NBC also giving in to Litton for E/I

[nomadcowatbk 144]

It's aimed to the children who are smartphone or cable "challenged"...

Antenna kids.....

Poor kids....

 

isn't that what PBS does (and with higher quality)?

[TheRolyPoly 1847]

Even for those who rely exclusively on an antenna for local TV, don't most PBS affiliates have a 24/7 feed of PBS Kids on a subchannel? I know I'd rather watch that than the shit that passes for "E/I" today.

 

Either that or they will support PBS Kids' brand new 24/7 online channel. Only some PBS affiliates do and I know that both of my PBS affiliates (WPBT - South Florida PBS and WLRN - Miami-Dade County Public Schools) don't carry a 24/7 feed of PBS Kids at all.

[Rusty Muck 4174]

Isn't E/I programming on Saturday, while Meet the Press is on Sunday?

There is no requirement that says E/I programming has to be on a Saturday morning, just that a station provides three hours per week at a suitable hour. So any displaced E/I programming (due to sports coverage or whatever) has to be made up at some point. It becomes a chess game of sorts if a station is news-intensive on the weekends.

 

For a while, WKYC actually aired the NBC E/I block at 12:30pm weekdays and for a half-hour on Saturday; that practice ended when WKYC bumped the start time for their Saturday morning news to 5am.

[Rusty Muck 4174]

If you look carefully at the E/I programming, it's really aimed at adults, and the commercial breaks are full of direct response and prescription drug ads.

Or nothing but Ad Council PSAs. Which says a lot.

[mrschimpf 2063]

There is no way Peggy Charren, when she was lobbying for the CTA for the ACT wanted this to be the expected result. The E/I quota, instead of acting to add actual educational programming, now has officially become a lifeline for the dregs of the wildlife doc world to desperately stay on the air under the illusion of being educational as the cable nets abandon them. There should have been basic quality controls built into the law, along with limits on how much each company can produce. At least Rotfeld is trying something different with their great STEM-focused shows; Litton had good ideas to start but forced those shows off the air, and is now nothing but 'put some cameras into an animal setting (nature/shelter/poor quality Cat Whisperer knock-offs) and turn on the Jack Perkins whisper, then cash the check'.

 

"KPHO Weather Now" inconveniently schedules two and a half hours of the syndicated "Gina D's Kids Club" (which hasn't been produced since 2005, only has 30 episodes "in the can," and has passed into the hands of different distributors since then) - and has been doing so for nearly ten years - on Sunday afternoons. The program director at the station only keeps the show out of convenience when he knows there's better content out there. I think this subchannel is a waste of bandwidth, but station management is so narrow-sighted, they moved it to a KTVK subchannel (with KPHO branding intact) when KPHO gained COZI TV.

 

WBAY for years went with Go For It TV, basically an infomercial for HealthSOUTH years after the company had to rebuild after their accounting scandal (and of course...produced by Litton). They're still running Jack Hannah episodes from as far back as 1994 on their weather subchannel. The law is outmoded for the 2016 reality of TV and multicasting; it's time to either reduce it or kill it entirely if Congress wants an issue that they can actually take up.

 

And Disney isn't syndicating Bill Nye now because technology and science advances; we all love it for nostalgia value, but there would be cringing if we had to depend on Windows 3.1-era explanations and CGI for educating children.

[channel2 869]

I think Bill Nye's on Netflix at least. We should be thankful; Disney has a nasty habit of refusing to officially circulate most of their children's TV product from that era.

[Rusty Muck 4174]

And Disney isn't syndicating Bill Nye now because technology and science advances; we all love it for nostalgia value, but there would be cringing if we had to depend on Windows 3.1-era explanations and CGI for educating children.

Does Sony and The Program Exchange still distribute "Beakman's World" despite 1) not having been in production for 20 years and 2) being incredibly dated? I remember seeing that they did as late as 2014, because air pressure.

 

"KPHO Weather Now" inconveniently schedules two and a half hours of the syndicated "Gina D's Kids Club" (which hasn't been produced since 2005, only has 30 episodes "in the can," and has passed into the hands of different distributors since then) - and has been doing so for nearly ten years - on Sunday afternoons. The program director at the station only keeps the show out of convenience when he knows there's better content out there.

Oh God. "Gina D's Kids Club..." the show that gave us Miss Muffin, and one of the funniest bits that "The Soup" ever did.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

There is no way Peggy Charren, when she was lobbying for the CTA for the ACT wanted this to be the expected result. The E/I quota, instead of acting to add actual educational programming, now has officially become a lifeline for the dregs of the wildlife doc world to desperately stay on the air under the illusion of being educational as the cable nets abandon them. There should have been basic quality controls built into the law, along with limits on how much each company can produce. At least Rotfeld is trying something different with their great STEM-focused shows; Litton had good ideas to start but forced those shows off the air, and is now nothing but 'put some cameras into an animal setting (nature/shelter/poor quality Cat Whisperer knock-offs) and turn on the Jack Perkins whisper, then cash the check'.

 

There's also Alex Paen's Telco Productions, best known for producing "Animal Rescue" and "Missing," which has a number of low-budget E/I shows from the '90s and 2000s as well as Can-con product in their catalog. Some of the shows they distribute, like "Young America Outdoors" (which airs on the Heroes & Icons diginet) were of amateurish production, even for late-'90s standards.

 

WBAY for years went with Go For It TV, basically an infomercial for HealthSOUTH years after the company had to rebuild after their accounting scandal (and of course...produced by Litton). They're still running Jack Hannah episodes from as far back as 1994 on their weather subchannel. The law is outmoded for the 2016 reality of TV and multicasting; it's time to either reduce it or kill it entirely if Congress wants an issue that they can actually take up.

 

The producers of KPHO/Meredith favorite "Gina D's Kids Club" were pretty sleazy business people (every time they got a clearance, they would spin the heck out of it in their press releases - can someone say "pump and dump" penny stock?), and trying to track the trail of who owns the show is also a mystery. The last I heard they were trying to get "glasses-free" 3-D monitors off the ground.

 

There was also the "Real Life 101" scandal. Look up the names Jan and Ben Sebastian, and how they tried to scam some people out through this so-called "educational" TV show. The show is still being produced, by someone who has more integrity than the original producers, but the show is still low-budget E/I.

 

And Disney isn't syndicating Bill Nye now because technology and science advances; we all love it for nostalgia value, but there would be cringing if we had to depend on Windows 3.1-era explanations and CGI for educating children.

 

As late as 15 years ago, "New Zoo Revue" from the early '70s was being sold as E/I programming to TV stations. Some of Bill Nye's content has got to still be relevant.

[mrschimpf 2063]

Does Sony and The Program Exchange still distribute "Beakman's World" despite 1) not having been in production for 20 years and 2) being incredibly dated? I remember seeing that they did as late as 2014, because air pressure.[/MEDIA]

 

Beakman's has more basic science that doesn't really age that badly; they didn't do too much tech that's out-of-day, while Nye did deal with more complicated and technological concepts where processes have advanced. But I do agree, everything Disney did up to the purchase of ABC seems to be in some kind of Vault o' Shame for reasons only known to Bob Iger.

 

There's also Alex Paen's Telco Productions, best known for producing "Animal Rescue" and "Missing," which has a number of low-budget E/I shows from the '90s and 2000s as well as Can-con product in their catalog. Some of the shows they distribute, like "Young America Outdoors" (which airs on the Heroes & Icons diginet) were of amateurish production, even for late-'90s standards.

 

Ah, Alex Paen "In the Ass". There are still stations that have aired early 2000's episodes of Missing to the present day, even though most of the subjects have been found either alive or dead. Telco was among the first to mass-market E/I product that could be plugged in anywhere and they were all dreadful.

[Darius22 120]

Thank god all Ion Affiliates have Qubo as a subchannel and other times a channel itself through AT&T U-Verse. i can't believe they are doing this. now we have either that or Cable. i'm so glad Disney XD has been the most watched over CN and nick according to what Directv's "What's Hot" list says on a saturday at 6AM. I remember when E/I stuff was not through a block at all. back in the day Disney always had the Disney Afternoon stuff on UPN or other times DIC stuff through Fox or the WB syndicated locally alone.

[NEOMatrix 1295]

Well this actually will help NBC have an OK lead-in to Premier League at 12:30. I wonder if NBC will be allowed to advertise for the BPL during "The More You Know". As far as the E/I rules, yeah they should die because no one really watches this crap. At least PBS makes some good E/I like Arthur or Sesame Street.

[scrabbleship 427]

When originally passed, E/I made some sense. Thing is that by the time it was implemented the policy was already treading into obsolence and the rise of the multichannel universe and the Internet made it a relic. A relic that the FCC dumbfoundedly doubled down on years later by tightening the regulations.

 

At what point do stations start to say that the loss of said programming would be of little loss? Or like with any at-risk industry, would Litton get a couple of lobbyists to keep the regulations in place as corporate welfare? The Educational/Informational TV Industrial Complex at work.

[Action Newsroom 1151]

If this is Litton's way of telling kids to go out and play, it's working. No one watches their crap. But they won't care, cause they're making paper anyway and the networks don't have to spend as much anymore for their shows either.

Hell, they never spent as much anyway, since most of the cartoons/blocks they aired over the past decade were outsourced to/from other networks/companies.

ABC--Disney Channel (ABC Kids)

NBC--Discovery Communications (Discovery Kids on NBC)/qubo (with Corus Entertainment and Nelvana) (the qubo block)/Sprout Channel (NBC Kids)

CBS-Nickelodeon (Nick on CBS [during Viacom's ownership of CBS])/Cookie Jar (Kewlopolous/Cookie Jar TV aka dumb names I really wouldn't make up if my life depended on it)

CW--Cookie Jar/4Kids Entertainment/Saban/even Kids WB (every block after Kids' WB)

even Fox--4Kids Entertainment (4KidsTV)

Say what you will about them, but those blocks were great, and the shows/cartoons on those blocks were at least every entertaining.

Litton may have a good niche going on with their programming, but with these new blocks taking over broadcast television, it's going past some way of monopoly and reaching absurdity and even a way of anarchy.

It might as well encourage kids to go watch PBS, the kids networks or any other cable channel instead, which I would do if put in their position.

[Eat News 4738]

If this is Litton's way of telling kids to go out and play, it's working. Kids' WB)

even Fox--4Kids Entertainment (4KidsTV)

Say what you will about them, but those blocks were great, and the shows/cartoons on those blocks were at least every entertaining.

 

Entertaining???

Speedy Gonzales was entertaining...but a bunch of PC do-gooders got those yanked.

HR Puff and Stuff, Lidsville, Buggaloos,Banana splits and the Land of the Lost. All those shows produced by a bunch of real "medicated creators".

 

Every primetime TV show had it's Saturday morning spin-off....

 

The Jackson 5 /Osmonds

Emergency+4 complete with monkey mascot.

Partridge family in Outer Space.....most of them poorly animated by 70's powerhouse Hanna Barbara productions

Charlie Chan and the Chan Clan...

Hong Kong Fooey...

Fat Albert.

The Coyote and Roadrunner.

 

Our bike helmets were cheap plastic toy football helmets full of lead paints and pigments.

 

Saturday morning was a time when kids ruled the world...and it was the only time a kid could eat a few bowls of Cocopuffs...while Dad downed a morning hangover beer... in one those special bonding moments within the kids Saturday domain.

 

Arriba! Arriba!

[TheRolyPoly 1847]

Is there a place to submit our complaints to the FCC? This law should be repealed and thrown out. It's ridiculous.

[Action Newsroom 1151]

Okay, I'll be positively honest.

While these Litton blocks and shows are super niche and appeal to anyone watching with an antenna and have nothing else to watch (even more so when NBC gives up their time to it come October), the programming isn't that bad. I actually watched two of the Litton blocks over the years for that reason--Weekend Adventure and CBS Dream Team [*RANT* which by the way has this really stupid extension of the name "...It's Epic!" *RANT*]. Their blocks/programming has some amazing content hosted by people who are really talented in their fields, and I actually watch them all the way through, actually enthused and entertained.

So I shouldn't be too annoyed/angry at them for this decision. The decision of yet another block is extremely absurd, but at least the shows on them aren't half bad.

Sorry for the cruel first post back there. I wasn't completely content with that.

[Viper550 268]

CBC airs Bondi Vet (which CBS airs edited into Dr. Chris: Pet Vet during its unusually titled The CBS Dream Team... It's So Totally Epic Like You Should Watch This Now Or Somethin'!) as part of their weekday afternoon programming, and it's a good show on its own right, especially when it's not being repackaged as your definition of "educational television" (it's sandwiched between Grand Designs and Dragon's Den reruns)

 

Even if CBC expunged their morning children's programming (which is mostly Cancon that also gets picked up by PBS), even that one-hour weekday strip of that show would be enough to get by under your rules. But every broadcaster is probably wishing they had a syndicated E/I program that could air stripped in such a manner.

 

What I think the FCC should do is take a page from the CRTC's repeated insistence on "tangible benefits" (under CRTC rules, broadcasters who acquire broadcasters/stations must make contributions equal to a percentage of the purchase price to media funds who support independent producers). Let stations reduce their E/I content, but require them to individually contribute funding to non-profit/startup/public broadcasters that are producing E/I content.

[T.L. Hughes 753]

Okay, I'll be positively honest.

While these Litton blocks and shows are super niche and appeal to anyone watching with an antenna and have nothing else to watch (even more so when NBC gives up their time to it come October), the programming isn't that bad. I actually watched two of the Litton blocks over the years for that reason--Weekend Adventure and CBS Dream Team [*RANT* which by the way has this really stupid extension of the name "...It's Epic!" *RANT*]. Their blocks/programming has some amazing content hosted by people who are really talented in their fields, and I actually watch them all the way through, actually enthused and entertained.

So I shouldn't be too annoyed/angry at them for this decision. The decision of yet another block is extremely absurd, but at least the shows on them aren't half bad.

Sorry for the cruel first post back there. I wasn't completely content with that.

I'll cop the Dream Team part of that comment. Though the only shows I watch on that block are The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation (hosted by Mo Rocca, who pulls double duty doing that and serving as a correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning) and The Inspectors (the only scripted series Litton produces, whose partial premise surrounding fraud investigations conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is better than it sounds on paper, though there is the irony of the the three younger characters among its main cast being a couple of years outside the show's target demographic).

 

As for the CTA, only parts of the act of little common sense need to be repealed, while new provisions need to be added. The one part of the rule that shouldn't have been implemented in the first place was the multicasting requirement, since E/I content doesn't mesh with the genre-based programming formats of most current subchannel networks. If anything, compliance with the Children's Television Act should lie only with major network affiliates, noncommercial and independent stations, and subchannel networks specializing in children's programming. A genre-based exception clause would be feasible, where broadcasters offering general entertainment content would be required to comply but those carrying programming of a specified genre (news/weather, movies, sci-fi, etc.) that children's programming would be ill-suited for inclusion on their schedules would be allowed to slide on rule compliance and not face a penalty.

 

There should also be a diversity requirement that any children's programming carried by a broadcaster must meet all needs of the target demographic (with entertainment value equalling educational value or even allowing a mix of E/I and non-E/I children's programs). Such a requirement would include a provision that would prevent companies like Litton from maintaining a children's programming monopoly and allow others involved in production of such programs (including other E/I producers not mentioned here at least not outright like Associated Television International, Connection III, The Television Syndication Company, etc.) to produce content for networks.

 

Really though, part of the problem does lie with the program producers themselves. Non-commercial broadcasters (not just PBS/its member stations, but American Public Television, and even religious networks like TBN and Daystar) produce and/or broadcast children's shows of far higher quality than what those who produce shows aimed at that demo for commercial broadcasters do. It's not solely the fault of the CTA for why children's programming on broadcast TV has gone downhill, it's also who's developing it. They just don't have a full grasp of what the demographic needs, and there is the mindset of "why bother making it entertaining if we are handstrung from profiting from it?" Children's programming is still needed on broadcast TV, and you can't just assume that kids aren't watching traditional TV these days (realistically, their viewing habits are likely split between internet TV and traditional TV), but you have to make it appealing. Don't just go throwing a wildlife or lifestyle show with educational content just to please the FCC, put some thought into what the demographic needs, too.

[swillh2k2 203]

Is there a place to submit our complaints to the FCC? This law should be repealed and thrown out. It's ridiculous.

 

It wouldn't do any good. Besides, the networks are on board because it saves them the money from programming them themselves.

[24994J 5277]

As much as these programs don't interest us or, more importantly, their intended youth audience, would we really rather have more local news and paid programming if the E/I blocks went away?

 

Me, neither.