Media Firms, Children's Advocates Reach Accord in Kids' TV Dispute

[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz Amy.Schatz@wsj.com]
Viacom, Walt Disney, Fox Entertainment Group, General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal and Time Warner are all part of an agreement reached with child-advocacy groups that could head litigation over new children's television rules slated to take affect January 1, 2006. Under the agreement, the cable-TV industry would get relief from a current FCC rule that counts promos for other children's shows within the 10.5 or 12-minute limit on commercials allowed during an educational broadcast. Broadcasters would get more latitude to pre-empt some children's programming for sporting events -- a particular concern for West Coast stations. Programmers, meanwhile, would be barred from directly linking Internet sites for children to sites that sell related merchandise. Apparently, the deal was presented to the FCC this week. Getting approval from the FCC for the Internet advertising provision could be tricky. The agency has taken a hard line on so-called host selling, which prohibits a show's characters from hawking products to viewers 12 years old or younger or confusing them into thinking they are watching a show instead of an ad. The deal could end broadcasters' threats to challenge children's television obligations as unconstitutional and could settle a dispute over whether the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to impose regulations on digital broadcasts and the Internet. More broadly, it sets a framework for what obligations broadcasters must meet as they offer new digital channels.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113461830710223202.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
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