§ 76.225   Commercial limits in children's programs.

   (a) No cable operator shall air more than 10.5 minutes of commercial
   matter per hour during children's programming on weekends, or more than
   12 minutes of commercial matter per hour on weekdays.

   (b) The display of Internet Web site addresses during program material
   or promotional material not counted as commercial time is permitted
   only if the Web site:

   (1) Offers a substantial amount of bona fide program-related or other
   noncommercial content;

   (2) Is not primarily intended for commercial purposes, including either
   e-commerce or advertising;

   (3) The Web site's home page and other menu pages are clearly labeled
   to distinguish the noncommercial from the commercial sections; and

   (4) The page of the Web site to which viewers are directed by the Web
   site address is not used for e-commerce, advertising, or other
   commercial purposes (e.g., contains no links labeled “store” and no
   links to another page with commercial material).

   (c) If an Internet address for a Web site that does not meet the test
   in paragraph (b) of this section is displayed during a promotion in a
   children's program, in addition to counting against the commercial time
   limits in paragraph (a) of this section the promotion must be clearly
   separated from program material.

   (d)(1) Entities subject to commercial time limits under the Children's
   Television Act shall not display a Web site address during or adjacent
   to a program if, at that time, on pages that are primarily devoted to
   free noncommercial content regarding that specific program or a
   character appearing in that program:

   (i) Products are sold that feature a character appearing in that
   program; or

   (ii) A character appearing in that program is used to actively sell
   products.

   (2) The requirements of this paragraph do not apply to:

   (i) Third-party sites linked from the companies' Web pages;

   (ii) On-air third-party advertisements with Web site references to
   third-party Web sites; or

   (iii) Pages that are primarily devoted to multiple characters from
   multiple programs.

   (e) The requirements of this section shall not apply to programs aired
   on a broadcast television channel which the cable operator passively
   carries, or to access channels over which the cable operator may not
   exercise editorial control, pursuant to 47 U.S.C. 531(e) and 532(c)(2).

   Note 1 to § 76.225: Commercial matter means air time sold for purposes
   of selling a product or service and promotions of television programs
   or video programming services other than children's or other
   age-appropriate programming appearing on the same channel or promotions
   for children's educational and informational programming on any
   channel.

   Note 2 to § 76.225: For purposes of this section, children's programming
   refers to programs originally produced and broadcast primarily for an
   audience of children 12 years old and younger.

   Note 3 to § 76.225: Section 76.1703 contains recordkeeping requirements
   for cable operators with regard to children's programming.

   [ 56 FR 19616 , Apr. 29, 1991, as amended at  65 FR 53615 , Sept. 5, 2000;
    70 FR 38 , Jan. 3, 2005;  71 FR 64165 , Nov. 1, 2006]

   return arrow Back to Top