DISNEY MADE ‘FALSE STATEMENTS’ TO FCC, AFFILIATE KEZI SAYS
Disney Co. made “false statements of facts” to FCC in refusing request of KEZI Eugene, Ore., to air ABC prime-time programming at 7-10 p.m. in order to add 10 p.m. local newscast, according to station’s Gen. Mgr. John Prevedello. In Nov. 20 ex parte filing on behalf of ABC, parent Disney claimed dispute wasn’t about adding local news, “it is about money” to permit KEZI to recoup losses from syndicated programming (CD Nov 26 p1). “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Prevedello wrote FCC Chmn. Powell in ex parte letter filed Tues.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Prevedello said that, in effort to divert FCC attention from legal issues involved, “Disney attempts to discredit our motives” in proposing 10 p.m. newscast: “We made the proposal… to be the most responsive to the interests of local viewers in our market… Our company, not Disney, has the statutory responsibility and right to determine what programs to broadcast on KEZI and at what time.”
Most “expedient course” for KEZI would be “to serve simply as a passive conduit” for ABC’s programming, Prevedello told Powell, but that wouldn’t serve needs of station’s viewers: “We believe our relevance [to viewers] in a 200+ channel universe is tied directly to our ability to provide a unique brand of national and local programming… in time periods when our viewers want to see them.” That’s especially true, Prevedello said, in light of repurposing of programming by ABC on Disney-owned cable channels and “we are bracing for more” to come on Family Channel, purchased by Disney last year.
Under local news scenario, KEZI planned to air Entertainment Tonight at 10:30 p.m. and Disney claimed station’s contract with Paramount required show to be aired at 10. That is “plainly not true,” Prevedello said in filing copy of Paramount contract, which called for show’s airing at 7 p.m. weekdays: “That Disney would make such a patently false statement is disappointing.” KEZI’s charges against ABC-Disney have been made part of record in filing by Network Affiliated Stations Alliance asking FCC to investigate practices of Big 4 TV networks (CD July 31 p2).