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TS News - Graff PPV To Challenge US Supreme Court

TELE-satellit News, 14 November 1996

Graff PPV To Challenge US Supreme Court
  NEW YORK, New York, USA, 96/11/14 (TS) -- Graff Pay-Per-View, a leading
supplier of adult TV channels, has announced that it will file an appeal
with the US Supreme Court in response to the November 8th decision by a
three-judge panel in U.S. District Court in Delaware denying a request for a
preliminary injunction against enforcement of Section 505 of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.

  At the same time, Graff stated that it will also file a Stay of
Enforcement Pending Appeal.  Both motions will be filed in US District Court
in Delaware.

  Section 505 requires cable systems to fully scramble the audio and video
signals of adult programming networks such as Spice and Adam & Eve Channel.
If a cable system cannot comply with the full scrambling requirement, it can
only distribute the programming during the "safe harbor"  hours of 10pm to
6am, a practice known as "time channeling."

  "This is an important first amendment issue that hits at the heart of
protected speech in a cable environment and we are disappointed in the
decision of this three-judge panel," said Steve Saril, president of Spice
Networks, a Graff operating unit. "The ruling ignores the fact that Spice's
programming is already scrambled. Moreover, Section 504 of the Act requires
operators to block both the audio and video of a transmission if the
customer requests it.

  "We fully support the provisions of Section 504 and believe that it is the
least restrictive means of protecting minors from unauthorized reception of
adult programming. We also believe that ordinary consumers will be denied
constitutionally protected programming simply because they cannot, because
of the hours they work or other life-style needs, view during the 'safe
harbor' hours," he said.

(c)TELE-satellit 1996. All rights reserved.
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