New Frontier Media, Inc. has announced that Monday's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court against the implementation of Section 505 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a positive event and signals the end to 'safe harbor' viewing hours. The ruling determined that it was unconstitutional to restrict adult cable programming to the hours of 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM if cable operators cannot fully scramble the programming signal. Section 505, also known as the Communications Decency Act, sought to protect underage viewers from being exposed to "signal bleed", which is when non-subscribers receive fuzzy or partial adult content video images and/or audio signal. nnAs a result of this ruling, cable operators carrying New Frontier's adult network programming will no longer have to restrict this programming to the hours of 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM if they are unable to fully (i.e., digitally) scramble the programming signal. nn"The United States Supreme Court struck an important blow for the First Amendment today by ruling that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 violated the First Amendment insofar as the Act requires adult-content cable television channels to block completely their signals to all non-subscribing households," stated Alan L. Isaacman, Esq., a leading First Amendment Rights attorney and a member of the Board of Directors of New Frontier Media. Isaacman went on to say went on to say, "The onerous blocking requirements would have required the installation of highly expensive scrambling technology on all U.S. cable channels carrying adult content. If upheld, the requirement would have resulted in a substantial impairment of broadcasters' basic free speech rights and viewers' freedom of choice rights." nnIsaacman further added that in its ruling, the Court recognized that the Act already contains a less restrictive alternative for addressing the same governmental interest, that is, keeping sexually-oriented material away from minors. That alternative requires cable channel operators to block any channel free of charge, if a customer requests it. "By requiring government to adopt the least restrictive alternative in furthering government interests, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the fundamental importance of freedom of speech in our society," he concluded. nn"The intent of Section 505 to protect viewers who are underage from being exposed to adult content programming is central to our corporate philosophy," stated Mark H. Kreloff, President and CEO of New Frontier Media. "We also believe wholeheartedly in the principles of freedom of speech. We have and will continue to take great care in the delivery of our networks, as well as our Internet websites, to protect minors from exposure to inappropriate programming, as well as to preserve and protect the First Amendment rights of adults. We see this case as an important vote of confidence by the U.S. Supreme Court that responsibly delivered adult content is and remains protected speech under the First Amendment."
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
