related to the application of the
existing children's television rules to digital broadcast services.  There are undoubtedly important
questions concerning the application of existing obligations to the new digital medium.  Yet, we
are at the very preliminary stages of the digital transition, and it is far from clear what form new
services will take in the digital era.  

It seems to me premature to attempt to fix public interest obligations to a service that has
yet to blossom.  For example, the NPRM seeks comment on whether the Commission should
prohibit all direct links to commercial Internet sites, a capability that is not even available today on
broadcast television.  In my view, the wiser course would have been to initiate an Inquiry at a time
when we understand more about the proposed or likely applications of digital television, so our
proposal would bear some plausible nexus to the service itself, rather than its potential.  At a
minimum, I would have preferred that any public interest obligations be considered in the broader
DTV proceeding. 

Second, I caution against introducing subjective tests that require the Commission to make
value judgments about the appropriateness of certain content for children's viewing.  The NPRM
asks, for example, whether "unsuitable promotions" should be banned during children's
programming.  I am skeptical that we can, or should, make this subjective determination.  But
assuming, arguendo, we could, I am troubled by the fact that we have not established, as a
threshold matter, that a serious problem exists in this area.  There is little, if any, empirical data in
the record to substantiate the conclusion that unsuitable promotions are being aired during
children's programming.  I would hope that we gather this type of hard data here, so we can then
make fact-based decisions.