FCC V-CHIP TASK FORCE UPDATES V-CHIP ENCODING SURVEY

Washington, DC -- The Federal Communications Commission's V-Chip Task Force has been working with equipment manufacturers and retailers, cable and broadcast programming producers, parents and other groups to ensure the effective implementation of the V-Chip. One of the Task Force's primary goals is to ensure that the TV ratings information needed for the V-Chip to operate is actually being encoded and transmitted by programming distributors.

In a release dated January 10, 2000, the V-Chip Task Force issued a follow-up survey of the encoding status of major broadcast networks, cable networks and syndicators. This release provides an update to that survey. Specifically, by the end of the first quarter of 2000, the QVC network expects to encode its programming with ratings information that will permit effective operation of the V-Chip. Previously, the survey had listed QVC as not planning to encode.

An updated survey reflecting this change is attached.

FCC