The Assn. of National Advertisers (ANA) filed a notice of intent ...
The Assn. of National Advertisers (ANA) filed a notice of intent to intervene in Viacom’s petition to the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. to throw out the FCC’s new rules on restricting on- and offline ads on children’s programs. The…
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rules take effect Jan. 1. ANA participated in the Commission’s rulemaking on the issue. ANA said the case will “significantly” after ANA members’ ability to advertise during children’s programs. The new rules substantially depart from long-standing FCC practice by expanding the definition of commercial matter for program promotions, unless the promotion is for educational and informational programming, the notice said. This would further limit the inventory of ad time available during children’s programming and affect the economic interests of advertisers, ANA said. ANA has also taken issue with the rules’ restrictions on website ads that could force expensive redesigns of websites aimed at youths. That could raise ad prices, said Dan Jaffe, ANA exec. vp-govt. relations. Some broadcasters display URLs during children’s programs, such as with crawls at the bottom of the screen. The rules would allow the display if the website offers substantial program-related material and other noncommercial content. The site can’t contain any commercial material, including links to other pages with commercial content. The rules violate the Administrative Procedure Act and raise constitutional problems, Jaffe said: The rules don’t regulate children’s programming so much as it regulates website content, and there are serious questions whether the Commission has authority under the Children’s TV Act to take such action. These rules would require advertisers to modify their commercial speech and business practices, ANA said.