One of ANA’s most important functions is to protect our members from absurd and restrictive government legislation and rulemaking that can affect their company’s marketing, communications and economic well being. Take note – because we are about to collide headlong with one of the most savage pieces of rulemaking that we’ve seen in recent years. And we must win – or watch out.
The FCC is advocating rule changes to the Children’s Television Act that are scheduled for January 2006. Currently, the FCC limits advertising during children’s programming to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays. Importantly, promotional materials, public service announcements, and educational messages are exempt from these time limits.
However, the new FCC rules will damage the delicate balance of advertiser supported children’s programming as:
- Most advertiser exemptions would be removed. The FCC’s new rules would expand the definition of “commercial matter” to include promotional materials in the time limits. In essence, such materials would count against the hard-cap time limit of 10.5 minutes / 12.0 minutes of commercial time per hour. This would dramatically shrink the time available for commercial advertising during children’s programming.
- Strict requirements would be imposed on the broadcast of commercial website addresses during programming. The FCC is attempting, through the back door of regulation of children’s advertising, to impose broad and sweeping regulation of Internet sites.
The ANA believes that the FCC’s rule changes threaten the continued viability of children’s programming. Clearly these regulations will either drive out a substantial portion of ads presently in the children’s area or drastically increase their cost.
The ANA cannot let this happen. Accordingly, on Friday, October 14, the ANA filed a “Notice of Intention to Intervene” with the District of Columbia Circuit’s U.S. Court of Appeals. This specifically addresses Viacom, Inc.’s petition for judicial review of the FCC’s revisions to its Children’s Television Act rules. It is our intention to have these rules thrown out on constitutional grounds.
So let’s ask the FCC to act responsibly and give up this irresponsible approach to regulating children’s advertising. The downstream implications of such horrendous rulemaking are very serious and will undermine the terrific balance that currently exists among advertisers, programmers and kids. In the end, if the FCC wins, the kids lose, our marketers lose. At the ANA, we will not stand idly by and watch that happen.
