NBC/Telemundo Pays $495,000 to Settle FCC Investigation Over Children's TV Programming Obligations

NBC/Telemundo has agreed to pay $495,000 to settle an Federal Communications Commission investigation into whether it fulfilled its children's TV programming obligation--in several instances, it didn't. (The amount of the settlement was initially incorrectly reported as in the millions of dollars.) At the same time the FCC said it was was approving a couple dozen of the the company's pending TV station license renewal, including big market O&Os WNBC-TV New York, KNBC-TV Los Angeles, WMAQ-TV Chicago and WRC-TV Washington, and said that the kids TV violations could not be used to challenge NBC/Telemundo's qualifications to be a licensee when the other stations come up for renewal. According to the FCC, in the consent decree, NBC/Telemundo conceded in some instances it had failed to air sufficient amounts (at least three hours per week) of core educational and informational programming, as required by law and FCC rules, and in "a few" cases (four stations) failed to file its kids TV reports, also as required. The FCC also subsequently uncovered other omissions and errors in the reports.