Vetoed Children’s TV Bill Revived in Congress

Legislation that would limit the amount of commercials in children’s TV shows was reintroduced in Congress on Wednesday, opening yet another round in the battle over reregulation of children’s programming.

The fight had seemed all but over last fall for jubilant children’s television advocates, who had shepherded the Children’s Television Act through Congress. Then, three days before the November election, President Ronald Reagan vetoed the bill, carrying through to the very end of his Administration his policy of deregulation of the broadcast industry.

The bill had received bipartisan support in Congress and the backing of the broadcast industry.

The measures introduced Wednesday in the Senate and the House are identical to the one Reagan vetoed. They would limit the amount of advertising during children’s programs to 12 minutes per hour on weekdays and 10 1/2 minutes an hour on weekends. They also would require broadcasters to demonstrate at the time they sought to renew their federal operating licenses that their stations had “served the educational and informational needs of children in their programming.”

Peggy Charren, president of the advocacy group Action for Children’s Television, said she sees “absolutely no reason” why President Bush would veto the bill, should it make its way through Congress again. “He has expressed an interest in education,” she said. “This provides a window on education on stations across the country, without raising taxes or adding to the budget deficit.”

Some of Charren’s longtime allies in the campaign to reregulate were dissatisfied with the Children’s Television Act and had hoped the bill would be strengthened before its reintroduction. They pointed out that the advertising limits were more stringent under the old Federal Communications Commission guidelines, which were abandoned in 1984, and that the bill did not address the issue of so-called program-length commercials--cartoons based on toys and other products.

“Nothing is perfect,” Charren said Wednesday. She said the renewed threat of FCC review at the time of license renewal would force broadcasters to improve their children’s programming. “This is going to change the attitude of broadcasters,” she said.