Wikipedia strikes again :-)
On Oct 11, 5:17 pm, tmc_6...@
yahoo.com wrote:
> I'm pretty sure that was a contributing factor in why The CW is going
> to do away with Kids' WB in the coming year or so. It's Here's some
> background
info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekday_cartoon#Decline
>
> Quote:
> That year, Congress passed-and then-President Bill Clinton signed into
> law-the Telecommunications Act of 1996, relaxing radio and television
> ownership limits. But it would regulate children's television
> substantially. All television stations would be required to air three
> hours of educational and informative ("E/I") children's programming.
> With a few exceptions, however, the weekday cartoons were not
> considered E/I under the requirements. Also, the Federal
> Communications Commission regulated content in advertising, making
> selling such programming difficult on over-the-air stations. Cable
> channels would not be as regulated. In 1997, the decline of the
> weekday cartoon began.
Got an article for you:
"Kids viewers play hooky in '95: Ratings down dharply for syndicated
strips and weeklies; media buyers still high on power of genre"
by Cynthia Littleton
Broadcasting & Cable
1/15/1996
page 68
Nickelodeon was winning, broadcast shows were losing. This decline
precedes any direct FCC regulation. In fact, this article contributes
significant evidence that the FCC E/I requirements were secondary to
the changing marketplace of wekday animation, where court shows and
talk shows ate up slots once dedicates to animation.
That, and kids were starting to watch Nickelodeon in larger numbers.
> FCC regulations in children's programming
> resulted in complaints from local affiliates in terms of ability to
> make money airing cartoons.
What wre the complaints? Syndication produced hits such as Timon &
Pumbaa and Pokemon, for example. The latter was scooped up by KWB,
remember? That was probably the death-knell. Why syndicate anything
if some network will just pick it up? Remember Fox Kids buying
Monster Rancher?
> Regardless of the new regulations, UPN attempted to run a teen sitcom
> block in 1997, only to end the following year. Warner Brothers would
> stop syndicating their vintage theatrical and made-for-TV cartoons to
> local stations in 1997, relegating those to cable. They still
> continued their Kids' WB! block for their affiliates.
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturda...rning_cartoons
>
> Quote:
> While animated production is still present on most broadcast networks
> on Saturday mornings, it has been noticeably reduced. Because of FCC-
> mandated regulations that began in the mid-1990s, broadcast stations
> were forced to program a minimum of three hours of children's
> educational/informational ("E/I") programming.
>
> To help their affiliates comply with the regulations, broadcast
> networks began to reorganize their efforts to adhere to the mandates,
> so its affiliates wouldn't bear the burden of scheduling the shows
> themselves on their own time. NBC abandoned its Saturday morning
> cartoon lineup in 1992, replacing it with a Saturday morning edition
> of The Today Show and added an all live-action teen-oriented block,
> TNBC, which featured Saved By The Bell, California Dreams, and other
> teen comedies. Even though the educational content was minimal to
> nonexistent, NBC labelled all the live-action shows with an E/I
> rating.
>
> CBS followed NBC's example by producing a Saturday edition of The
> Early Show in the first two hours of its lineup and an all live-action
> block of children's programming. The experiment lasted a few months,
> and CBS brought back their animated CBS Storybreak series.
>
> In 2004, ABC was the last of the broadcast networks to add a Saturday
> morning edition of their morning news program, Good Morning America in
> the first hour of its lineup. Prior to that, especially through the
> 1990s, it was not uncommon for ABC affiliates to preempt part or all
> of ABC's cartoon lineup with local news programming.
Strangley enough, ABC had the highest-rated children shows during the
1998-9 season, according to the Annenberg School report on the state
of Children's TV. 3 of the top 4 shows were 1SatAM shows, along with
Rugrats.
Mind you, these numbers are from the pre-Pokemon, pre-Spongebob days.
The Annenberg School (University of Pennsylvania) has several reports
on the state of children's TV. I can't link to them now, but Google
them.
> "Netlets" like Fox and The WB carried little or no E/I programming,
> leaving the responsibility of scheduling the E/I shows to the
> affiliates themselves.
>
> It really agonizes me because personally, I don't want the government
> to dictate how television networks and/or stations should conduct
> their business operations. They want to make money first and for most,
> not raise your children. It's the whole latch-key kid effect in which,
> television (we already have PBS to teach our children) is now
> obligated to do the educating instead of the parents and school
> teachers.
>
> Don't get me wrong, cable television is another major factor in why
> Saturday morning programming as gradually gone downhill in the past
> 10-15 years. But I feel that the FCC rules has only made things happen
> much, much sooner.
Heh. I maintain that Nickelodeon made that happen sooner. Affiliates
didn't help, and neither did the new shows.
The E/I standards sound like scape goat to me.
Terrence Briggs, being cynical again. Don't get me started.
Peace to you...
