Study: TV station ownership has impact on kid shows

STUDY: TV STATION OWNERSHIP HAS IMPACT ON KIDS SHOWS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
Children lose when a company acquires multiple TV stations in their town, according to a study out today from Children Now. In "Big Media, Little Kids 2," which expands a 2003 study, Children Now found the average time devoted to kids' shows fell 70%, to nearly six hours a week, at stations in eight markets that became part of a "duopoly" or "triopoly" (two or three with one owner) from 1998 to 2006. By contrast, children's programming fell 41%, to about five hours a week, at stations that remained separate. "The duopoly stations are performing the worst in a climate where all broadcast stations are reducing their children's programming," says University of Arizona communications professor Dale Kunkel, who advised Children Now. Children Now says that broadcasters that won the right to own multiple stations in cities promised to "enhance" public interest programming. The report shows "that's not true," says Christy Glaubke, head of the group's media monitoring program. "They cut at a far greater rate."
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070920/1b_kidvid20.art.htm