Anybody knows the answer to that?
A complete roll back of the rules would require an act of Congress, which won't happen soon. The FCC can change certain rules, such as:
- Permit stations to bury their E/I programming on a digital subchannel, instead of the current rule requiring E/I on each subchannel
- Change restrictions on scheduling, so that stations could bury E/I programming 1:35am on Sunday
- Loosen restrictions on advertising to children during E/I programming
They probably never will. It's more beneficial to the public if they keep it as-is and it helps stations pad out their programing schedules.
A complete roll back of the rules would require an act of Congress, which won't happen soon. The FCC can change certain rules, such as:
- Permit stations to bury their E/I programming on a digital subchannel, instead of the current rule requiring E/I on each subchannel
- Change restrictions on scheduling, so that stations could bury E/I programming 1:35am on Sunday
- Loosen restrictions on advertising to children during E/I programming
That last one is all that's needed. The reason cartoons worked on Saturday morning TV for so long was the advertising of toys and games to an audience that was nearly all under 12, who'd ask their parents to buy them the cool stuff they saw in the commercials. But the trend for years now has been to try to insulate children from everything any doctor, sociologist or quack psychologist might consider harmful, and that includes advertising of stuff that kids would be likely to enjoy. So the idea is probably a non-starter.
Some E/I shows still have direct response advertisements with products that target kids (like "Magic Tracks," for example). The ad guidelines laid out by the FTC have per-inquiry/direct response advertisers of products for kids put a blunt "must be 18 or older to order" at the end of the ad, which does upset kids. I don't know why they can't use "kids, your parents have to buy" message.
The ads never mentioned the parents at all. They pitched the product to the children as super-cool, must-have items. That was all the kids needed to be prompted to plead with mom or dad to get them a Chatty Cathy or a GI Joe or an Operation game. ("Remove funny bone. Ha ha ha.") The modern-day "must be 18 to order" caveat seems pointless.
As long as the government is shutdown, FCC can't do anything. They have no funds to change the rules right now. As much as I'd love to see Barney & Fred promoting Fruity Pebbles, and commercials for dolls and toys on Litton's Weekend Adventure, I doubt that will ever happen.
Kids don't NEED that stuff on TV anymore.
Kids don't NEED that stuff on TV anymore. They have plenty of other home entertainment options available, including interactive ones like games. A 30-minute cartoon show with 12 minutes of candy, cereal and toy commercials is unlikely to grab their attention, or hold their interest if it does. Better for the station to run weekend versions of the weekday lite news shows and turn the later morning hours over to paying customers for infomercials.
I could tolerate more news, but more time for sports would be best. And PLEASE no more local time for infomercials!