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Record FCC fine -- $42M to Univision

C

chuckydoll

Guest
The #1 US Spanish TV network said it was meeting the feds' requirements for kids' programming. A church group said Univision was not -- and the feds agreed. Since Univision is up for sale the company forked over the money.

Surprisingly most anglo media have buried or sloughed off this story. Fortunately for us trade publication Variety has an account.
 
well well well The FCC stepping over its boundaries again? I'm not surprised. Why can't the FCC go back to allocating frequencies and stop telling what broadcasters can't put on the air, and what they have to put on the air. PBS does a quite decent job of Educational and Children's programming and I think that is pretty much all that is needed. No one else does it better so why force other OTA stations to try?
 
$42M or $24M: BIG MONEY FINE!

$24m or $42m....that's a LOT of moolah. Especially for a fine.

Yes, PBS does an awesome job for childrens' and educational programming, but it's a stipulation in the license for 3 hours of this programming per week. They failed to do so; they pay the price. Literally.

Can we compare this fine (number, not reason) to anything Howard did to rack the bucks up with the FCC?
 
It may seem kind of silly to some to have to run kidvids, but just like some of the other almost laughably simple regs, isn't it worth complying by just burying three hours somewhere?
 
KJCB said:
It may seem kind of silly to some to have to run kidvids, but just like some of the other almost laughably simple regs, isn't it worth complying by just burying three hours somewhere?
Click to expand...

Even Shop@Home and ACN comply with this regulation (in most markets, this takes the form of moldy reruns of New Zoo Revue and some other ancient public TV show that I can't pin a name to). Surely Univision can get their hands on some old, cheap E/I programming from Mexico or elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world and stick it on early on Sunday mornings.
 
Really, how difficult is it to provide 3 hours of E/I programming out of a 168-hour broadcast week? Even a lot of non-Class A LPTV stations that are exempt from that requirement still manage to air more E/I programming. Shame on Punyvision!
 
Didn't one of the Spanish channels use to air dubbed versions of english cartoons? I'm thinking it might be Telemundo though.
 
genius said:
Didn't one of the Spanish channels use to air dubbed versions of english cartoons? I'm thinking it might be Telemundo though.
Click to expand...

Yes it was, and they still do, as they are partners of "qubo", NBC and ION's E/I initiative.

I recall Telefutura also showing Spanish dubs of English-language toons, and in the early-1990s, Univision did the same.
 
Brian Donegan said:
well well well The FCC stepping over its boundaries again? I'm not surprised. Why can't the FCC go back to allocating frequencies and stop telling what broadcasters can't put on the air, and what they have to put on the air. PBS does a quite decent job of Educational and Children's programming and I think that is pretty much all that is needed. No one else does it better so why force other OTA stations to try?
Click to expand...

From my understanding, it went beyond that. Univision supposedly tried to report evening telenovelas as E/I programming! So, not only did they not satisfy the E/I regulation, but they falsified reports about it.

Hey, I don't like the E/I crap either. But, UNI knows the rules and is a big enough broadcaster that they should be held responsible when they egregiously violate those rules. Sorry, but they'll get no pity from me - they asked for this.
 
The thought occurs to me. In a couple of cases the E/I wart includes a mortar board. Lame. Given this news, Univision's wart should sport a dunce cap.

This brings to mind a good question. Other than shows like "Little House" and "Saved by the Bell", what other questionable programs are stations trying to pass of as "E/I" material?

Here in Western Washington, "High Five," a quiz show from Portland, had a PBS-style wart while it aired on KONG (it doesn't anymore now that it airs on public station KCTS). KING also has "High School Sports Blitz" which has lots of event highlights and a few general-interest stories in it, but in my eyes no focused educational mission as the FCC mandates.

Any more where you live?
 
Joe_Capitano said:
The thought occurs to me. In a couple of cases the E/I wart includes a mortar board. Lame. Given this news, Univision's wart should sport a dunce cap.

This brings to mind a good question. Other than shows like "Little House" and "Saved by the Bell", what other questionable programs are stations trying to pass of as "E/I" material?

Here in Western Washington, "High Five," a quiz show from Portland, had a PBS-style wart while it aired on KONG (it doesn't anymore now that it airs on public station KCTS). KING also has "High School Sports Blitz" which has lots of event highlights and a few general-interest stories in it, but in my eyes no focused educational mission as the FCC mandates.

Any more where you live?
Click to expand...

Fox O&Os claim This Week in Baseball as E/I during the MLB season, but they're covered because they air three hours of no-budget animal shows like Jack Hanna and Marc Marrone year round. I'm surprised they don't try to slap an E/I bug on the NASCAR pre-race show.
 
That's true. FOX has done the same thing with "NFL Under the Helmet".

As to NASCAR, if they dared it would certainly be "Friends to the Rescue" Part 2

(BTW: the reply button, sans quotes, is your friend.)
 
As I understand it, Univision did not claim a "prime time" telenovela as E/I, but rather a kid-oriented telenovela that they ran on weekend mornings. Still - having seen bits and pieces of some of these shows - they had kids in them, but no obvious educational goals.

FWIW, I could get behind bringing back XUXA, although I'm not sure she's very educational either. I still remember her very short-lived English-language show that I think might have been on FOX Family.
 
azumanga said:
genius said:
Didn't one of the Spanish channels use to air dubbed versions of english cartoons? I'm thinking it might be Telemundo though.
Click to expand...

Yes it was, and they still do, as they are partners of "qubo", NBC and ION's E/I initiative.

I recall Telefutura also showing Spanish dubs of English-language toons, and in the early-1990s, Univision did the same.
Click to expand...

I believe UNIV shows overdubbed reruns of "Carmen Sandiego" on either Sat or Sun nowadays.

ixnay
 
Johnathan said:
As I understand it, Univision did not claim a "prime time" telenovela as E/I, but rather a kid-oriented telenovela that they ran on weekend mornings. Still - having seen bits and pieces of some of these shows - they had kids in them, but no obvious educational goals.

FWIW, I could get behind bringing back XUXA, although I'm not sure she's very educational either. I still remember her very short-lived English-language show that I think might have been on FOX Family.
Click to expand...

I don't know if it was on the Family Channel (Robertson still owned it when her show was brought to the US in the early 90s, so that would be weird to say the least), but it was definitely syndicated. It was on WABM-68 at like 6 am in the Birmingham market. What a thing to wake up to.

Now, she's primarily a film star in what could charitably be described as the Portuguese-language version of Olsen Twins movies only with a much hotter lead actress.
 
In addition to PBS affiliates and PBS Kids Sprout, Plaza Sesamo is also carried on Univision's sister network Telefutura.
 
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