§ 73.671   Educational and informational programming for children.

   (a) Each commercial and noncommercial educational television broadcast
   station licensee has an obligation to serve, over the term of its license,
   the  educational  and informational needs of children through both the
   licensee's overall programming and programming specifically designed to
   serve such needs.

   (b) Any special nonbroadcast efforts which enhance the value of children's
   educational and informational television programming, and any special effort
   to produce or support educational and informational television programming
   by another station in the licensee's marketplace, may also contribute to
   meeting the licensee's obligation to serve, over the term of its license,
   the educational and informational needs of children.

   (c) For purposes of this section, educational and informational television
   programming is any television programming that furthers the educational and
   informational needs of children 16 years of age and under in any respect,
   including the child's intellectual/cognitive or social/emotional needs.
   Programming specifically designed to serve the educational and informational
   needs of children (“Core Programming”) is educational and informational
   programming that satisfies the following additional criteria:

   (1) It has serving the educational and informational needs of children ages
   16 and under as a significant purpose;

   (2) It is aired between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.;

   (3) It is a regularly scheduled weekly program;

   (4) It is at least 30 minutes in length;

   (5) The program is identified as specifically designed to educate and inform
   children by the display on the television screen throughout the program of
   the symbol E/I;

   (6)  The  educational and informational objective and the target child
   audience are specified in writing in the licensee's Children's Television
   Programming Report, as described in § 73.3526(e)(11)(iii); and

   (7) Instructions for listing the program as educational/informational,
   including an indication of the age group for which the program is intended,
   are provided by the licensee to publishers of program guides, as described
   in § 73.673.

   (d) Until analog channels are returned to the Commission, the Commission
   will  apply  the  following processing guideline to analog stations in
   assessing whether a television broadcast licensee has complied with the
   Children's Television Act of 1990 (“CTA”) on its analog channel. A licensee
   that has aired at least three hours per week of Core Programming (as defined
   in paragraph (c) of this section and as averaged over a six month period)
   will be deemed to have satisfied its obligation to air such programming and
   shall have the CTA portion of its license renewal application approved by
   the Commission staff. A licensee will also be deemed to have satisfied this
   obligation  and  be  eligible  for such staff approval if the licensee
   demonstrates that it has aired a package of different types of educational
   and informational programming that, while containing somewhat less than
   three hours per week of Core Programming, demonstrates a level of commitment
   to educating and informing children that is at least equivalent to airing
   three hours per week of Core Programming. In this regard, specials, PSAs,
   short-form programs, and regularly scheduled non-weekly programs with a
   significant purpose of educating and informing children can count toward the
   three hour per week processing guideline. Licensees that do not meet these
   processing guidelines will be referred to the Commission, where they will
   have full opportunity to demonstrate compliance with the CTA (e.g., by
   relying in part on sponsorship of Core educational/informational programs on
   other stations in the market that increases the amount of Core educational
   and informational programming on the station airing the sponsored program
   and/or on special nonbroadcast efforts which enhance the value of children's
   educational and informational television programming).

   (e) The Commission will apply the following processing guideline to digital
   stations in assessing whether a television broadcast licensee has complied
   with  the  Children's  Television  Act  of 1990 (“CTA”) on its digital
   channel(s).

   (1) A digital television licensee providing only one stream of free digital
   video  programming will be subject to the 3 hour/week Core Programming
   processing guideline discussed in paragraph (d) of this section on that
   channel; i.e., a licensee that has aired at least three hours per week of
   Core  Programming  (as defined in paragraph (c) of this section and as
   averaged over a six month period) on its main program stream will be deemed
   to have satisfied its obligation to air such programming and shall have the
   CTA portion of its license renewal application approved by the Commission
   staff. A licensee will also be deemed to have satisfied this obligation and
   be eligible for such staff approval if the licensee demonstrates that it has
   aired  a  package  of different types of educational and informational
   programming that, while containing somewhat less than three hours per week
   of Core Programming, demonstrates a level of commitment to educating and
   informing children that is at least equivalent to airing three hours per
   week  of  Core Programming. In this regard, specials, PSAs, short-form
   programs, and regularly scheduled non-weekly programs with a significant
   purpose of educating and informing children can count toward the three hour
   per week processing guideline. Licensees that do not meet these processing
   guidelines will be referred to the Commission, where they will have full
   opportunity to demonstrate compliance with the CTA (e.g., by relying in part
   on sponsorship of Core educational/informational programs on other stations
   in  the  market  that  increases  the  amount  of Core educational and
   informational programming on the station airing the sponsored program and/or
   on  special nonbroadcast efforts which enhance the value of children's
   educational and informational television programming).

   (2)(i) A digital television licensee providing streams of free digital video
   programming in addition to its main program stream will be subject to the
   processing guideline described in paragraph (e)(1) of this section on its
   main program stream and to the following guideline applied to the additional
   programming: 1⁄2 hour per week of additional Core Programming (as defined in
   paragraph (c) of this section and as averaged over a six month period) for
   every increment of 1 to 28 hours of free video programming provided in
   addition to the main program stream. Thus, digital broadcasters providing
   between 1 and 28 hours per week of free video programming in addition to
   their main program stream will have a guideline of 1⁄2 hour per week of core
   programming in addition to the 3 hours per week on the main program stream.
   Digital broadcasters providing between 29 and 56 hours per week of free
   video programming in addition to their main program stream will have a
   guideline of 1 hour per week of core programming in addition to the 3 hours
   per week on the main program stream. Digital broadcasters providing between
   57 and 84 hours per week of free video programming in addition to their main
   program  stream  will  have a guideline of 11⁄2 hours per week of core
   programming in addition to the 3 hours per week on the main program stream.
   The guideline will continue to increase in this manner for additional hours
   of free video programming.

   (ii) Broadcasters providing more than one stream of free digital video
   programming may air all of their additional core programming, apart from the
   3 hours of core programming that must be aired on the main program stream,
   on one free video channel, or distribute it across multiple free video
   channels, at their discretion, as long as the stream on which the core
   programming  is aired has comparable MVPD carriage as the stream whose
   programming generates the core programming obligation under the processing
   guideline described in paragraph (e)(2)(i) of this section.

   (3) For purposes of the guideline described in paragraph (e)(2) of this
   section, at least 50 percent of the core programming counted toward meeting
   the additional programming guideline cannot consist of program episodes that
   had already aired within the previous seven days on either the station's
   main program stream or on another of the station's free digital program
   streams. This requirement does not apply to any program stream that merely
   time shifts the entire programming line-up of another program stream and,
   during the digital transition, to core programs aired on both the analog
   station and a digital program stream.

   Note 1 to § 73.671: For purposes of determining under this section whether
   programming  has  a significant purpose of serving the educational and
   informational needs of children, the Commission will ordinarily rely on the
   good faith judgments of the licensee. Commission review of compliance with
   that element of the definition will be done only as a last resort.

   [ 56 FR 19616 , Apr. 29, 1991. Redesignated at  56 FR 28825 , June 25, 1991, as
   amended at  61 FR 43997 , Aug. 27, 1996;  70 FR 37 , Jan. 3, 2005;  71 FR 64165 ,
   Nov. 1, 2006]

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