The Prime Time Access Rule: Six Commandments for Inept Regulation

The Federal Communications Commission's Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR) forbids television stations affiliated with the major networks from broadcasting certain programs during certain hours if the programs were produced for one of the major networks. The author examines the reasons PTAR is favored by the networks but concludes that PTAR should be repealed since it does not further any goals of network regulation, disregards viewer welfare, and clashes with anticensorship policies. The author suggests that regulatory inaction will increase competition among the networks for viewers, eventually forcing the networks themselves to push for PTAR's repeal.