NEWSReport No. DC 95-49 ACTION IN DOCKET CASE April 5, 1995 COMMISSION PROPOSES MORE SPECIFIC RULES TO IMPROVE CHILDREN'S TV (MM DOCKET 93-48) Based on the results of its 1993 inquiry and 1994 en banc hearing on the effectiveness of its children's television programming regulations, the Commission proposed to make certain changes to facilitate licensee compliance with the Children's Television Act of 1990 (the "CTA"), and to implement the Act more effectively. The CTA charged the FCC with ensuring that the educational and informational needs of children are met by the broadcast television industry. With the proposed rule changes and reliance on market-based mechanisms, the Commission seeks to strengthen the functioning of the children's television marketplace over the long term. In developing these proposed changes, the Commission has followed three principles: (1) judgments of the quality of a licensee's programming, educational or otherwise, are best made by the audience, not the federal government; (2) the Commission's rules and processes should be as clear, simple, and fair as possible; and (3) broadcasters should be guided by market forces, to the greatest extent possible, in determining whether they meet their programming obligations. In applying the first principle, the Commission proposed measures designed to improve the flow of programming information so that the public, particularly parents, will be better positioned to judge the quality of a licensee's programming and act on that judgment. Thus, parents and other members of the local community will become better informed consumers, influencing the market through their choices. With better information, parents, educators and child advocacy groups also can more effectively use community-based efforts to seek changes in children's programming without resorting to governmental intervention. Specific proposals to improve the flow of information to the community included the following: -- Licensees would publicize the name and availability of a contact person at the station responsible for coordinating public reaction to the station's CTA compliance efforts. -- Stations would identify programs as educational and informational at the time they are aired and provide such identifying information to publishers of programming guides. (over) - 2 - -- Stations would publicize the availability of their children's programming reports, perhaps by announcing their existence and location periodically over the air. -- A station's children's programming reports would be easily accessible by having them placed in their own separate file at the same location as the station's public inspection file. In applying the second principle, the Commission proposed to create a definition of programming "specifically designed" to serve the educational and informational needs of children. This category of programming had previously not been defined although the CTA requires each licensee to provide such programming. The existing rule, which defines only "educational and informational" has been criticized as ambiguous. Under the new proposed definition, such "core" programming would meet the following requirements: (1) the program is specifically designed to meet the educational and informational needs of children ages 16 and under ( i.e., education has a significant purpose); (2) the educational objective of the program and the target child audience is specified in writing in the licensee's required children's programming report and in any submission it makes to the FCC; (3) the program is aired between the hours of 6 AM and 11 PM; (4) the program is regularly scheduled; (5) the program is of substantial length (e.g., 15 or 30 minutes long); and (6) the program is identified as educational children's programming at the time it is aired, and instructions for listing it as educational programming are provided by the licensee to program guides. While the Commission stated that increasing the flow of information about a stations's children's programming efforts, coupled with the clearer definition described above, are important steps toward promoting the goals of the CTA more effectively, it stated that it was concerned that these efforts may not suffice to serve the educational and informational needs of children and bring about the kind of measurable increase in such programming contemplated by Congress. Citing its disappointment with results since 1990, the Commission also proposed to adopt one of the following three options: (1) establish monitoring procedures for a specified period of time; (2) establish a "safe harbor" quantitative processing guideline; or (3) establish a programming standard. The Commission also seeks comment on whether to sunset either a processing guideline or a standard, if it adopted either of those options. The Commission's third principle -- utilizing market forces as much as possible to guide broadcaster behavior -- would be furthered by a proposed program sponsorship concept. Under this option, the Commission could permit a broadcaster to meet the processing guideline or programming standard by airing a certain number of hours of children's programming on its own station or by sponsoring a portion of those hours on another station in the market. - 3 - Action by the Commission April 5, 1995, by Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 95-143). Chairman Hundt, Commissioners Quello, Ness and Chong, with Commissioner Barrett concurring in part and dissenting in part. Commissioners Quello, Barrett, Ness and Chong issuing separate statements. - FCC - News Media contacts: Audrey Spivack and Rosemary Kimball at (202) 418-0500. Mass Media Bureau contact: Diane Conley at (202) 776-1653.