Goto Section: 73.670 | 73.672 | Table of Contents
FCC 73.671
Revised as of October 1, 2008
Goto Year:2007 |
2009
Sec. 73.671 Educational and informational programming for children.
(a) Each commercial and noncommercial educational television broadcast
station licensee has an obligation to serve, over the term of its license,
the educational and informational needs of children through both the
licensee's overall programming and programming specifically designed to
serve such needs.
(b) Any special nonbroadcast efforts which enhance the value of children's
educational and informational television programming, and any special effort
to produce or support educational and informational television programming
by another station in the licensee's marketplace, may also contribute to
meeting the licensee's obligation to serve, over the term of its license,
the educational and informational needs of children.
(c) For purposes of this section, educational and informational television
programming is any television programming that furthers the educational and
informational needs of children 16 years of age and under in any respect,
including the child's intellectual/cognitive or social/emotional needs.
Programming specifically designed to serve the educational and informational
needs of children (“Core Programming”) is educational and informational
programming that satisfies the following additional criteria:
(1) It has serving the educational and informational needs of children ages
16 and under as a significant purpose;
(2) It is aired between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.;
(3) It is a regularly scheduled weekly program;
(4) It is at least 30 minutes in length;
(5) The program is identified as specifically designed to educate and inform
children by the display on the television screen throughout the program of
the symbol E/I;
(6) The educational and informational objective and the target child
audience are specified in writing in the licensee's Children's Television
Programming Report, as described in Sec. 73.3526(e)(11)(iii); and
(7) Instructions for listing the program as educational/informational,
including an indication of the age group for which the program is intended,
are provided by the licensee to publishers of program guides, as described
in Sec. 73.673.
(d) Until analog channels are returned to the Commission, the Commission
will apply the following processing guideline to analog stations in
assessing whether a television broadcast licensee has complied with the
Children's Television Act of 1990 (“CTA”) on its analog channel. A licensee
that has aired at least three hours per week of Core Programming (as defined
in paragraph (c) of this section and as averaged over a six month period)
will be deemed to have satisfied its obligation to air such programming and
shall have the CTA portion of its license renewal application approved by
the Commission staff. A licensee will also be deemed to have satisfied this
obligation and be eligible for such staff approval if the licensee
demonstrates that it has aired a package of different types of educational
and informational programming that, while containing somewhat less than
three hours per week of Core Programming, demonstrates a level of commitment
to educating and informing children that is at least equivalent to airing
three hours per week of Core Programming. In this regard, specials, PSAs,
short-form programs, and regularly scheduled non-weekly programs with a
significant purpose of educating and informing children can count toward the
three hour per week processing guideline. Licensees that do not meet these
processing guidelines will be referred to the Commission, where they will
have full opportunity to demonstrate compliance with the CTA (e.g., by
relying in part on sponsorship of Core educational/informational programs on
other stations in the market that increases the amount of Core educational
and informational programming on the station airing the sponsored program
and/or on special nonbroadcast efforts which enhance the value of children's
educational and informational television programming).
(e) The Commission will apply the following processing guideline to digital
stations in assessing whether a television broadcast licensee has complied
with the Children's Television Act of 1990 (“CTA”) on its digital
channel(s).
(1) A digital television licensee providing only one stream of free digital
video programming will be subject to the 3 hour/week Core Programming
processing guideline discussed in paragraph (d) of this section on that
channel; i.e., a licensee that has aired at least three hours per week of
Core Programming (as defined in paragraph (c) of this section and as
averaged over a six month period) on its main program stream will be deemed
to have satisfied its obligation to air such programming and shall have the
CTA portion of its license renewal application approved by the Commission
staff. A licensee will also be deemed to have satisfied this obligation and
be eligible for such staff approval if the licensee demonstrates that it has
aired a package of different types of educational and informational
programming that, while containing somewhat less than three hours per week
of Core Programming, demonstrates a level of commitment to educating and
informing children that is at least equivalent to airing three hours per
week of Core Programming. In this regard, specials, PSAs, short-form
programs, and regularly scheduled non-weekly programs with a significant
purpose of educating and informing children can count toward the three hour
per week processing guideline. Licensees that do not meet these processing
guidelines will be referred to the Commission, where they will have full
opportunity to demonstrate compliance with the CTA (e.g., by relying in part
on sponsorship of Core educational/informational programs on other stations
in the market that increases the amount of Core educational and
informational programming on the station airing the sponsored program and/or
on special nonbroadcast efforts which enhance the value of children's
educational and informational television programming).
(2)(i) A digital television licensee providing streams of free digital video
programming in addition to its main program stream will be subject to the
processing guideline described in paragraph (e)(1) of this section on its
main program stream and to the following guideline applied to the additional
programming:1/2hour per week of additional Core Programming (as defined in
paragraph (c) of this section and as averaged over a six month period) for
every increment of 1 to 28 hours of free video programming provided in
addition to the main program stream. Thus, digital broadcasters providing
between 1 and 28 hours per week of free video programming in addition to
their main program stream will have a guideline of1/2hour per week of core
programming in addition to the 3 hours per week on the main program stream.
Digital broadcasters providing between 29 and 56 hours per week of free
video programming in addition to their main program stream will have a
guideline of 1 hour per week of core programming in addition to the 3 hours
per week on the main program stream. Digital broadcasters providing between
57 and 84 hours per week of free video programming in addition to their main
program stream will have a guideline of 11/2hours per week of core
programming in addition to the 3 hours per week on the main program stream.
The guideline will continue to increase in this manner for additional hours
of free video programming.
(ii) Broadcasters providing more than one stream of free digital video
programming may air all of their additional core programming, apart from the
3 hours of core programming that must be aired on the main program stream,
on one free video channel, or distribute it across multiple free video
channels, at their discretion, as long as the stream on which the core
programming is aired has comparable MVPD carriage as the stream whose
programming generates the core programming obligation under the processing
guideline described in paragraph (e)(2)(i) of this section.
(3) For purposes of the guideline described in paragraph (e)(2) of this
section, at least 50 percent of the core programming counted toward meeting
the additional programming guideline cannot consist of program episodes that
had already aired within the previous seven days on either the station's
main program stream or on another of the station's free digital program
streams. This requirement does not apply to any program stream that merely
time shifts the entire programming line-up of another program stream and,
during the digital transition, to core programs aired on both the analog
station and a digital program stream.
Note 1 to Sec. 73.671: For purposes of determining under this section whether
programming has a significant purpose of serving the educational and
informational needs of children, the Commission will ordinarily rely on the
good faith judgments of the licensee. Commission review of compliance with
that element of the definition will be done only as a last resort.
[ 56 FR 19616 , Apr. 29, 1991. Redesignated at 56 FR 28825 , June 25, 1991, as
amended at 61 FR 43997 , Aug. 27, 1996; 70 FR 37 , Jan. 3, 2005; 71 FR 64165 ,
Nov. 1, 2006]
Effective Date Note: At 70 FR 37 , Jan. 3, 2005, in Sec. 73.671, paragraph
(c)(5) was revised, effective Jan. 1, 2006. This paragraph contains
information collection and recordkeeping requirements and will not become
effective until approval has been given by the Office of Management and
Budget.
Goto Section: 73.670 | 73.672
Goto Year: 2007 |
2009
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