Kid TV Preemption Could Be Joined by Other Pandemic Waiver Bids

Aside from postponing paperwork deadlines, questions could arise about requiring emergency information be presented both visually and aurally on TV for the visually and hearing impaired, said Peter Tannenwald of Fletcher Heald. Pandemic news potentially could be urgent enough to invoke the emergency information requirement, he said, but it's unlikely the FCC would waive a requirement that would make information inaccessible for some. There could be issues of a TV station unable to activate crawl equipment or other display mechanisms because it's operated remotely. The regulator might require information be handwritten on paper and held up to the camera, he said.

The industry is in touch with the FCC about items that will need amending, such as the post-incentive auction repack, a broadcast executive said. The kidvid waiver gives leeway in bumping regularly scheduled programming to show live or same-day tape-delayed locally produced community events such as religious services. It's through April, said a Media Bureau public notice. The waiver is for programming moves where the preemption is intended to limit gatherings and promote social distancing. "Children’s programming is as important as ever during this period of mass isolation, but this limited waiver could help stations serve their communities in a way that may truly save lives," Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said. He said Gray Television suggested the waiver.

Gray Deputy General Counsel Robert Folliard said the idea started at the local station level in response to reports of Palm Sunday crowds at some churches and the notion stations could partner with congregations to broadcast services. FCC rules allow preemption for breaking news and community event live programming produced by the station, but it wasn't clear if the producer would be the station or the house of worship when airing a religious service, he said. An email to the agency Tuesday resulted in the waiver order 48 hours later, he said. Folliard said Gray expected two dozen to three dozen of its stations to carry religious services Sunday.

Folliard said the pandemic points to a need for the agency to change its duopoly rules because having multiple stations in a market means better sharing of resources to cover the associated flood of local and state news. However, he said with a laugh, "I don't expect the FCC to waive the duopoly rules for us."

The waiver got Trump administration kudos. "Just because we’re all apart during some of the holiest days of the year for so many religions, doesn’t mean we’re all alone," tweeted Deputy Press Secretary Ken Farnaso.

Airing local religious programming during Easter and Passover when most people are under stay-at-home orders is "precisely the type of things broadcasters should be doing to serve the public interest," Parents TV Council President Tim Winter told us. Far less laudable is that educational and informational programming has largely been pushed off main broadcast signals to digital channels, while infomercials take up main broadcast signal space and time, he said. "It obviates the whole 'look how important broadcasters are' argument," he said. PTC urged broadcasters to restore a prime-time hour of family-friendly programming and to make available a block of educational and informational kids programming daily.