Anticipating government relaxation of guidelines for public affairs programing on television (the Federal Communications Commission--FCC--has already deregulated radio programing), researchers analyzed 1978 programing data for commercial television stations to determine percentages of informational (news plus public affairs), local, and nonentertainment programing. The FCC currently uses a 5-5-10 standard: five % of all programing is news/public affairs, five % is locally produced, and ten % is nonentertainment programing. The analysis showed that the television stations appeared to be doing a "good" job when it came to meeting and exceeding FCC public interest program minimums, although about nine % of the stations failed to meet the minimum requirement for local programing. Most of those failing to meet this local programing standard operated in smaller markets. Overall, the television stations covered by the 5-5-10 standard aired about three times more news and public affairs programs, about two and one-half times more nonentertainment programing, and nearly twice as much local programing as the amounts demanded by the FCC. These results differed little from those reported in similar analyses of 1974 and 1976 data. (RL)