Westinghouse to Add Children’s Programs at CBS : Television: Announcement prompts advocacy groups to withdraw petition to block network’s sale.

Westinghouse Electric Corp. said Wednesday that it would increase the number of hours of children’s programming offered by CBS when the company completes its proposed takeover of the television network.

The Westinghouse announcement overcame the objections of a coalition of children’s advocacy groups that had challenged the sale of CBS Inc. in a petition to the Federal Communications Commission.

Westinghouse said the CBS network will supply two hours per week of educational and informational children’s programming in the 1996-97 TV season, with that figure rising to three hours per week during the 1997-98 season. Westinghouse also said the stations it owns will broadcast at least three hours of educational programming, beginning in 1996.

The company said CBS currently offers its affiliates one hour of such programming a week in “Beakman’s World,” a children’s science show, and a National Geographic animal series.

“We concluded that this was the right thing to do,” said Bill Korn, president of Westinghouse Broadcasting. “The challenge by the children’s groups obviously focused our attention immediately on children’s programming. But if we are going to be a major broadcast network, we thought we should take a leadership position on this issue, which is one that many people today seem concerned about.”

The groups that had challenged Westinghouse’s proposed $5.4-billion acquisition withdrew their petition in response to the announcement. “We applaud Westinghouse’s decision, but it’s a shame that it took a petition to deny their acquisition of CBS to get them to specify what they will do for children on CBS,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Media Education, a nonprofit organization that recently joined in the challenge with the United Church of Christ and other groups.

“The broadcast networks are supposed to be serving the public interest of children in exchange for their free license to operate over the public airwaves,” Chester said.

The Westinghouse announcement came one day after President Clinton stepped into the increasingly contentious debate over television regulation, urging the FCC in a letter to require TV broadcasters to air at least three hours of children’s programming per week.

Other broadcast networks declined comment on Westinghouse’s decision, saying that they already provide several hours per week of such programming.

The Children’s Television Act of 1990 required the broadcast networks to provide educational programming, but the measure did not specify how many hours, the time of broadcast or set standards for such programming. Broadcast networks in the past have counted sitcoms and such cartoons as “The Jetsons” as educational programming for children.

The FCC has been considering a proposal to require the networks to provide three to five hours per week of educational and informational programming. But the networks, citing First Amendment issues, strongly oppose any mandated number of hours and have lobbied heavily against such requirements.

“I believe that Westinghouse’s move will increase the chances of getting specific hours mandated by the FCC,” said David Moulton, chief of staff for Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), sponsor of the Children’s Television Act. “There is more public support on this issue today. And, without strong rules by the FCC, any one network that adopts standards on its own could be at a competitive disadvantage.”

Some broadcast executives expressed concern that Westinghouse may have been coerced into its decision. FCC member James Quello, who opposes mandating specific hours, said in a statement that Westinghouse’s “claim” that the decision was voluntary was “suspect” because it followed “a public relations campaign” by FCC Chairman Reed Hundt to pass quantitative requirements.

“The issue of how we propose to serve the needs of children did come up” in recent meetings at the FCC, Korn said, “but we were in no way coerced into this decision.”