WASHINGTON—Dec. 17 will be the last time that TV broadcasters will be required to file quarterly Children’s Television Programming Reports as the FCC plans to transition to annual reports as part of its efforts to modernize KidVid rules.
The FCC launched a Report & Order this past summer that is designed to update children television (KidVid) rules so broadcasters can have greater flexibility. One of these changes was to only require broadcasters to submit an annual programming report within 30 days of the end of the calendar year. This change is still pending Office of Management & Budget approval, but the FCC expects it to be approved by Jan. 1, 2020.
The public notice issued by the FCC’s Media Bureau recently informs that broadcasters will no longer be able to file new or amend previously filed quarterly Children’ Reports after Dec. 17 of this year. Also, as they await OMB’s decision, the commission is waiving the requirement that quarterly reports be filed by Jan. 10, 2020.
In the event that a broadcaster must amend or failed to submit a quarterly Children’s Report after Dec. 17, it will need to provide the necessary information in the form of an explanatory document and be uploaded to a station’s online public inspection file, placed in the Children’s Report section under the folder entitled Additional Documents.
With the upcoming license renewal cycle for television stations upcoming in June 2020, the public notice also advises licensees to include an exhibit as part of their license renewal application noting if any such explanatory document has been uploaded.
The complete public notice is available on the FCC’s ECFS database.
