FCC End-of-2018 Settlement With NBC/Telemundo Over Kidvid Violations Raises Questions
A $495,000 settlement with NBC/Telemundo-owned stations over years-old, repeated violations of the FCC children’s TV rules doesn’t make clear the exact extent of the transgressions and may be a prelude to expected action to relax kidvid rules, said broadcast and children’s advocacy attorneys in interviews Wednesday. The consent decree and license renewal order were released early afternoon on New Year’s Eve -- the same day it was adopted, said a spokesperson. The item was also in Wednesday's Daily Digest.
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The violations concern failing to air children’s programming that was pre-empted for sporting events and late and incorrect reports, and the settlement involves 23 stations. The consent decree is “so vague” that it’s not clear how far the violations went, said Georgetown University Institute for Public Representation co-Director Angela Campbell, on the board of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “The compliance issues raised by the consent decree amplify problems with and the need for important revisions to the Commission’s underlying children’s television programming rules,” said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in a statement released with the consent decree.
The consent decree was approved by the FCC’s Republicans while Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel concurred. A concurrence is commonly seen as signaling that a commissioner was dissatisfied with some aspect of an order. Rosenworcel issued no statement explaining the vote and her office didn’t respond to queries. An FCC spokesperson said the item was released Monday because that’s when the last vote was cast. “That vote did not come from Chairman [Ajit] Pai, who cast his vote on this item weeks ago,” the spokesperson emailed. The FCC releasing items close to a holiday break is commonly seen as a way to “bury” them and avoid scrutiny, Campbell and other attorneys said.
NBC/Telemundo will follow a compliance plan. Bureau staff said some of the stations didn’t meet the children’s TV requirements during the 2012-15 license cycle and the 2004-07 license cycle because of pre-empting programing for sporting events, such as the Winter and Summer Olympics. “Such Programming must be rescheduled in order for it to be so counted and here that did not occur in certain instances,” the consent decree said. Certain stations also had “significant numbers of Children’s Television Programming Reports that either omitted or incorrectly reported substantive information.” NBC/Telemundo has since provided the correct information, the order said.
The violations occurred “mostly many years ago," an NBC/Telemundo spokesperson emailed. NBC/Telemundo “worked with the FCC to resolve all outstanding matters in a cooperative and constructive manner.”
The process of pre-empting children’s programming is complex and onerous, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Anne Crump: “It’s very difficult.” Crump said the fine amount is high and suggests the FCC doesn’t think NBC/Telemundo was paying enough attention to the issue. Campbell said the forfeiture amount was “disappointing” and too low. Univision was previously fined $24 million for claiming programming as educational that was later found not to qualify, Campbell said. Since NBC/Telemundo wasn’t delivering required programming to children, it’s a similar violation, she said. It’s unusual for consent decrees to involve multiple license renewal cycles, Campbell said, suggesting the FCC may have sought to resolve the matter as a prelude to acting on kidvid.
O’Rielly said the agency will likely take up kidvid early in 2019 (see 1811010041).