The forced airing of children’s and family-safe television programming by commercially licensed stations is harmful to their business.
That’s the message delivered Tuesday night by Republican FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in a keynote speech to the Kentucky Broadcasters Association at its annual conference, held in the city of Bowling Green.
Much of O’Rielly’s speech was dedicated to television broadcasting, and the need for rule “modernization” by the Commission.
In fact, “eliminating archaic regulations that no longer make sense” was a common theme of O’Rielly’s address, noting the elimination by the FCC of its Main Studio Rule and “eradicating duplicative or non-useful forms” at the Commission.
At the top of O’Rielly’s modernization tasks is getting rid of the nation’s children’s programming rules, commonly referred to as “KidVid.”
It’s been a yearlong quest for O’Rielly, who in January penned a blog questioning its usefulness in an era when public television, cable TV channels and online websites offer a plethora of choice for children.
A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was released in July to consider changes big and small. Now, O’Rielly and his colleagues are reviewing comments.
He shared some “interesting findings,” all of which bolster his argument:
• Children eight years or younger consume approximately 2.2 hours of programming per day, but 48 minutes of that consumption is through a mobile device or tablet
• A mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone is available in 98 percent of households with children present
• According to one study, 93 percent of teens ages 13 to 15 use social platforms to access video, including 82 percent through YouTube and 72 percent through Netflix
• According to Nielsen, as of June 2018, Netflix was the top viewing destination for children under the age of 11, and 72 percent of children between the ages of 8 to 11 prefer YouTube videos over traditional linear television
• Across the four major English-language broadcast networks, total viewership of persons ages 2 to 17 on any given day dropped from 4 million in the 1991-1992 television season to 600,000 in the 2017-2018 season. Saturday morning viewership by children ages 2 to 11 has declined by 71 percent since 2007, despite the requirement in 2006 to increase the amount of children’s programming aired via broadcasters’ multicast channels.
“Despite these marketplace changes, the Commission’s rather rigid, one-size-fits-all requirements may present real opportunity costs for broadcasters by deprioritizing local programming,” O’Rielly said.
O’Rielly then noted how Block Communications’ WDRB-41, a FOX affiliate in Louisville, “has been thwarted from airing pre-game shows to talk about important Saturday basketball games, including two Louisville games and one Kentucky game which I hear are quite popular in this region.”
Similarly, O’Rielly said, “Block estimates that if it could air local news on Saturday mornings instead of children’s programming, it could hire 14 additional employees.”
O’Rielly then noted how Cadillac Telecasting Company, a Michigan company, explained “scheduling issues” it had in trying to air the 2018 World Cup in June and July, as well as the memorial services for the late Sen. John McCain, both due to conflicts with its required KidVid block.
Additionally, O’Rielly claims that a new owner of radio stations, Tulsa-based Griffin Communications, was unable to air the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and had to cut short its coverage of a Saturday morning parade celebrating the opening of a $400 million public park due to its Kid Vid obligations.
He then name-dropped Nexstar Media Group, noting that according to company GMs, “its stations have forgone airing local sports programs, health specials, parades, debates and national breaking news due to the Commission’s Kid Vid requirements. In particular, one Nexstar station was unable to broadcast a six-week program on the opioid crisis meant to educate viewers on where to get assistance in the community.”
As comments have come in to the FCC, some have expressed concern with the KidVid elimination — not because children would not have access to programming, but because if moved to a multicast channel, companies would not be able to profit off such programming.
O’Rielly had something to say about this. “Think about that for a minute,” he said. “One of the original purposes of the Children’s Television Act was to limit the amount of advertising towards children. And yet, a chief opponent of these proposals fears a transition to multicast channels because it would lose 98 percent of its advertising revenues. In its comments this company asks, ‘What’s in this for children?’ It’s a great question. Unfortunately, most of the advocacy so far appears to be that we must keep Kid Vid mandates on primary channels so that companies can make sufficient revenues via advertising dollars. This sounds like a consideration of what’s best for the programming company rather than what is really best for children.”
To view O’Rielly’s comments in full, please click here
