Under the new policies the government allowed private and foreign broadcasters to engage in limited operations in India.

The American experience feeds such pessimism because deregulation has allowed broadcasters to blur the line between children's shows and commercials.

This allows broadcasters to watch as they upload, while maintaining a consistent stream.

Consumer advocates have criticized existing children's television rules for allowing broadcasters to stretch the definition of educational programming.

As such, the F.C.C. is allowing broadcasters that move to the new band to keep using their old frequencies for five years.

The proposed change would relax the regulations to allow new broadcasters to transmit in areas from 2 miles to 8.8 miles.

The standards are a flexible system allowing terrestrial broadcasters to choose from a variety of options to suit their various service environments.

The other big question is the effect of a provision allowing over-the-air broadcasters to demand royalties from cable companies that carry their programming.

Worse still, the bills would have allowed broadcasters, cable operators, telephone companies and newspapers to merge too easily.

Then last year a new law allowed broadcasters to seek monthly fees from cable operators.