'80s Sitcom Star Has Something To Say!

Quintessential 1980s sitcom star, Justine Bateman from Family Ties, took her stance on the issue of net neutrality before the Senate Commerce Committee in April of 2008. Net neutrality, as defined by Wikipedia, concerns the equal use of broadband networks and “a neutral broadband network is one that is free of restrictions on the kinds of equipment that might be attached, on the modes of communication allowed, which does not restrict content, sites or platforms, and where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams.” Wikipedia’s definition is a long way of saying that net neutrality is good because it doesn’t allow the big broadband networks to overshadow the smaller ones. It also doesn’t restrict any content or access to anything on the internet. However, this is increasingly the effect in the television industry because of fewer corporations owning the television networks, thereby creating a rise in television regulation.
Actress Justine Bateman, along with our “read-write” internet advocator Professor Lawrence, Lessig spoke in front of the Senate Commerce Committee to support net neutrality. Bateman spoke out against the idea of media consolidation in entertainment and offered a sign of hope through the internet where creative control is at the hands of the content producer. Interestingly, the article titled “Justine Bateman, Net Neutrality & Celebrity Witnesses” features Bateman’s statement to the Senate amidst the author’s obvious disdain for celebrities speaking out and net neutrality (you can read this article for arguments against net neutrality). In this article, Bateman says that:

In entertainment, I believe we are on the verge of a creative renaissance and the Internet is the new grid upon which this renaissance can rest…and the idea of your site succeeding of failing based upon whether or not you paid the telecom companies enough to carry your material or allow quick access is appalling.

Her solution to what she calls “TV’s inevitable move to the internet” is to offer her own website that promotes free-of-interference and well-produced shows brought directly to the internet user. This new website is called FM78.TV and emphasizes the idea that there is a new “creative revolution” coming to the internet. It officially throws out the notion of being forced to distribute a final product through the television and film media in order to obtain an audience. The website says that for the first time the television networks are losing their grip on distribution, leaving a large space on the internet where the “content creator is in control of their own work.” FM78.TV’s first internet TV project is currently in production and is called Candy Inc., a comedy, that stars Bateman and Judd Nelson.
Justine Bateman is probably one of the first celebrities to realize the inevitable shift from shows on television to the internet, and has capitalized on a future phenomenon. This raises the issue for a much bigger need for net neutrality on the internet once this shift manifests. The internet is fairly fair-content orientated now and needs to stay that way once the television networks find their own niche for shows that are produced and distributed for internet-direct.