P.M. BRIEFING : Limits on Kids’ Show Ads Backed

A House committee today approved legislation to reimpose limits on commercials in children’s TV shows and require broadcasters to provide quality TV programs for children or lose their licenses.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, on a voice vote, sent the Children’s Television Practices Act to the full House, where it was expected to pass easily. Congress passed the same bill last year, but then-President Ronald Reagan let it die without his signature.

Authors of the bill said it was designed to stop the “over-commercialization” of children’s TV shows by reinstituting limits on the amount of advertising that can be shown on such programs. The Federal Communications Commission in 1974 limited commercials to 9 1/2 minutes per hour on such shows but repealed those limits in 1984.