"Rethinking the Children's Television Act for a Digital Age"

Haha.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Yeah, let's see them try to put restrictions on what kids can watch beyond network t.v. They're upset because they have no control over content in shows like Spongebob, ICarly, and Billy & Mandy.
 
Given the senator who is bringing up the matter, I'm not surprised.:yawn: God, he is annoying.

But yeah, nothing is going to come of this. If I had my way, I'd repeal the act entirely and let broadcast TV once again be able to air good kids shows.
 
Plus, in the age of uncensored/unrated DVDs and unrestricted internet access (yes, there are parents bad enough to allow that), the kids can basically what any show they want/anytime they want, and this 'law' can never- ever- touch those two forms of entertainment.
 
If they ever repealed the act, ABC, CBS and NBC would no longer be in the Saturday morning Kids TV business.

They would return every last minute of Saturday mornings (sans the weekend versions of Today, GMA and Early Show) to the affiliates.
 
And nothing of value would be lost.

Anyway, all these people at that hearing want to do is establish more restrictions on what TV can and cannot show. We have enough of those as it is.
 
I hate this. These control boards think they can control everything related to entertainment and it's getting so out of control that nobody is going to want to watch anything anymore because of all the controlling crap regulating what we can watch and what we cant. Stuff like this really boils my blood.
 
They already have 50% of CN reality, 60 % of Nick reality and , what a shocker, 89 % of Disney prime time reality. So, puh-lease. I'm about to get rid of my TV all together and raise my kids on purely Disney classics and Warner Brothers.
 
This could actually be a good thing. It really all depends what they have in mind.

A large reason we lost so much ground on venues is additional restrictions imposed to non-cable channels through the FCC due to powers granted by this legislation during the Bush Era.

Said restrictions single handily lead to the end of weekday afternoon cartoons.

I do think that any changes made needs to be tailored to address the current climate of problems.

The last thing we need is changes that make it more profitable to air infomercials during prime time saturday morning blocks.

Either way, whatever happens could easily define weather a fundamental part of our multiple media culture serves or ends.

A lot is ridding on this >.>
 
so what exactly is the best thing that could come out of this? It sounds like things could only get worse in broadcast television for animation, either more poorly made e/i programs or no e/i shows required at all which would lead to a mass exodus from cartoons by the 3 major networks
 
FCC can only go as far as Broadcast networks so there's no need to worry.



You've obviously never heard of Growing Up Creepy or Grossology. Those shows are both educational and entertaining.
 
Fair warning, there is A LOT of US Politics involved below. Since Politics CAN be a tricky thing, I'm tossing spoiler tags around it. Please read ONLY if you can read the below without dragging political bashing into this discussion.

The original "lessons" that were in each morning and afternoon series such as GI Joe, MASK, Thundercats and Centuarians was originally inspired by this act. The whole intent was originally, as you may have guessed, to give childern good TV Material to watch. This all came about under Bush 41. This bill gave A LOT of power to the FCC.

During the Clinton Era, the FCC reformated A LOT of the rules so that child friendly was loosely translated as "Good always defeats evil". Further more, Clinton gave some HUGE tax incentives to networks broadcasting 'child friendly programming' within certain time frames. Loosely, IIR, Weekdays from 6-8 and 3-5 (4 hours a day) and Saturdays from 8-12. This tax credit was EXTENDED to cable networks as well. As many well know, the FCC doesn't have direct control over cable, but as is with all things government, they can entice them with money.

Enter the Bush 43 era: Bush rolled back most if not all the tax credits for these air times. Further, the FCC under Michael Powell greatly increased the requirements for "Child friendly programming". Its been suggested that Bush 43 felt that he was trying to correct the intended direction of Bush 41's original push for 'child friendly programming'. Based on the requirements, the only thing that really fit the new requirements was comatosed Barney.

Since the major networks no longer had a strong finical reason to stay in the game and literally would have had to get ALL NEW programming before the execution date, virtually all the networks immediately dropped their programming in leu of something that specifically didn't cater towards the cited age groups.

Thats the basic gist of what happened.

Opening new debate on this law could do a few things.

  • They could consider scaling back how much power the FCC has in matters of 'child friendly programming' so that each administration cant completely change gears on 'the rules'.

  • They could be considering lessening the requirements of 'child friendly programming' in an official way that can not be countermanded so easily again in the future.

  • They could be considering bolstering the requirements of 'child friendly programming' in an offical way that can not be countermanded so easily again in the future.
Julius Genachowski is the new chairman of the FCC who was appointed June 29, 2009. I have to believe that this latest news HAS to be related to him.

There's really no information that suggests which side he favors. We don't know if he wants to help the "Saturday morning cartoon condition" or make it more "educational". Till we know that bit of information its hard to gauge which way this whole thing is going to go.

The only promising thing about all of this is we *DO* know Obama is a gamer on some level. How that translates into his like or dislike of animation is very much unknown.

I'd like to believe that this latest direction is an attempt to reverse some bad decisions in the past.

I'm hoping that someone in this administration is seeing 'childern's programming' shifting towards reality TV and wants to throw the breaks on hardcore.
 
Exactly! The affiliates wanting free reign was why FOX stopped showing cartoons in the afternoon (this besides the E/I rule and cable, killed the concept of syndicated afternoon cartoon blocks in the first place). The only reason why ABC, CBS and NBC are still showing some sort of form of Saturday morning programming, is because of the E/I rule. It's quite apparent that the networks can no longer make a huge profit off of the 100% "edutainment" stuff. This is perhaps one reason why networks have used third parties like Qubo (NBC), Cookie Jar (CBS), and the Disney Channel (ABC).
 
I'm kind of confused over which presidency marked the true beginning of the strong FCC restrictions on kids programming. I know that the Children's Television Act was initally brought forth during the Bush (the elder) administration. The E/I rule (which basically, clarified and strengthened the mandate) however, came about during the Clinton years. During the Reagan administration, changes in the FCC's policies allowed for the creation of "toyetic" shows like Transformers, He-Man, and G.I. Joe just to name a few.
 
Under Bush Sr (aka Bush 41), the 'child friendly' programming was established. However, from all my reading on the topic, it sounds like the various cartoon production companies delivered products that didn't meet what he had hoped to get out of the legislation. By the time we really saw the fruits of the bills labor, his term was almost already over.

Clinton's administration very much untied the hands and encouraged the growth of 'child friendly animation'.

Bush Jr's administration (aka Bush 43) seemed like he was trying to complete his father's vision. The various animation outlets retaliated by dropping animation blocks all together.

When you look at all of this, its kind of funny. Both Bush's administrations took a very traditional liberal approach attempting to regulate far too much, where the Clinton administration took a very conservative, hands off approach.

I'm not preaching party lines here, but I found this somewhat amusing.

I'm just worried that we dont know what this administration is trying to accomplish.

All I know is I want my Golden Age of Saturday Mornings back >.>
 
The FCC/EI restrictions were not the primary reason for the demise of the weekday blocks on Fox and WB. Just like most everything else, those decisions were fueled by the affiliates' constant badgering to have those hours returned to them for local news and other programming to boost profits.
 
Money talks.

If the government was no longer offering some good tax rebates AND they had to spend a lot of money to make / obtain new programs that would be acceptable, it was all that was needed to break the camels back.

Actually, in truth, one of those circumstances would have likely caused all this. Both finical issues was pretty much kicking animation while it was already down .... in the gut .... with steel toe boots.
 
The FCC also put some serious restrictions on the amount of money the stations could make off of kids shows. Which in turn made them want to get rid of those blocks. Before that, those blocks had been major money-makers.
 
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