FCC To Vote July 10th On Relaxing Children’s Television Rules

At its July 10, 2019 meeting, the FCC will vote on adopting a proposed Report & Order making significant changes to the existing children’s television requirements for television stations.

Perhaps the most significant change in the draft order is to eliminate the requirement that stations include 3 hours of CORE children’s programming on each 24-hour multicast channel broadcast by the station. Stations will only need the programming on the main channel, not on digital subchannels. The current 3 hours is an “average weekly” requirement, but if the order is adopted as proposed that will change to quarterly/annual amount that equals 156 annual hours.

Also, instead of having to file the Form 398 Children’s Television Report every quarter, stations would only have to do so once a year (by January 30^th of the following year). The now quarterly public file certification of compliance with limits on ads in children’s advertising would also change to an annual requirement (by January 30^th of the following year).

Although the order will likely be adopted on July 10^th, the effective date of the rules will take some time and be accompanied by a public notice providing guidance to stations. So don’t decide to skip your 2^nd quarter 2019 Form 398 and children’s commercial limits certifications that must be filed by July 10, 2019.