Telemundo parent Comcast has agreed to pay $495,000 as a result of an investigation by the FCC, which found that some of the Hispanic broadcasters local stations had pre-empted childrens programming in favor of sports.
That action was deemed out of bounds under the federal Childrens Television Act of 1990.
The FCC said it would approve applications from Telemundo for local station license renewals, provided that the company pays the fine and abides by the terms of a consent decree mandating compliance with the CTA. The initial probe into the alleged violations stemmed from license renewals sought more than a decade ago.
“While the Commission does provide network-affiliated stations flexibility to reschedule preempted childrens television programming and still have it counted” toward legal minimums, the FCC said, “such programming must be rescheduled in order for it to be so counted and here that did not occur in certain instances.”
FCC Commissioner Michael ORielly approved of the action, but reiterated concerns about the commissions approach to childrens programming. As several commissioners have done in recent years, ORielly has recommended an update to the FCCs procedures given the vastly more complex and crowded competitive landscape it is trying to regulate. Children are not only served only by a handful of broadcast programs, but by always-on streaming services such as YouTube and Netflix.
“The issues generating this item – preemption for live, high-demand programming and overly burdensome reporting requirements – are exactly those that justify the commissions review of its current childrens television programming rules,” ORielly said in a statement. “In the end, I am confident that we can revise our rules to provide necessary and appropriate flexibility for local broadcasters while preserving and/or improving the experience of those watching childrens programming.”
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