FCC REJECTS PROTESTS ON KIDS’ SHOWS

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday rejected complaints that television shows featuring such toy stars as Strawberry Shortcake and the Smurfs are nothing more than program-length commercials aimed at children.

Action for Children’s Television and the National Assn. for Better Broadcasting had protested these shows, arguing that they were really commercials unfairly disguised as legitimate children’s programs.

The groups contended that allowing the shows to air without identifying the sponsors conflicted with commission policies regarding children’s television as well as the separation of program and commercial content.

“With this vote,” ACT president Peggy Charren said, “the FCC disowned America’s kids and adopted the toy industry.”

“We will now deprive children from getting anything from the screen that nourishes them or is pure entertainment,” she said in an interview. “We will give them speech designed to sell brand-name commercials. That is the wool that the toy industry pulled over the eyes of the FCC.”

Charren said her group will seek a hearing on Capitol Hill and plans to ask the commission, or possibly the Federal Trade Commission, to require broadcasters to run disclosures saying that the programs are commercials.

In its ruling, the commission said it found no violations that would trigger agency involvement. Moreover, the commission said that if commercial rewards from products were the criteria for imposing restrictions on children’s programming, other shows such as “Sesame Street” would face the same scrutiny.

Other FCC officials cautioned later that the commission would become concerned if TV stations carried advertisements in the show for products featured in that program.

Commissioner Mimi Weyforth Dayson said she was reluctant to involve the agency in the area of program content.

The groups’ complaints named 14 stations in seven cities, including KTTV and KCOP in Los Angeles. In the case of WWL-TV in New Orleans, the commission admonished the station for showing a locally produced cartoon program, “Popeye and Pals” sponsored by Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken Restaurant.

In a related action, the commission also refused to prohibit arrangements between toy manufacturers and broadcasters that allow TV stations to share in the profits from sales of toys featured in TV shows.

ACT had asked the commission last year to ban these arrangements on the grounds that broadcasters would be more inclined to select programs from which they could make the greatest profits.

Charren said it is “unconscionable” for the FCC to take action without at least initiating a formal inquiry for public comments.

The nonprofit group’s ire was aimed at Telepictures Corp., which is marketing its new syndicated animated children’s series “Thunder Cats” by offering TV stations a share of nationwide sales of toys based on the program’s characters.

Telepictures executives have said they felt that TV stations that took the risk to air a new show should be entitled to share in the program’s profits.

In its ruling, the commission called profit-sharing arrangements “an innovative technique to fund children’s programming. Such financing is advantageous to the continuation and growth of children’s television offerings, which is clearly in the public interest.”

Commissioner Henry M. Rivera, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said he found such profit-sharing arrangements “very troublesome.”